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Outreach Evangelism and Discipleship
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June 29. 2013
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Contents
Press
ReleasesNews Paper and Newsletter Outreach. Local events in the newspaper Guest articles in the newspaper Newsletter Evangelism Canvassing or Outreach Newsletter Community Entertainment Newspaper Community Paper Community Welcome Newsletter Visitor Follow-Up Newsletter Things to newsletters More Effective Newspaper resources
From the Blog
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I will not always have a theme to the newsletter. But this month
the theme is on Newspaper and Newsletter outreach. This topic is one of the more
powerful ways I know to reach your community so I pulled some of the stuff from
my blog and books in hopes that it will help you with your ministry.
Newspaper and Newsletter Outreach.
Press Releases
This is one of the best ways of making your church known in the
community. This is especially true if you live in a smaller town or your
community or suburban community has a newspaper. Most newspapers today are short
on staff and they look forward to people turning them on to local news events or
stories. I wish I would have known this when I was planting churches. After I
retired I managed a senior center. I called the paper or sent a press release
for every event we had. It was not long before I knew the two reporters and the
editor of the paper. No matter what we did at the senior center it was covered
by the paper. Of course I never sent trivial things to the paper as to not wear
out my welcome.
So whenever you have something special or newsworthy you are
doing in the community let the local paper know. Not everything you do is news
worthy or deserves a press release. Some events should be in the local events or
calendar section. Here are some examples of things for a press release
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Milestone events such as a new building dedication, a major anniversary or something like opening a new daycare facility or shelter.
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Events that you may you may do such as a bicycle fix up day, fix up a local park day or building a wheel chair ramp. These are best when the paper sees that there is a benefit for the general public.
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Humanitarian things your church does. Sending a press release or calling and asking them to cover an event that is designed to help the disadvantaged in some way is one of the easier sells. If you are having a fundraiser for a sick child, teaming up with other organizations to raise money for the local food bank or any such endeavor then you have a winner on your hands.
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Major recognition of pastor, staff or church is also news worthy. If one of these wins or is nominated for something like humanitarian of the year award, or becomes the regional representative for the denomination or is recognized by any local group such as the Chamber of Commerce or a local civic group.
Local events in the newspaper
Almost every paper has a local events section. This section can go
by many names but they are all basically the same. They are a calendar of when
things are going to happen in the area that the paper serves. If you make the
deadline then almost any event that you have will get listed.
Some papers have a
religious section. This is an easy place to get things your church is doing
listed as well.
Guest articles in the newspaper
Many papers love to have guest articles. They especially like
whimsical, heart-warming and encouraging articles. I have a friend that had a
long serious of articles published in the local paper about how she worked her
faith out in day to day situations. I told you about the editor I got to
know, in one conversation he told me that it was easy to find bad news to print
and that he needed all the help he could to find
Some papers publish guest commentaries. I know a lot of pastors
who publish commentaries about events in the community in their local papers.
Newsletter Evangelism
Many churches are beginning to engage their communities by
providing local newspapers or newsletters. This can be one of the most effective
ways of reaching out into your community. There are three basic ways of doing
this:
- Having a series of newsletters that you canvas around the community
- A community newspaper
- An entertaining newspaper delivered to restaurants, coffee houses and other community gathering places
- A newcomer newsletter
Canvassing or Outreach Newsletter
There are many churches that are being successful in leading
people to Christ through this method. The newsletter is designed to be of
interest to the unchurched. The goal is to create a positive impression of your
church in the community and to provide an opportunity to share the gospel with
them.
The idea of a canvassing newsletter is simple. You start with
4 to 8 newsletters on topics that people are interested in; such as teen
difficulty, finances, handling illness and other topics people would be willing
to take and read the newsletter. Then you take teams of people from your church
and once a week canvas the same houses. Each time you progress through the
number of newsletters. After the last week the papers are delivered, you do a
follow up by contacting each of these homes. Newsletterevangelism.com is
centered on this idea. It can be helpful to visit their site whether or not you
want to use their service. http://newsletterevangelism.com/
The outreach newsletter is similar but not necessarily
followed up by a home visit. Many times this is sent to the community three to
six times a year. This can be done by canvassing a neighborhood, using a mailing
list or a general mailing that goes to every home in an area. This is usually a
short newsletter with one to four short articles of interest, some interesting
or fun stuff like trivia or humor and a short article from the pastor of the
church. Many times all of the articles deal with a theme such as overcoming
depression, surviving the holidays or how to make the most of summer vacations.
