
Why Your Church Bulletin Isn’t Dead

I read an interesting post today by Mark MacDonald called ‘7 Ways to Kill Your Bulletin’ on Church Marketing Sucks and felt compelled to write a follow-up post in response.
Here goes.
Printed church bulletins are much maligned and put down. In my humble opinion people don’t appreciate their value as an effective communication tool (I’ve written previously about it here and included a few tips on how to improve the bulletin.).
Your printed bulletin is a great tool to communicate to first-time visitors, like your mobile website is easy to access by people visiting your website rather than your church app. Your printed bulletin is brilliant for people who are still finding their way into your church. I know for some of you tech savvy people this feels old and slow. But as communicators we need to communicate at our audience’s pace. Not our own.
[Tweet “A printed church bulletin is like a mobile website. It provides accessible info for visitors”]
In the same way your church app is for insiders who know their way around and have found your app, your email bulletin is for those that know their way around your church and know how to take their next step to signing up for your online bulletin. Some will of course figure it out quicker than others. For many different reasons it takes time for others to catch up.
Now if you all are gathering around like kids do in the school-yard yelling ‘fight! fight! fight!’. I’m not trying to start one. As someone once said “I’m a lover, not a fighter.” Probably closer to the truth is “I’m a runner, not a fighter” (the blessing of being an introvert).
But I am a bit of a debater. When I see an opinion I disagree with (even with whom I respect greatly), I don’t back down and stay quiet.
I’m an advocate for the printed church bulletin. There is a place for it.
So before you write it off and put out a hit on it. Think again.
Your turn
What do you think? Agree, disagree? I’d love to hear what your opinion is about the humble church bulletin.
I do see an end the bulletin as we know it, but I see your point.
I think the biggest issue right now is the lack of valuable content in the bulletin. I’ve always wondered if it’s confusing for a visitor to read information about things for them, and for regular attenders. I wonder how well a bulletin that was just full of information for visitors would be successful, and leave the online/email announcements for the regulars.
Hi Daniel, thanks for commenting! I agree about value, the information has to have it, but I’d also say that the email bulletin is no different. It is just delivered differently at a different time and channel.
I also agree about focussing on info for visitors, again the same question needs to be asked – what information is valuable for visitors and what assumptions can (if at all) we make.
I think this is a great response. I read the article earlier today at CMS and simply read it as “Churches need to put effort into email bulletins,” which I very much believe to be true. But I think your response is great, as I also believe it would be irresponsible to truly declare that “print is dead.”
Our church has moved a simple monthly postcard. On one side is information for newcomers (ie. Welcome, here’s who we are, here’s where you can find a coffee….) and on the other side we do a simple list of important dates for that month, great for anyone’s fridge. On both sides we clearly state that more info can be found on the website.
I love this approach because it limits the admin time required, but still puts something helpful in the hands of a first time visitors, who may not think to or know why they should visit the church website when they get home.
I love the idea of a postcard Matt! Can you attach a photo of it?
Absolutely, here’s an image of the front and back:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktj3lruzle59taj/via-postcard.jpg
Thanks so much Matt!
Definitely agree. We are going to a monthly print with website and mobile app as backups.
We’re considering this strategy. I definitely agree the bulletin is a resource for the guest but I also have a desire to reduce production costs and the waste – way too many of our bulletins are recycled each week rather than taken home as a resource. I see a monthly print as the perfect sweet spot!
Steve,
I enjoyed your take on the church bulletin. I’ve been to a workshop with Mark McDonald and certainly understand where he is coming from when talking about church bulletins. When I was in his workshop he never said to ditch print, but rather make it a vehicle to drive folks online which I try to do. He also gave some ideas on laying out a bulletin that made sense to visitors.
Taking that advice I now group announcements by interest or types rather than just have a day by day calendar, which most churches do. Bulletins need to be easy to read, make information easy to find, avoid churchy language (which is difficult with the order of worship sometimes), and avoid inserts.
You both have great ideas and I hope more churches look at your suggestions. A bulletin should be something people want to read and possibly keep to share information with others. Here’s a link to find my church’s bulletin if you want to look at it http://1stchurch.org/#/worship-at-1st/worship-bulletins .
Clayton Hensley
Director of Communications, 1st UMC – Maryville, TN
Thanks Clayton, great to hear from you!
If you read his post he quite clearly says the printed bulletin is on its way out and his strategies are designed to hasten it’s demise and make it less relevant.
I totally agree with Mark’s comment about driving people online though. In the long term it is the best strategy.
We categorise our announcements too!
I agree with you Steve.
Good stuff Steve! I think you and Mark Mac both make valid points. Each church needs to consider their context (but, they need to honestly consider it, not default to “our church is full of old people and grandma doesn’t check email or use Facebook”). The bulletin might a very effective tool for some and might be a waste of time and money for others.
