The Rise & Fall of the Church Bulletin

Tim Reimer - The Rise and Fall of the Church Bulletin

  • How does the church bulletin relate to other communication tools in the congregation?

  • Should the church bulletin only have the order of worship included and a secondary announcement sheet be handed out at the end of morning worship?

  • Is the bulletin heading toward extinction or is it simply shifting in focus?

Tim Reimer brought many wonderings, suggestions and thoughts about the church bulletin. Unable to be present physically, he met with the administrators via DVD.

The following is a summary of the discussions which took place after the presentation.

 

What do you find particularly rewarding about the role of "bulletin maker" in your church?

  • When it is done!!
  • Preserving history
  • Informed about the happenings of congregational life
  • Satisfaction of having a nice, clean bulletin
  • Creativity

TIPS

  • For archiving purposes use whole names, dates, etc.

 

What obstacles do you encounter?

  • Challenge of not being an attendee but producing the bulletin
  • Decicing what announcements go in and what announcements don't
  • How to include outside activities when a member is involved but is not a church activity
  • Difficult to please all congregational members - many members are involved in many organizations and all would like to be included in the bulletin.
  • One size doesn't fit all with respect to congregations and technology, bulletin, communications, etc.
  • Proof reading our own work
  • Knowing which announcements can and should be edited
  • People don't inform you about the announcements
  • Announcements don't have the detail needed
  • Chasing down the details
  • Technology frustrations
  • Do people read the bulletin?
  • Need to be sensitive to new comers and avoid acronoyms and inside language

TIPS

  • Place links to the website within your weekly emails
    • Could you use washroom space to advertise with bulletin boards?
    • When proofreading your own work, take a break and come back to it with "fresh" eyes.
    • Join the "yellow dot club" - indicates on congregational member's hard mail congregational folder that they are only interested in electronic information and no hard copy information is required

 

What do you use for your bulletin covers?

TIPS

 

Who decides what goes into bulletin?

  • Church secretary alone
  • Administrator with some pastoral input/editing
  • Gatekeeper (of information) role - need to be aware of and careful

 

What does your church do with old bulletins?

 

What is the relationship between the bulletin and the bulletin board?

  • Classic Line - "See bulletin board for more details."
  • Certain people are assigned to certain bulletin boards.
  • Bulletin boards can be frustrating - What do you put up? How long?

 

What is announced in the paper bulletin, and what is announced by email?

  • Same information in both
  • Congregations have varied percentages of people on email
  • Mass emails may need to be limited or people will delete
  • Emergency email/phone trees
  • Extra reminders by email
  • Trying to "green up" - weekly email sent to congregants

 

What is the relationship between the bulletin and the church webpage?

  • Have a tutorial during the service
  • Confidentiality issues on line - some post bulletin in full, others delete last names and others ask permission from people
  • Links from information sheet/bulletin to website to drive traffic to website
  • Password protect areas of website
  • Maintenance is important!!

Is the day coming (should the day come) when the bulletin will be replaced by electronic communications, both in worship and in weekly email announcements?

  • It is easier to have a paper copy than to turn on the computer
  • Bulletin posts easily on the fridge with a magnet
  • Expect technology to take over but we need to be sensitive to those who may not have the resources to acquire the technology.