It is also good to include basic information about your church; list of upcoming
events that may be of interest, community resources that may have to do with the
topic and any ministry you may have at the church that can help people with the
topic. Do not make the newsletter too long, one page front and back is probably
enough. Add links to other resources on your website. This is another way for
them to become familiar with you.
Community Entertainment Newspaper
These are usually called café or restaurant newsletters.
There are two major companies that provide these. There is a good chance you
have seen them in a coffee house or restaurant. They are usually an 11x14 inch,
one page newspaper with advertising down both sides and content in the middle.
The content is light and entertaining to read. It includes things like jokes,
trivia, poetry and interesting stories. The providers of these papers contact
restaurants, cafes, libraries, doctor’s offices and anywhere you can put a local
free newspaper. Both companies provide a weekly newspaper.
The big companies produce a one size fits all publication.
This is because they use the same or similar content in cities all over the
world. I would suggest giving yours a more local flavor with local events,
inspirational content about local hero’s, poetry from local authors, book
reviews of local artists, news from local charities and listings for local art
events. When you give it a local feel, any place that carries the other papers
will probably take yours and maybe some who do not eccept the others. You can
probably get copies distributed to local civic groups, the Chamber of Commerce
and maybe even in local government buildings.
Unless you want to make it really profitable, I would suggest
keeping it at a non-profit level of advertisements. This would mean having
advertisements down one side of the page instead of both. This gives you more
room for content. There is also the option of having ads down one side and
across the bottom.
Of course you want to promote your church in the process. If
you want it to be acceptable in most places, then this cannot be the main focus
of the newspaper. I would suggest a “sponsored by” under the name of the
publication, a major ad spot and maybe a short word of encouragement from the
pastor.
While the big guys provide new copies each week, you have the
option of making it a bi- weekly publication if providing content is too
difficult to do weekly.
The two major publications are Coffee News and
Tidbits Weekly. I mention these as an example. Make sure your paper is
significantly different than theirs. This means not just a name change but topic
categories and various styling changes. Of course if you want to make it easy,
you can buy a franchise from either of these companies. If so, you would want to
give your church the top advertising spot.
Community Paper
A community paper is a small publication that provides
stories of interest to smaller communities. You might call it a community
newsletter because of its size. In contrast to a newspaper it is very small,
usually just one page printed on both sides. The difference between this and the
café news is the nature of the content. The content is specifically about the
community. Many small towns or communities do not have a newspaper simply
because they are so small that they do not produce enough news to justify one.
That does not mean that nothing happens worth mentioning. I know of many small
communities in my area that have such a paper. It is easy to get local sponsors
to place ads. It takes a little work to find stories of interest but is not that
hard.
Community Welcome Newsletter
This is one of my favorites. A community welcome newsletter
is sent to everyone who moves into your community. There are many companies that
provide new move-in mailing lists. The prices vary depending on the services you
want them to provide. They can be very affordable. Many will provide you with a
weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly list. In smaller communities a realtor
can probably supply you with this information. Search the internet for new
move-in lists.
The idea is to provide a short newsletter once a week for 4
to 8 weeks. You want to provide interesting, helpful and inspirational
information about your community. If you do so, then the newsletter will stand
out from all the marketing mailings they receive. Here are some of the things
that you can include:
- Inspirational articles, especially if they are about your community.
- Helpful resources in your community; such as libraries, parks, government services and any other helpful service you can find in your community.
- Fun things to do in your community; such as festivals, farmers markets, kids play areas and anything else that is interesting to do in your community.
- Art showings and museums
- A list of civic organizations
- Historical landmarks or a short history of the city. Many times the city website or Chamber of Commerce will have a short history of the city. If you ask them, they will likely give you permission to use it.
- A list of local charities
If done right, people will look forward to these newsletters.
I would suggest that, other than mentioning that the newsletter comes from your
church, not to spend much time talking about your church until the later issues;
except when something you do matches the content; such as sponsoring a art fair
at your church or any other activity that correlates with the content of the
newsletter. Also you can include a short word of information in each issue from
the pastor of the church.
Marketing people will tell you that a person does not become
familiar with a product or service until they have heard about it 6 to 8 times.
By the end of the series you will be the best known church in the area for those
who do not have a church.
You can also invite them to a quarterly gathering with
community leaders and others at your church. It gives them a chance to meet
community leaders in person and give them the opportunity to get to know you on
a more personal level.
