Vital Posts / Communications

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  • Practicing Our Slogan ✓
    “The Episcopal Church welcomes you!” That’s our deal, right? We’re welcoming. Or not so much. Now that I’m not serving in a parish, I have been visiting lots of Episcopal congregations. It’s been illuminating, both in good and in troublin…
  • Do All Dogs Go to Heaven? ✓
    As if Noah had issued the call, animals of all sorts will descend in the next week upon Episcopal churches throughout the country. Many congregations celebrate the feast of St. Francis with a blessing of the animals. Dogs and cats, of course, a…
  • Mass: A Conversation ✓
    The parishioner just couldn’t accept the word “mass.” In a long, terse letter to the rector, he decried the use of the term Mass. It’s a worship service, he said. We’re not Roman Catholic. We shouldn’t be using their terminology. "S…
  • Beyond the Elevator Speech ✓
    The phone call got off to an awkward start. A barely audible, frustrated sigh on the other end of the line suggested I hadn’t really answered her question. But hadn’t I? After a long pause, the priest who’d called to find out what I was doing…
  • Getting the Word Out
    The build-it-and-they-will-come approach worked for Kevin Costner and baseball. But as a media strategy, it’s a strikeout. All too often, we have a great event or a unique fundraiser to which we’ve committed time, energy, and money. But w…
  • Technology: Tools for Churches
    My girlfriend and I have been watching Downton Abbey, which you may have heard about if you live in the Western hemisphere. In the last episode of season one, set in 1914, the Earl’s country house gets a telephone. Some of the staff wonders whom …
  • Same Story, New Techniques
    For a decade, I’ve been telling readers of our diocesan newspaper about summer camp. It’s an amazing, life-changing experience for most kids, but I couldn’t bring myself to use those same words for the tenth time to promote camp. I susp…
  • Facebook Blooper
    The Facebook post began with good intentions. “Pooped after the big retreat,” the priest posted. “Thanks to the bishop and all who helped make it happen.” The post might have elicited only a few snide comments from the pr…
  • 15-Minute Marketing: From Picture to Postcard
    Be funky. That’s the name of the website I discovered last week that offers a free and fun way to create quick marketing materials. First, find a picture that is compelling. In my situation, I wanted to promote summer camp, so I found a pic…
  • Emailing vs. Spamming
    When does email cross the line and become spam? Using email as part of your congregation’s communications strategy requires collecting email addresses. What’s our responsibility regarding stewardship of this resource? Last week, this questio…
  • Church Secretaries are Saints
    Over the sink in our office kitchen is one of my favorite cartoons by priest and Church Pension Group calendar-creator Jay Sidebotham. A church has added three new stained glass windows. One depicts the church secretary. The tagline: the real…
  • Lesson 1: What Makes a Good Facebook Post?
    A disclaimer from the start: No one has the all-encompassing, definitive answer to this question. Social media is organic, fueled by fickle and whimsy of its users. Sometimes video of a cat chasing a laser dot will go viral; other times, it’s Kon…
  • Witness
    Sometimes, it’s as if God is showing off. With toes tunneled into the soft, cool sand, I watch the kids ride one wave, then another, their heads thrown back in full laughter, their bodies rocking with the ebb and flow. The sun heats like I …
  • Foursquare 4 Church?
