Seth Godin talks about newspapers cutting back on printing stock tables. Wonder when churches are going to stop printing weekly bulletins? Do you really think people are reading them? I probably shouldn’t admit this, but it’s been months since I’ve read the bulletin at Granger. I use the insert to take notes during the message. That’s it. Everything else that’s included in the bulletin is available in the weekly enewsletter or on the web whenever I need it. My hope is that RSS will eventually eliminate the need for the weekly enewsletter.
Know any churches that have stopped printing weekly bulletins? I’d love to hear what impact, if any, it’s had on their ministry.
Hi Tony,
We are a brand new church plant in Brisbane, Australia. Since we target unchurched young adults, we figured they nearly all have email. We launched the church without a bulletin and only have a weekly email. The great thing about email is that people get it even if they miss church on Sunday. We average 130 people on a Sunday, but the email goes out to over 300 people.
The only thing we hand out on Sunday’s is a communication form (where they can give us their details, and make requests) and a message outline.
I would like to go to all email but I can’t convince myself that people still don’t read the ministry guides.
I know Saddleback did away with them.
We struggled with this same issue for a while, because I’m convinced that most people don’t read them in our congregation as well. The argument, though, is that there a few that wouldn’t know what to do without it. The tension is determining whether the cost for us in time/resources is worth it for just a few people.
I would love to see an RSS solution in action somewhere before we switch over though!
Funny thing, I had just read Seth’s article before seeing yours. You had a great application from his thoughts. Always enjoy your stuff, Tony.
We’re an old traditional church – hundred year old sanctuary, little in the way of electronics, lots of old folks who don’t do computers. The folks that are online love the communcation we’re able to do with them. But I can’t marginalize all the old folks.
I’m not a big fanof bulletins. So often they function as “fig leafs” – something we hold one to to hide our nervousness before God and each other.
E-mail Newsletters vs. Bulletins
Tony Morgan of Granger Community Church has some insights about using e-mail newsletters vs. weekly bulletins and even ponders the potential death of church bulletins. I don’t think we’ll see church bulletins go away any time soon, though they could lo…
E-mail Newsletters vs. Bulletins
Tony Morgan of Granger Community Church has some insights about using e-mail newsletters vs. weekly bulletins and even ponders the potential death of church bulletins. I don’t think we’ll see church bulletins go away any time soon, though they could lo…
Tony, I work here and I still read the entire bulletin every week, but then again I read the owners manual to every vehicle and gadget I have ever owned. My husband still reads the bulletin. My 15 year old daughter reads the bulletin. I also use the bulletin to give to neighbors when they ask about the church (I know we have postcards but sometimes they want to see more). I receive the e-news and I read it too. I’m not much help here am I?
Dawn, you’ve just proven that not all Grangerites are created equal. It would be a scary place if everyone was like me.
By the way, I’m sure I’m the oddball. My family thinks it’s somewhat annoying that I respond to every question that pops up with… “I bet we could find out on the Internet.”
tony
I think it’s a comfort thing mostly, especially for newcomers. I know whenever I visit a new church I use the bulletin to find out more about the church.
In our swimming through the sea of churchianity, I found bulletins to be invaluable. I am a 30-something, and a relative new convert to Christ. I find most churches do a poor job at communicating events and opportunities, and if their bulletins are all chaotic and stale I could get a sense of the overall church mood. I have a church plant that has a wide variety of new folks coming each, and I find bulletins allow us to be exploresd in safety. Many who attend wouldn’t join an email list if pressured.
Another Sacred Cow
In my weekend post on Sacred Cows and Newsletters, err…Stock Tables I referred to Seth’s take on how newspapers around the country are beginning to eliminate the pages devoted to printing the closing prices of NYSE and NASDAQ stocks. They’ve
as a six-year-old church of about 500, warehouse242.org, we’ve never used a bulletin. the ease for us is that we never used one – so we didn’t encounter the baggage of having to “stop” doing it.
from the beginning, all of our event communication has been done through live orientation during worship and e-mail newsletters.
we have a ‘connecting card’ that serves as an data-collector and prayer card that has some basic info on it, but it is only updated quarterly.
so far, we haven’t fallen off the face of the earth without a weekly bulletin…
I wish we could do away with our bulletins. I have to make the fooing things every week, and I’d love to set it up as a weekly RSS feed from our website instead. However, our worship director is fairly old-school and wants a VERY DETAILED order of worship in the bulletin each week. It’s a big sacred cow in our church that isn’t going away anytime soon.
I tend to agree with Jesse and Steve. We’ve found that bulletins are rarely read by regular attenders, but devoured by guests. It changed our outlook on its purpose.
It seems to be more effective as an outreach/introductory tool that gives people a taste of what to expect and steps to learn more or get connected.
We also found it could be a great tool for learning how people found out about the church so outreach efforts can be more focused.
Enews or online formats seem to work great as a primary distribution source for the core church family. They’ve been more committed and willing to go online or offer up an email address for ongoing communications, whereas guests seem to look for something they can refer to throughout the service experience that lets them know what to expect. [Although I know there are successful examples of churches with different approaches as well!]
As a new church planter we will have a bulletin. I have been to several church that use bulletins and almost all of them present a terrible format that is usually scattered and
uninteresting, most likely put together Saturday night and printed in faded black and white. Many people still read the news paper. I usually find out about a church by looking at their bulletin. A boring bulletin = a Boring church, a scattered format = a scattered run church etc. It is work to do a nice one every week but then again that is what you are supposed to do. I was in a church 2 years and no one read the bulletin including me it was the same old boring format. I was asked to do it and changed the format and put people from the church in it recognize people and guess what we could not keep them.People will put them in their Bibles and in a quite moment read it. use it to instruct your people with, encouraging quotes. Not everyone runs to e-mail to learn about what’s happening at church. If no one reads YOUR bulletin they probably are not listening to YOUR sermon either. Chris