Visitor Follow-Up Newsletter
Many churches ask for an address when a visitor comes and
sends a thank you letter. Would it not be better to send four newsletters with
an encouraging or inspirational article from the pastor, testimonies and
information about ministries at your church?
Things to Make Newsletters More Effective
The first thing is to make sure the first article is a hook.
A hook is something very interesting that catches their attention so that they
want to read the newsletter.
The newsletter can be put in an envelope or folded and sent
as is. I suggest the latter. In this way the back page is half content while the
bottom half is where you put the mailing information. I would do this in full
color to catch their attention. The hook article would be on the top part of
this page since it will be the first thing they see.
Include in each newsletter links for more information on your
website. This would include other community services, more articles of
inspiration, poetry from local authors, and longer descriptions of fun things
and any other pertinent information. Visiting your website gives them a chance
to get to know you better and provides one more contact.
Provide in each newsletter a link to where people can submit
information. This is especially good for a community newsletter or entertainment
newsletter.
Some of these take time to do. You can consider asking
homeschoolers to help produce a community newspaper. Producing a newsletter can
be a great learning project for them. You can also join with another church. You
would not want to do this with canvassing newsletters or newcomer
newsletters.
For advertising, contact all businesses listed in Christian
business listings.
- Here is a short booklet that may be helpful
http://www.elca.org/~/media/Files/Evangelizing%20church/resources/Developing%20an%20Outreach%20Newsletter%20for%20Your%20Neighboring%20Community.pdf - Here is an example of a longer newsletter published monthly
by Papa’s Pantry. It may be a little long and over advertized but the
advertizing may be enough to mail it to every home.
http://papaspantry.org/ccn/ - Contact schools, non-profits and community organizations to let them know that they can submit information as well as civic groups such as Kiwanis and Lions clubs.
- http://www.useful-community-development.org/homeowner-newsletter.html
- http://myezcondo.com/producing-an-effective-community-newsletter/
- http://www.freenewsletterideas.com/newsletter-layouts.htm Has tons of ideas but a lot of advertisements. Stick with the free stuff as the paid stuff is not that good.
Get your community involved with your mission through Causes.com
If you do not already know about Causes.com then you may be
missing out. It can be a powerful tool to help reach into your community for
common causes. You can use it as a tool for raising money from outside your
church for ministry you are doing in your community. It is an easy way for
members of your church to share with friends outreach campaigns that your church
is participating in.
The Causes.com page is integrated with Facebook's custom
open graph, which means that it is easy for all members of your causes page to
post via Timeline and newsfeed. This includes both members of your church and
anyone else who joins because they agree with the specific campaign you are
running. The ability for supporters to tweet, email, and post a Facebook status
update is a click away on every campaign page. With a click of a button the
members of your church and others who are interested in what you are doing can
let all their friends know.
Causes.com has a safe a secure way to collect donations for
any project you may have. Both members of the cause and non-members can both
make donations. These donations are action-specific meaning that you can have
multiple fundraisers going for different outreaches at the same time. Your organization has
to be a non-profit to collect donations.
Here are a few examples of ways you can build goodwill and
get people in your community helping you in your community outreach. You can do
this with any cause you are interested in. You can use it to either raise
awareness of an issue or need, raise money for and issue or need or do both.
- Helping raise money for a local food bank (this could be one that you run).
- Raising money for a cancer patient or accident victim.
- Raising money to fix up a park in a low income area
- Building a homeless or battered women's shelter (this could be one you are building).
- Building awareness of any need in your community
- Working with your local PTA in raising money for a school (preferably one you have adopted and are working regularly with).
- Raising money for the arts. This could be coordinated with arts related outreaches you are doing in the community.
- Joining with any local charity in raising money. When you do this everyone involved in the charity knows that your church cares about them.
One of the
features I like is that any member of your cause page can click a link and ask
that instead of giving you a birthday gift they give to a campaign they support
on your Cause.com page. After retiring from ministry I ran a senior center for
three years. We had a Causes.com page. Every year on my birthday on Facebook
where it said on all my friends pages that it was my birthday it gave them the
option of giving to the senior center instead of giving me a gift. People I
barely knew who would never think of giving me a gift gave to the senior center.
Each year I raised from $300 to $500 dollars. Your members may not average that
much but multiply that times half your members participating and you could raise
a lot of money through out the years.
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