Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

To print or not to print is beside the point, at least for today. More importantly is the type of content contained in the newsletter.

Church newsletters should never be seen as a private conversation among parishioners. Instead they should be utilized as a tool of invitation, evangelism, and community building. In other words, the church newsletter is not the place for a rant. Especially from the priest.

A while back, I heard about a front-page newsletter article of an Episcopal church. Look at that verb again. Yup, I heard about it first. The article was a rant from the priest, a reprint of a scolding sermon about ways the congregation was failing to meet the priest’s expectations. Now, I’m not privy to whether the congregation needed to hear this information in a sermon, whether Sunday morning was the appropriate place to explore this discontent.

But from a church-growth, healthy-communication point of view, I’m certain the front page of the newsletter was not the right place. The newsletter, in my opinion, should be a place of community building, of sharing news, photos, and stories about events and ministry opportunities. I can even be persuaded that regular financial reports have a place in the newsletter—as long as it’s not the front page and it doesn’t berate, belittle, or beg.

If a priest – or treasurer, senior warden, music director, youth leader, etc., -- feel strongly enough that the entire congregation needs to hear some painful, difficult, pointed criticism, then send it in a letter. That presumes some more privacy, certainly more than in a newsletter.

I don’t think congregations and their leaders should avoid hard topics. I’m not even preaching against the occasional airing of “dirty laundry.” But these conversations should be held in the right venues. And the newsletter isn’t one of them.

The newsletter (the current one and past issues) typically are found on a table in the narthex, with an invitation to guests and visitors. The newsletters are (hopefully) sent to the widest mailing list, to longtime members, shut-ins, friends of the congregation, and community leaders. And hopefully the newsletter, if it’s printed, also has a digital airing, making it fair game for anyone with an Internet connection.

Our churches aren't perfect places, and we should never act as if they are. But we should take care where and how we have our conversations, always asking how what we’re saying can be a part of building up the kingdom of God.