    I don’t get the appeal of Foursquare. I remember posts on Facebook telling me that ‘so and so’ had checked in somewhere or that they were the mayor of a place and not understanding why I should care. Thinking about it, I don’t recall any re…
  • Claiming Your Place
    Nancy Davidge is at the Episcopal Communicators conference this week. This morning she attended a workshop on Claiming Places; prompting us to rerun her Claiming Places blog: Last night Bill and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary …
  • Creating and Communicating Silence
    I have a good friend who occasionally likes to stare at me silently, just to see what I’ll say. The silence makes me slightly uncomfortable, so I’ll say something and then I’ll keep speaking, trying to talk through whatever is causing her to gi…
  • David & Goliath
    Only one hospital served the small community. In a river town in Appalachia with high unemployment and even higher numbers of uninsured folks, I’m sure it was sometimes hard for the hospital to make a balanced budget, much less a profit. …
  • The (Written) Word Made Flesh
    Sometimes telling the story can feel less important and more removed from the mission field. After all, a story about repairing a roof in Appalachia or cooking meals for the homeless isn’t dirty-hands, feet-on-the-ground ministry. Or is it? A…
  • Communication is mission: Connection
    Several years ago, knitting ministries were more novel than ubiquitous. I thought the ministry would make an interesting story, so I spent time with a few churches that had knitting groups and wrote a feature for the diocesan newspaper. The a…
  • The ministry of communications
    Sometimes I wish we could calculate our successes like McDonalds: 1 billion served in big, neon letters. But church work isn’t so easy to quantify. The challenge is especially apparent in the ministry of communications. How do we know if th…
  • Has Forward Movement Gone Mad for Lent Madness?
    For decades, Forward Movement has been most widely known for its flagship publication, Forward Day by Day. Hundreds of thousands of readers around the world find inspiration in the quarterly printed booklet. In the US, many Episcopalians learned ab…
  • Twitter Basics
    I've just finished speed-reading a book by Elizabeth Drescher, Tweet if you (Heart) Jesus. She argues that Twitter is a way to engage in conversation and build relationships. It doesn't have to be about what you had for lunch today. How it wo…
  • Making Announcements that Work
    Getting the word out about an upcoming health fair, women’s gathering, or youth trip is important. And sometimes, these announcements need more than a blurb in the Sunday morning bulletin. Nearly every church does announcements in some way …
  • Using Technology to Increase Participation
    As committee chair, I take pride in our diversity. The New York Intern Program’s communications committee “meets” on a monthly basis and includes A mother clanging pots and pans while preparing dinner for her young children Exhaust…
  • Editor’s Letter - February 2012
    Greetings. One of the joys of my role as editor of ECF Vital Practices is the discovery of resources to share through this website. Each day I comb through email messages, online publications, Facebook, as well as a variety of websites and prin…
  • Are we there yet?
    In a series about search engine optimization, we’ve been driving home the importance of preparing your website so that visitors can find you when they Google. The problem now is: they’ve found you but are you ready for guests? Most …
  • Digital Direction
    All of us at ECF Vital Practices tend toward the practical. When writing about communications technologies, we are focused on helping congregations use these new tools, whether it’s creating dynamic Facebook pages, improving e-newsletters, claiming…
  • A Secret Key to Keywords
    So we’re agreed: keywords are important. They elevate your website’s standing in rankings on search engines like Google and Yahoo. The exercise of listing keywords helps you hone in on content, and the combination of keywords and search e…
  • Unlocking Keywords
    In Google, keywords are key. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing use different methods of determining which websites get top billing when a user enters a search. But despite the varying methods, they all rely heavily on keywords. …
  • Adventures in Technology in a Mom and Pop Store
    My parents have a small vintage furniture and collectibles shop in San Antonio, TX. As I’ve written in a prior post, it’s a family affair: I remember my mom starting this business when I was in the fifth grade and then my father jumping in to hel…
  • Google: Your Way to the Top
    Search engine optimization sounds vaguely mechanical and very hard. So I tuned out when folks first started talking to me about it. This is, as you can imagine, not the best way to address a problem. I decided to start learning more abo…
  • Administrator as Minister
    While I was working at an Episcopal Church in Houston, I’d often spend hours listening. I’d listen to the homeless men and women who came in the door, I’d listen to people who called up with messages for the priests, and I’d listen to paris…
  • Claim Your Place
    Last night Bill and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a quiet dinner. We chose a restaurant recommended by a friend, envisioning a cozy room with a table by the fireplace. Remembering that Bill has a few favorite dishes, I went onli…
  • Our Very Own Christmas Special
