The church newsletter is an effective tool in building a strong relationship between your church office and the church members. With the newsletter you inform, ignite the spiritual passion, and encourage member participation.
For many, creating a church newsletter can be a daunting task. Truth is these people are wrong. By doing one crucial first-step, the newsletter process is simplified. When this first-step is done, anyone can create an effective church newsletter.
Decide the purpose of your newsletter
- Communicate more effectively with your congregation.
- Energize your congregation.
- Use as an outreach tool to bring in new members.
The more people know about your church, the safer they'll feel about responding to an invitation from you.
Ways you can use your newsletter as an effective tool to invite people to participate in your church activities:
- Make sure the worship services, along with the name and address of your church, are clearly visible. The front or back page is best. Also, include a map to the church if your address is vague.
- Include your church's mission statement in a visible area.
- List the church staff and their titles.
- Include articles and notices about different age groups in the newsletter.
- Keep the theme positive throughout the whole newsletter.
- Avoid using acronyms when trying to attract new people into the life of your congregation.
- Determine a publication date for each month and be on time. Consider the people you're mailing to in setting this date. You will want to be sure people out of the area receive their copy before the events listed happen.
- Keep it personal. When possible, tell a story when reporting on an event instead of just telling the reader something happened. "Lisa walked into the door and nearly burst an eardrum from the noise of all the screaming children waiting in her VBS classroom," will start a story the reader will enjoy more than a list of statistics that start with "30 kids attended Lisa's VBS class this year."
With that crucial first-step out of the way, you can then think about how your church newsletter looks.
Make Your Church Newsletter Eye-Appealing
Design your church newsletter with plenty of whitespace, artwork that enhances the text, and with the intention of guiding your reader naturally and comfortably from one page to the next.
- Include photographs of church functions and the church members enjoying themselves at the church. Make sure they're happy pictures. The pictures need to be clear, not distorted or fuzzy.
- Include artwork that promotes the messages within your pastor's sermons for the next month. Often, checking with the pastor on upcoming topics for the Sunday sermons helps. If you can get a few scriptures from your pastor, you may be able to find artwork specifically for those scriptures.
- Don't clutter the pages. Leave margins around type and plenty of whitespace designed to draw the reader's eyes where you want them to go next.
- Use easy to read font type and size. Times New Roman 11 or 12 point is the most common.
- Accentuate important notices with eye-catching graphics.
With a forethought and work, your church newsletter will please the congregation and help your church grow.
Diana Cacy Hawkins works as The Digital Church Secretary, creating guides for churches and church members and volunteers. The Stewardship Growth Program can be found at http://www.stewardshipgrowthprogram.com