How to Create Loving Communications About Small Groups or Other Ministries
1. Be sure you know all the details: Sometimes church communicators don’t have all the information they need to communicate about an event to visitors and regular members. Be sure you get and then pass on the following information:
2. Time and dates of the events: As well as starting time, be sure you always include duration. Does the event last one hour? Two hours? Whatever it is, be clear.
3. Location: “At the Johnson’s house” or a similar description doesn’t count—who are these people, is a question newcomers will ask. Always give a specific address, and if the host has a specific role in the church, clarify that. For example, at Pastor David’s house, who is pastor of single adults.
4. Target audience, if that is important: If an event or group is for singles, seniors, married couples or any other specific group, be sure you state it. If it is open to all adults, be clear.
5. Clarify child-care situations: If you charge, what about a single mom who may not be able to afford your fee? If you charge by the child (one church charged $5 a child), that might be great for the host who had one child, but that effectively made the small group cost-prohibitive for the blended family with four kids. Consider making child-care free and paying for it out of your Missions or Outreach budget—this could be one of the kindest things you might do for a family who really needs to be part of a small group, but who couldn’t afford $20 a night for small group child care or a single mom who couldn’t come if there was any fee. (Both of these are true situations—one turned out well, the other did not.)
6. Anything else that might be important: Do people need a workbook? Do they have to pay for it? Is homework expected? Think through and ask yourself if there is anything that would cause someone embarrassment or awkwardness if they first found out about it at the group.
7. Benefits of attending: Sometimes we forget to list the great benefits of church events and ministries because we think they are self-evident—but they aren’t, or more people would probably attend. Will people learn more of God’s Word, our only true guide for life and eternity? Will they meet people who will be fellow travelers in their journey of faith? Will they find people they can pray for and with; encourage and build up? We sometimes become complacent about the tremendous privilege and joy we have of being able to take part in church activities without fear—remind your audience of that.
8. Clearly communicate where to go or whom to contact for more information: In all print communications, have your website and the specific place on it listed for more information. Social media are almost useless here because it is an ever-flowing stream, not something that has specific facts, schedules and locations. In print, social media and web communications, be sure to have contact information—phone, text, email, social media interaction links and most important of all—be sure someone constantly monitors them and responds immediately.
Loving in “Action and Truth”
As the Apostle John reminded us—it is so easy to say we love people, but to truly love them, we must combine our sentiments with “action and truth.”
To do that in your church communications requires detailed, often tedious work as the sections above illustrate—but it is important to do it for our communications to reflect the patient love of our Lord Jesus.