    Here's a guilty pleasure: Christmas specials.  I like them on TV (Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas come to mind) and I especially like them as desserts. "I'll have five of Santa's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, tha…
  • Community and Security
    How much is too much? I’m grappling with this question as I re-evaluate our policies about security and the Internet. There are mean, scary people out there, and I want to do my part in protecting people of the diocese. At the same ti…
  • A Clever Social Media Tool
    I lie awake at night trying to dream up a way to “Groupon” church marketing and evangelism. Many of you are familiar with Groupon, the Internet company that uses the customer and social media to market their advertisers and to sell coupon…
  • Helping out the Calendar Master
    Every congregation needs a calendar master. This person oversees all the events in the church and coordinates with outside groups. The calendar master knows which group will leave the building spotless and which ones will leave half-full coff…
  • Preparing for Advent/Best Kept Secrets
    "I've got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!" Many women reading this may recognize this famous quote from Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA.…
  • QR: Business card
    When Laura handed me her business card, I could see the sparkle in her eye. Not only was it a tangible sign that she’d snagged a dream job, but she also wanted me to see the clever twist. On the back of the business card, she had a QR code.…
  • Beautiful Reminders
    "The love of God Is like a butterfly That reminds us That we are as Beautiful as flowers And in our darkest heart Is the love giving Nectar of life." I am part of a team working with the Brothers of the Society of Sa…
  • Exploring Gratitude – on Facebook!
    The best thing about my job as editor of ECF Vital Practices is being able to share good/interesting things happening in our church. I recently received a Facebook message from Stefani Schatz, a friend from my days at Episcopal Divinity School: …
  • e-Newsletters: Tips and trends (or How to get people to read your stuff)
    I’ve been using electronic newsletters for almost a decade, and, just like any tool of technology, they have changed dramatically over time. In the early days, the newsletters were little more than text sent to bulk e-mail accounts. Our mai…
  • Save the Shift Key
    In Church Circles, we LIKE the shift Key. (I Would use the Heart symbol but Emoticons are Another topic). We capitalize ALL kinds of words to make them seem More Important.  Church newsletters and bulletins are rife with over-capitalization: Ch…
  • How Wired Do You Want to Be?
    I’ve discovered a great new blog from the Diocese of Olympia: Putting the “I-T” in Spirit. Written by Kerry Allman, internet strategist at Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, this blog serves as a resource and as a forum for people using web and so…
  • Thanks, Netflix: A Lesson in Communication and Change
    We should send a thank you letter to Netflix.  After all, the company is providing a great example of what happens when there’s no communication plan. To catch you up: Basically Netflix, a mail-order DVD rental company, made huge change…
  • If You (Re-)build it, Will They Come?
    When I began to redesign our diocesan website, I had a few clear goals in mind: Improve navigation. Increase user satisfaction. Update the look and feel. I’ve shared this journey with you on Vital Practices because I think it’s helpful to s…
  • Creating a Press Kit for your Congregation
    When was the last time your congregation made the local news? Did the story capture the heart and soul of your ministry? Did it alert the wider community to the vibrant church in their midst? In 2008, Carol Barnwell, Director of Communications for…
  • What's in a Name
    Some stories we hold close, keeping them in our mental keepsake drawer. Others we keep in the wings, waiting for the perfect moment: meeting of the daughter’s first boyfriend, revenge when she’s acting like petulant teen. This story h…
  • Program Year Start Up Checklist
    This time of year, I feel like my old elementary school principal. It was his job to get old Boardman School whipped into shape for the school year. It was an old, old building but when the kids arrived on the first day of school it smelled new. Ne…
  • The Value of Advice
    In The Episcopal Church (and maybe all churches), we have lots of listening sessions. These are times for the stakeholders to come together and talk to the leadership about their wants and desires. The leadership, in turn, is supposed to listen wit…
  • Redesigning your Website
    Sometimes it’s hard to let go of what I want.   As the creator and keeper of the diocesan website, I want the cool, flashy stuff to be out front. In the communications survey that I talked about earlier this week, I also asked responders t…
  • To Print or Not to Print
    To print or not to print.  That is the question facing many dioceses and congregations as they consider how to cut costs but maintain connection with members. Print costs money – paper, copying, and postage. And the Internet is free (es…
  • Handling Blowback: When Social Media Gets Mean
    So you've posted a link to your sermon on Facebook and now the comments section reads like the bathroom graffiti in a college bar. What do you do? First, relax. This kind of blowback has been going on since Luther posted his 95 Theses on the doors …
  • The Next Meeting Tango...
