How To Tell Your Story
You hear it every day, we NEED communication! Good communication brings about good business, strong relationships, great marriages, informed decisions, and now I put forth even another one — successful congregations!
You don’t have to have a degree to be a good communicator, just realizing the need for communication puts you one step ahead of the rest. I’ll cover some of the basics here so you can have a check list of items that might put you way ahead in telling your story.
Everyday Congregational Life
Stories are not always in the big parties or the celebrations of the church. Stories are in the heart of ministry. They are in the sharing of moments with one another. The discovery of a war veteran sharing a nugget of what they experienced, or a child that takes a Christian lesson and applies it like saving pennies for the hungry, or the custodian that faithfully makes sure the church is warm and walks are clean during each winter Sunday. These human moments are what congregational life is all about. These are the stories that tie people together, and while not necessarily something you would run to the local press about, they are stories you can share in your church newsletter, on your website, or with your denominational magazine.
Part of everyday congregational life is keeping your congregation communicating with one another or knowing what is going on with their church. To do this, make the most of your church newsletter, paper or electronic. It should contain information people want to read and appear in an appealing way that draws in the reader. It should include upcoming events, community news, and even lessons in stewardship, prayer, or invitations to upcoming lessons at Sunday School or Bible Studies.
Build Relationships
There is no better form of communication than word of mouth. The least technologically advanced of all forms of communication can still be the most successful. Successful congregations are those who are pleased with the pastor, programming, and activities of the church and those people are more apt to want to share it with others. Your surrounding community is a great audience for your message. Going from door to door, while uncomfortable at first, is still the best way to say who you are and what you are doing. Introducing the church to its most immediate neighbors, through visiting and creating relationships, makes the physical door of the church open wider as some of the inhibitions that keep people from wanting to go inside, fade.
Each individual member can do their part. When they meet someone new at daycare or the grocery store, extending an invitation to the church is a personal way to say we welcome you. When new neighbors move in, giving a welcome basket can create an opportunity to share by voice (and from the heart) what is special about your church community.
Meet the Press
On the same line of relationships, make a contact with your local press. Contact the local offices of newspaper, radio, and television stations and find out who handles religious news. See if you can schedule a meeting with them to discuss how to make your news, their news. Ask them how they prefer to receive news (written, emailed, faxed), what they qualify as news, and what kinds of stories they find of interest. Create the contact, get to know the person by name, send them a note of thanks for meeting with you, and keep that relationship open so when you have something newsworthy they are more likely to entertain covering it in their medium.
Event Planning
The most obvious time to communicate is when an event is being planned. Communication should be on the agenda when planning the event, be in place during the event, and be taken into consideration after an event.
Before the event, compile a list of media outlets you can use to announce what is going on (this should be easy if you’ve already “met the press”) — newspaper, radio, television, and vendors who may be willing to post flyers. Brainstorm the variety of ways that might work within your community to get news out about your event. This can differ greatly depending on rural or urban location and other demographics. Invite the press to take pictures and be part of your celebration.
During the event, if you’ve invited the press, greet them when they arrive and ask if there is anything you can do to get them what they need for their story, provide them with some general information about your church, such as worship times and other items that might be in your welcome packet. Take your own pictures of the event (see below) for future promotion or just telling the story of the event itself. At the event, have members COMMUNICATE with the attendees. If you’re inviting the community in, don’t only chat with the people you know, introduce yourself, and talk to those visiting about their lives and how the church might be a part of it. Don’t get caught in the trap of only grouping with current members. While this is the most comfortable route, it does little to tell your story.
After the event, TELL YOUR STORY! Through newsletters, websites, the newspapers, television, and radio (if they did not pick up before the event), and through your denominational magazine (what you are reading right now). Write up your own story, tell it from a unique perspective, and always remember to include the who, what, when, where, why, and how. (For news media you should always include these six elements at the very beginning of your story just in case they choose to cut the story short.) Always list a contact person just in case others need or want more information.
Take Pictures
Taking pictures of what goes on in your church, day-to-day and at celebrations, is different than years ago. In the digital camera age, it is not difficult at all to record all things in images. Images convey a feeling and are sometimes stronger than any words you can say about your church.
The most common mistake made when using digital cameras is setting them to the lowest quality setting to take pictures. Yes, you can take hundreds, even thousands of pictures this way but if you get a good shot, one you would love to blow up or print off, the quality will not be there to do it nicely and there is no way to go back and capture that moment again. I always recommend setting the camera to a medium or high quality setting. You get fewer pictures, but what you do get you can use in much better (and BIGGER) ways.
Be careful not to zoom in so close that you cut off heads or arms, this too is something you can’t fix. If you take a picture and leave some of the background you can always zoom in and crop later. Always look at your surroundings, imagine the image in your head, and take the picture to match that image. Forethought in what you are capturing will make all the difference in the final outcome.
When you take the photos from the camera, save them to a disc and clearly label them so you can always have an image library of the life and activities of the church. You never know when a picture might come in handy, like for a future newsletter or on the web, or in a publication promoting your church such as a brochure.
Shout Your Success
Each congregation has a story to tell — make that many stories to tell. All of those stories show life, the essence of why people come to a community of faith, to be nourished and to share their journey of faith with people who guide them and support them along the way. Don’t be afraid to tell those stories, to share them with those you know (and even those you don’t). The story, big or small, is yours, something that God has given; now go out and share with the entire world the blessings you have found along the way!
