Is Anybody Out There?

It happened again this morning. A little old lady (she wasn’t little, but stories like this tend to use that adjective rather freely) asked me where the library was located. She was going to a Senior Adult meeting which she thought was in the library. I knew it wasn’t; she said it was and pointed me to the bulletin (which I had created and edited). It was as plain as vanilla ice cream to me that the meeting was in our parlor and it was only about books in the library of interest to seniors. My headers and subheaders were quite clear about the point. I had to bite my tongue to keep my cheekiness in check.

As the person responsible for communicating the events and needs of a 2000 member church, I often wonder how many people are actually reading and paying attention to the numerous announcements that leave my office in various formats. From our website, to weekly emails, to our bulletin, our monthly newsletter, and ads run on our large screens before services, it’s my naive belief that everyone in the church has to know what’s going on.

I only wish that were true.

There is a fine line between getting information out to your members and inundating them with more information than they care to read or know. I fear that I sometimes cross this line. It sometimes feels like a battle against the tens of thousands of messages we all recieve every day to do this or buy that. By the time someone gets to church, a sanctuary from the sometimes madness of the world, do they really want to see another advertisement? It’s hard to know. You have to get the word out some way, right?

Here are my simple recommendations for communicating with your church via a few different vehicles without completely overwhelming them in a tidal wave of data:

Put as much as you can on your website, but make the information easy to find. No one wants to click more than three times (maybe even less) to get to pertinent information quickly.

Weekly emails are great reminders. Make them concise with large, bold headlines, and have your short summary link to more information on your website. Including a “Forward to a Friend” link or a suggestion to do so is helpful too. Also, make sure that your members can easily unsubscribe at any time.

If you decide to run ads before services, make them simple, relevant, and to the point.

The most effective invitations to events, at least in my church, are provided by the pastor during a moment at the end of the service. Providing a way for people to immediately act on the invitation, such as having signups following the service, is incredibly helpful.

To know if anyone is listening, listen back. Ask people how they learned about certain events. Put a poll on your site asking people where they get their information about your church’s events. Be open to suggestions.

Lastly, be nice when someone asks you a question that you know they know the answer to because you know you’ve put it in print in five different places and you’ve done your job to the best of your ability.

I told the little old lady, and her six friends with the same question, where the parlor was located.

I guess I’ll have to refine my design.