Communication is hospitality
If I don't know how to engage, I won't feel like my presence is wanted.
On a Sunday in late Advent, my spouse and I were sitting in a pew, trying to find Christmas Eve service times at the church we wanted to attend.
There was no information in the bulletin, the back of the pew, or the narthex.
There was no announcement from the pulpit.
There weren’t any slides with the service times.
There wasn’t an Advent/Christmas page on the mobile version of the website that I could get to from the navigation menu, nor was there a church calendar. The latest version of the newsletter uploaded to the site was from a year ago.
There were no immediately obvious service times on the Facebook page, although they might have been embedded in a video. Same for Instagram.
I finally located the information by clicking the link in bio on Instagram, which took me to a menu that did include special events for December.
By the time I did all that work, I was so frustrated that I wasn’t sure I wanted to go anymore.
I know there are so many details to track during Advent. It is hard for church staffs to keep up with all of the events, much less let everyone else know about them. Some things are going to fall through the cracks, and there is grace for that! But in the same way a budget is a declaration of the causes our congregation holds dear, the overall approach to communication is a statement about whom we consider part of “us.”
Because while communication might seem like logistics (which it is), it is also theology. It is an expression of hospitality, that respect for and protection of the other that derives from our own gratitude for how God has carried us through times when we felt like we were otherwise alone.
When we are communicated to purposefully and compassionately, we feel valued and wanted. We grow hopeful that we will find needed connection. We have the information we require to participate well, both giving of ourselves and receiving from others. That’s the power of a few details.
On the flip side, if communication is haphazard, it can undermine relationships and ministry. Even mundane information feels like inside ball. Only a few people know what is going on, or everyone has a small, different slice of the overall picture. It’s only a small leap from these realities to visitors becoming one-timers and mistrust building among those who are somewhat in the know and those who aren’t.
It’s important, then, to have a communication plan:
What do people who attend the church need to know about? What do people who haven’t yet attended or who are on the fringes need to know about? How far in advance do they need to know it? How many times can we communicate it, knowing that attention spans are short and divided?
What streams of communication do we want to commit to based on our capacity and the primary communication means of the people we’re trying to reach? Who will oversee these media?
All of this might seem merely administrative, but it’s so much more. It connects people to one another and God, which means it is ministry.
Thank you, then, to those who strategize content calendars, edit bulletins, write newsletter articles, make worship slides, and call or visit those who might not have gotten important news any other way. You are doing the work of the Gospel.