    You're at the end of a long meeting. Significant issues have been discussed, weighed, and finally decided. Then the next-meeting tango begins. Out come the Blackberries, iPhones, Droids, and the seriously un-flashy, but always reliable paper calend…
  • Drum Roll Please ... a Look at Great Facebook Users
    I’ve been a Facebook lurker. I promised in Monday’s blog to show some examples of good Episcopal Facebook pages, so I spent a few hours surfing. The good news is I found a lot of Episcopal churches across the country on Facebook. The …
  • Making Room
    Why are we so uncomfortable with people who disagree with us? How and when do we learn to ‘shut out’ voices whose opinions are different than our own? And, why are we so sure that we are ‘right?’ These questions are on my mind as I’ve…
  • Archbishop LIKES Facebook
    Facebook -- or at least social media -- just received the Anglican equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury encouraged the flock to use new means of communication and social media to spread…
  • The Results Are In
    ECF Vital Practices launched in October 2010 and since that time we've been surveying our readers regularly to find out how we can improve this new, online resource. My colleague Anne Ditzler wrote about initial findings here. In this post, I want to…
  • Summer Church?
    Tomorrow is the summer solstice: The longest day of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, far from the equator. Living in a part of the world where the length of the day is directly impacted by the sun’s journey around the eart…
  • Why I Won't Sell a Website to your Church
    If you're like most churches, then spending $2,000 for a new website can seem like a lot of money ... and it is. But as you know, more and more consumers are researching online the products they buy offline before they ever head to a store. …
  • To (Name) Tag or Not to Tag?
    Name tags are for the church that plans to welcome new people. If your church is already the perfect size, then there’s no need to read further. Close the doors and issue passwords to members. But if you believe that living out your f…
  • Our ‘Father’ or????
    Elizabeth Kaeton has a proposal for the Church for Fathers Day: “I think we should use the day to begin a movement to give up 'Father' as an honorific title for male clergy.” Growing up in the Episcopal Church in New England in the 50s, 60s,…
  • The Church Website Through the Ages
    It all started back on October 23, 1995. That’s the first record of a conversation in which a member of the congregation asked the minister during the coffee hour “Do you think we need a homepage on the World Wide Web for our parish?” Th…
  • Listening Across Difference
    I’m always surprised. I’m referring to the discussion that takes place at my monthly book club meeting. Each month our group of 12 selects and reads a book, then meets to discuss it. And, each time, I am surprised both by the different ways…
  • Domain over your Domain
    A domain name is pretty much like a tattoo. Once you get one, you better plan on keeping it for life.  Otherwise, prepare yourself for some pain. I speak from experience. Several years ago, I received an email asking why the diocesan yout…
  • Gotta Share
    Over the weekend, Bill and I finally watched ‘The Kings Speech.’ In the opening moments, I was reminded of how the advent of radio changed not only the relationship between Great Britain’s royal family and their subjects but also the speed wi…
  • Your Facebook Profile: Targeted Updates
    Are you Facebook friends with other members of your congregation? Do members of your congregation "like" your status updates? According to the following Episcopal News Service story, more and more congregational leaders are using Facebook as a w…
  • Pass the Plate. Or not.
