6 Easy Ways to Maximize Your Church's Internal, Member Communication

Jason Alexis

Digital Strategist for PastorsLine and co-author of reTHINK.Ministry. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION

Churches are communities of people, so good lines of communications are necessary in order to work most effectively together. Thriving organizations have excellent internal communication systems in place. These systems help leaders cast visions and set goals. They help organize the congregation to achieve these goals. Solid communications help members feel connected and involved with your church. An effective internal communications system creates a dialogue that is clear and healthy between your congregation and the church leaders. 

You cannot begin to reach out and attract new people to your church community if you don't have a solid internal communications system. Otherwise, when new people come, they may not experience a warm welcome. Instead, they may feel left out of the loop, confused, and frustrated about how to fit in with your church. In short, good communications effectively integrate new people into your church community. 

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WHAT IS AN INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM?

Your internal communications system is composed of all the channels that you use to communicate with the members of your congregation. In the past, communication was simple. Church bulletins, pulpit announcements, and phone calls made sure that everyone knew what was going on. 

Today, communication is more complex. People are busy, and they don't always read the bulletin or attend weekly planning meetings. If you want to keep your entire congregation in the loop, you are going to have to communicate across more channels. Email, social media, text messaging, and possibly mobile apps will all be important components of your internal communications system. 

In other words, your internal communications system is going to have an external layer. The phrase used to describe this is 'church online.' This means that your online presence will replicate the experience of participating in your live congregation. It will be a fully interactive experience that your members and visitors can engage in beyond weekend services and live events. An effective, online, church experience is created from strategically using all the digital and mobile communication channels at your disposal. 

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WHERE IS THE FOCUS OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS? 

Internal communications is a church-wide effort to dialogue with church staff and members of the congregation. It covers all the communications channels and includes the software and hardware that allows your church to engage in a dialogue with its loyal visitors and members while laying the foundation
to interact with the outside world.

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WHO HAS RESPONSIBILITY FOR INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS?

For many churches, no one has ownership over the communication channels. Secretaries produce the bulletins, volunteers run the website and social media, and others manage the email. In order to bring all your communications together in a strategic way, someone has to take leadership.

It will be very helpful for your church to designate a Communication Director / Manager. Some churches may be able to hire someone to fill this position. Others may simply give these responsibilities to someone already on the pastoral team or a committed volunteer. This person will manage a team of people to execute an overall digital communications strategy.

After planning, the Communication Director / Manager works very closely with the pastoral team to ensure that the digital strategy synergizes with the overall pastoral plan for the year.

To be most effective, internal communications needs to work closely with external marketing (next chapter). As a result, the communication director (or communication manager) will be interfacing with both systems. It is recommended to select a lead person who is capable of seeing the overall picture and
how each aspect of the strategy plays its part.

The target audience for your internal communications is going to be both members and visitors. You will need to focus on these two groups and their needs. You will also want to prioritize the training of members to interact effectively with visitors.

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HOW TO DESIGN AN INTERNAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

With so many potential communication channels out there, you might be wondering where to start. The best way is to survey your congregation. You want to find out what communications channels they have available to them. Setting up a Twitter account is not going to help you if the members of your congregation do not use Twitter. Once you have good data on the preferred communications channels of your congregation, you can begin to make decisions about how to design your own internal communications system.

Armed with this knowledge about your congregation, you can begin to look at the kinds of messages you want to communicate to your congregation and outline a content strategy. Then proceed with the following steps: 

• Optimizing Your Existing Communications Channels: Take a look at the communication channels which are currently in place. You want to ask yourself if these channels are as effective as they could be. Are you promoting the use of these channels by your congregation? Are these channels coordinated to effectively communicate the messages that you want? Revisit what you are doing with your existing communications so that you can bring them into alignment with your brand and overall communication goals. 
• Update Your Membership Database: You will not be able to communicate effectively if you do not have a good member database. An outdated membership database could mean you are not reaching everyone. You will need current contact information for everyone in your congregation.This information must include current cell phone numbers and emails.
• Add New Channels If Needed: The process of adding new channels requires careful planning.
  You want to add new communications tools one at a time so that your congregation can get used to using them. Adding too much at once will overwhelm your staff, volunteers who manage the communications, and your congregation. You want to make sure that you are not just hopping on the latest fad and that you have the right kind of content for the new channel you are adopting.
• Document the Use of Your Communication Channels: You should also develop a documented set of best practices for using these communication channels. This will include how frequently each channel will be used, what kinds of communications will be sent on each channel, and the criteria required for making an announcement.
• Launch and Promote the Use of Your Communication Channels: An email or text may not be enough to get your congregation on board. You may need to explain why a new tool makes sense before people adopt it. One congregation that we work with has an older population. They have to spend a lot of time teaching their older members how to use the communication tools. But the fruits are tremendous because many people have become more connected to their congregation than ever before. 
• 24/7 Church Online: Setting up an internal communication system is about picking the people to manage communications, putting communications processes in place, and picking the best tech tools to implement these processes. Once the people, processes, and technology are in place, you can begin to develop a strategy that puts these digital tools to work beyond your current congregation. The result will be an online church experience that is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Before you tackle the steps above, be sure to define your brand and develop your overall communications
strategy. In reality, you are already communicating with your congregation in some way. Most congregations use pulpit announcements and bulletins. Many have websites with online sermons. Some churches may also use email and social media. So, this part of the digital strategy process involves taking stock of what you are already doing and aligning it with the vision and goals that you have developed. Once you do this, you can add new components to your internal communications system to help you to achieve your goals.
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Posted with permission from the book reTHINK.Ministry. 

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RELATED RESOURCES:

• How to Create Digital Disciples in Your Church Community​
• Strategic Branding
• Tips for Your Member Care Strategy