Churches struggle with the whole area of publicity and communications. Church noticeboards, posters, newsheets and web sites are all areas where churches fail to communicate effectively in the modern world.
Here are a couple of books that might help you move your church into the 20th and maybe even the 21st century…
Most of the books and websites in this area tend to come from the US, so I’m delighted to recommend two recent books by Brits on the subject. In fact Phil Creighton is a fellow Baptist, deputy editor of the Baptist Times in the UK. His book, How to be Heard in a Noisy World, is written from his own experiences in local church. Neil Pugmire’s, 100 Ways to Get Your Church Noticed deals with the same subject, but in 100 digestible and doable projects.
Both these books take a practical approach, with lots of ideas about how to communicate news, events and church life in a way that is at least on a level with modern standards and expectations, without blowing your budget. Phil’s book is worth a look, if only to spot your own church’s noticeboard in the hall of shame. 100 Ways to get Your church noticed is sure to have at least one idea you could try.
Its a shame neither mention WordPress in their chapters on web sites. Neil does at least mention the benefits of a Content Management system, though there are rather too many church specific systems out there, with the usual ridiculous Christian price tag attached, and which are not a patch on WordPress (or any of the 100 other open source CMS tools). I’ll stop ranting now… Just take a look at the books and have a go.
You might want to also check out books like, this little church went to market, this little church stayed home and church marketing 101.