    Updated on January 26, 2012 - Theresa Mathes, Associate Program Director, came across the following chart of online services.  More and more churchgoers want to make their financial contributions online. Does your church website make it easy …
  • Editor's Letter: Caring for Each Other
    Our congregational life is a common life, complete with the joys and challenges that come from being in relationship. As congregational leaders, our role involves managing the sometimes ‘sticky wickets’ of relationship that hamper our work of b…
  • The Power of Words
    “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. “ (John 1:1) As a writer and editor, I spend most of my day thinking about words: Their power and how they make us feel. Words can…
  • Losing Your Pew, Gaining ground
    Prepare to lose your regular pew this Sunday. Churches are full-to-the-brim on Easter Sunday, with twice-a-year, Christmas-and-Easter guests and first-time visitors feeling inspired to make more of the day than egg hunts and candy-swapping. …
  • Does God Love Facebook?
    I say ‘yes.’ And so does Jennifer McNally. Her Episcopal Café post, “More Facebook for Lent!,”  offers a well-reasoned and theologically sound alternative to ‘I’m giving up Facebook for Lent.’ Jennifer writes: In the l…
  • Saintly Smackdown
    How are you doing in your brackets so far? As much as I appreciate basketball (I did grow up in Kentucky after all), I’m not talking about college hoops here. I'm wondering how folks are doing with the slightly more spiritual bracket of Len…
  • Online News as Evangelism
    Many congregational growth success stories point to becoming more relevant to the neighborhood where your church is located. So many of our struggling congregations are "legacy" parishes where most Sunday worshippers have some historical connection t…
  • Ashes to Go
    Priests in Chicago took to the streets yesterday. For the second year, congregations in the Diocese of Chicago took to the streets on Ash Wednesday, bring the rite of imposition of ashes to the streets, coffee houses, and transit stations. T…
  • What’s in a Name?
    A lot. When it comes to honoring someone in a public way, people may take it personally. People in my hometown are crying ‘foul’ over a recent school committee decision related to naming the football field after a respected teac…
  • Academy Awards and Church Announcements: Time to Cue the Orchestra
    How many of you have sat through announcements in church, wishing you could treat them like acceptance speeches at the Oscars? When they get too long – or boring, you could cue the orchestra (or organ) music, and the teen daughter of a cele…
  • Trialability
    Podcasts, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook. We hear continually how churches need to embrace the new social media to help share our good news. Yet so few of us do it, or it takes forever to get it going. What’s going on? Trialability. …
  • The Egg of Fame
    Did you catch Lady Gaga’s Red Carpet arrival at this year’s Grammy Awards? If not, you’re probably one of the few Americans who haven’t been talking about her most unique entrance. All Monday, commentators on television, radio and blogs ali…
  • Time to Flip out
    Attention, congregations: It’s infomercial time. Want an inexpensive but highly productive way to share the ministry of your church? Check out the Flip (or another handheld camera). The Flip is a plug-and-play video camera with inst…
  • Website tools: Analytics
    Question of the day: Is your website used mostly by parishioners or visitors?  I asked the same question recently about our diocesan website to a group of leaders. Their guess: mostly parishioners. They were wrong.
  • Becoming Unapologetically Episcopalian
    In May of last year a new page called Unapologetically Episcopalian popped up on my Facebook wall feed. With its bold name and tilting Episcopal shield, the page immediately drew my attention. When I headed to the page I found this mission statement:…
  • There IS an App for That
    Our diocese just added a mobile phone app. It’s not fancy – but it allows folks to have at their fingertips the key parts of our website: a news blog, upcoming events, directories of clergy and lay leaders, and a church finder with maps. …
  • Super Bowl Sunday
    It’s not in the lectionary or listed in Holy Women, Holy Men but Super Bowl Sunday is certainly high among the cultural holidays celebrated in this country. I have a certain amnesia about the game itself. I watch it every year and for the life of…
  • Meeting without Meeting
    If you're involved in diocesan work (or on staff, like me), then you spend a lot of time in your car, driving to meetings. My diocese is about five hours long and three hours wide -- and we're one of the lucky ones. I know some of the western d…
  • No More Parking Lot Conversations