While commercial print publications on our society are in decline, print is still very much alive and well in other applications. I agree with Mark that digital promotional efforts are (at least at first glance) cheaper (although an argument could be made that a church secretary doing print layout is cheaper than a full time web designer on staff), but it is possible that bulletins, when done well, can be very effective.
It just so happens that my church doesn’t have a weekly program that we hand out in the services. We also don’t send a regularly recurring (weekly) email. And, we limit platform announcements to 2 per service. And somehow people still get the information they need and, for the most part, still know what’s going on. But that wasn’t the case in my last church and I don’t assume that approach works for everyone.
I think the danger comes in absolute statements and in assuming what does or doesn’t work in one context is the same in other contexts. Having said that, I’m all for learning from each other and for “best practices.” Turns out this whole church communications thing is a bit tricky, huh?
I think the church bulletin is just one channel of communicating announcements about the life of the congregation.
I’ve recently had to find a church for my family. Of the 7 churches involved in our search (before landing in our place), only one had a bulletin, and it was useless for the church visitor.
Great to hear from you Chris. Any communication tool has to be useful!
Hi Steve,
Great post/response. Both you and Mark make some excellent points.
For me, alarm bells go off when I read blanket statements about communications recommendations and broad cultural trends. There are some general best practices and generational dynamics church communicators should be in touch with, but in my experience a one-size-fits-all-approach rarely yields the best results.
It really comes down to developing an intentional, comprehensive communications strategy for each individual church. All organizations are unique – both in terms of who they are and who they serve/reach. It’s part of God’s beautiful design. Different tools, and combinations of tools (both print and online), can be appropriate depending on the church.
That being said, I don’t think anyone would disagree we have a responsibility to streamline content, communicate simply, and grow usage and trust in our websites and digital tools.
The biggest problem I see is churches who are stuck. By all means, don’t keep doing something because that’s how you’ve always done it – or because a vocal minority demands it. Shake things up. Think differently. Keep moving forward. Reexamine your strategy.
Great conversation! Keep up the good work!
Some great thoughts here Justin! I agree we can’t approach it with a one-size-fits-all strategy
I enjoyed reading your article, Steve. I also enjoyed the article that you responded to. Our church is right in the middle of this transition. We’ve officially killed our information paper bulletin with the strategy of pushing our weekly attenders to the website for more info. We also put looping information slides on the auditorium screens during pre-service. For the newcomers, we’ve designed an entirely different piece that we’re calling a “welcome brochure” that would give a newcomer a general overview of all our church has to offer, but has no specific dates of events which gives the print piece a longer shelf life and cuts down on print costs. Attached is a perforated connection card so they can request more info and leave their contact info so we can follow up. So for this has been a successful compromise!
That’s great Rob, give them alternatives they can see and use easily. My point is that we need to make information easily accessible for visitors. I’ve love to see your welcome brochure. Can you drop a link to it please?
I think it’s of limited value, mainly because you can’t link to topic or sign-up. And not many people write down links anymore. Unless of course there is a QR code that you could scan with mobile device, but I rarely see QR codes in bulletins.
Hi Ridley, I find QR codes to be of little or no value at all in our context here in Australia. It hasn’t really been adopted. Has it been where you are?
You make some great points Steve. Liturgical Publications couldn’t agree more. The bulletin is not just for visitors, but focusing the content to teach as well. You can read more at http://catholictechtalk.com/2015/03/10/communicating-kerygma/
Great article Steve! I agree with you. There is a place for the printed bulletin, and I don’t see that dying out. At least, not in my lifetime.
I would personally consider Mark’s points if I were developing a strategy for transitioning to relying more on the website, and less on the bulletin.
My congregation is sort of “bridging” now. We’ve added a PDF version of the bulletin to the website that people can download to their device. That’s helped to reduce weekly printing.
But, we didn’t add the PDF and point people to it until it was requested. That’s why I think the most important statement in your article is this,
“But as communicators we need to communicate at our audience’s pace. Not our own.”
We’re redesigning our bulletin currently and I agree with you Steve – it’s a great tool for visitors. We will be having a single page, folded bulletin. The front will contain the current series logo and church info. The back will be what is coming up this week and major events in the month ahead. Then the inside will contain info which is purely for guests including a map of the campus, a welcome note, and info about how to connect with us online.
We’re also thinking of creating 4-5 different layouts. We’ve noticed that our current bulletin doesn’t get read because it always looks the same. So we want to have similar and clear content but a slightly different layout and color scheme on a rotating basis to try and keep it fresh.
Thanks for all your thoughts.
PS: Bring on the ASHES!