    I have the privilege of working with congregations and their leaders as a bishop’s staff member involved in congregational development. One of the persistent behaviors I witness among vestry members is their reluctance to speak up about lingering c…
  • Thanks for Sharing
    In High School my friends and I would sometimes say “Thanks for sharing!” in a tone that only high schoolers can truly pull off: sarcastic and sing-songy at the same time. Directed at a friend, it became both a loving tease and dismissal, as sh…
  • Resolution #3: Online Makeover
    Last week I received a phone call from a newly-minted vestry member in Tennessee. He called because he’s going to propose an online makeover at his first vestry meeting in two weeks, and wondered if ECF Vital Practices had any resources to help. We…
  • Balancing the Good News scale
    Please take the pencil sketch of your church off the front of your newsletter.  As a communicator for a diocese, I read nearly every newsletter (print and electronic) each month. More than eight years into this ministry, I’ve found that con…
  • Top Episcopal News Stories for 2010
    At the end of each year you see many Top 10 lists and I have room here for my own choice of seven stories that affected the life of our Episcopal Church in the past year. 1. Haiti relief galvanizes the church. Haiti is the largest diocese in th…
  • Resolution #1: Take Good Photos
    We all know it’s coming. Soon and very soon we’ll be asked to refresh the parish homepage, craft a new ministries brochure, or create a parish calendar as the fundraiser for the youth mission trip. As you may recall, this proved difficul…
  • Happy 2011
    In the United States, the start of a new calendar year signals time for reflection and renewal and setting goals. Out with the old! In with the new! Honoring the New Year’s tradition of evaluation and goal setting, ECF Vital Practices invited…
  • A Religion Born in a Barn
    In the 1980s, the Minnesota Ad Campaign of Episcopal Church made quite a splash with a series of funny print advertisements, some of which contained pretty good zingers. A few I remember: “Will it take six strong men to get you back into churc…
  • Make an ask this New Year's Eve
    Since there are only ten more days until Christmas Eve, it’s likely that many people and parishes are feeling the pressure. There are choir rehearsals to attend, Christmas Eve services to plan, new visitors to welcome and a children’s Christmas…
  • Jesus' Birthday Party (Become one in a million!)
    I make it a daily practice to keep up with what is happening in the world. In the social media world, Advent is proving to be a ‘content rich time’ with YouTube videos, blogs, articles, and events relating to both Advent and Christmas. On Faceb…
  • Prepare the Way...For Visitors
    Click here for a Spanish translation of this article. Last weekend, over dinner, a friend bemoaned how hard it was to find a good place to go for a Christmas Eve service with her parents. Neither an Episcopalian nor a regular churchgoer, she is …
  • Behaving Badly (and Publicly)
    Sometimes people behave badly - and the media (willing participant or not) gives them a platform to advertise the bad behavior. In a recent situation, a former parishioner and church employee was interviewed by a local newspaper. She misled the…
  • New Year's Resolutions
    The Church year has just begun with Advent I so now is a great time to make some resolutions that will make parish ministry more manageable in the year to come. Here goes: 1. Making a list and checking it twice. Buckle down and get all the data…
  • Listen to Your Mother
    She said they were the best conversations she’d ever had with her three kids. And the best birthday present ever, in all her 70 years. Little did I know when I suggested to my brothers that we tell stories for mom’s birthday last November, …
  • And the Gold Goes to ...
    E-mail addresses are gold. By Olympic award standards, the bronze medal goes to snail mail addresses. Cell phone numbers snag the silver. But e-mail addresses rise to the top of the podium. Managing the database for a congregation…
  • myDiocese
    As the new owner of an iPhone, I recently found myself searching for apps that pertained to the Episcopal Church. I found a few including a version of the Book of Common Prayer and an app for St. Paul’s Cathedral in San Diego, CA. Yet the most comp…
  • Facebook Stewardship
    If your parish has an active Facebook page, it is likely the idea of fundraising through Facebook has come up. A vestry member, for instance, pleased by the number of “likes” their parish page has received, imagines a day when a wall post yiel…
  • Slogging through with joy
    Have you ever launched a website? Whew! This was my first…. All told, it’s taken over a year of effort. I worked on everything from the initial concept to launch, adding more people to the team as we went. Some days brought big decisions as…