Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Vestry Papers - Sharing Our Stories

November 2014
Sharing Our Stories

Weaving Story Into All We Do

Lucy Owens

“Are you a neighbor? New to Memphis? Been away from church for a while? Never been to church before? Take a closer look at the welcoming community of faith at Grace-St. Luke’s.”

Warmth, friendliness, joy, a commitment to serving God by serving others—these are woven throughout the fabric of our wonderful parish and we let it shine through in all we do. They’re visible on our website (www.gracestlukes.org), in our worship, our fellowship gatherings, and even on Facebook.

Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (GSL) is blessed with congregational and staff leadership who enjoy sharing stories. I’m the communications administrator, webmaster, and secretary/receptionist. With the support of our rector and the vestry, I have the resources I need to capture – and share - the personality of GSL and its members through every part of our communications programs. Here’s a peek at how it all comes together…

Website

Our website (www.gracestlukes.org) is vital to sharing our parish’s stories. We developed our first website in 1999. I was on a quest to get Internet access at the church, and when a brochure entitled “Learn to Build a Website in One Day” came across my desk, I thought, “This is it! We have to have Internet to have a website.” I absolutely loved this new part of my job description: Building and maintaining our church’s website. I loved learning about html and how to make the website be something the members would be proud of and that would attract visitors. I will never forget the email we received in those early days from a family who was church shopping and chose GSL because of our website.

After 10 years, it was obvious that my html skills had not kept up with the growing advancements in websites.

A parishioner who was knowledgeable about branding, websites, and all things technological was instrumental in helping us with this much needed change. We chose a local company (www.gorocketfuel.com) to host and design our new site. The language originally used on this new site was a good example for me to follow and to continue on in this conversational, friendly manner. In 2009, we finished this major overhaul of our website and we began a search for a new rector. As part of the search process, we displayed the rich heritage of Grace and St. Luke’s churches and our merger story in this video on our history page, http://www.gracestlukes.org/history/.

Write Once; Edit for Reuse

When it comes time for preparing The Messenger, our monthly newsletter, I don’t just get the facts of an event, I get articles written (by others) as though one was talking to a friend. They are welcoming, conversational, and inviting. I rarely have to write or even do much editing. Gathering the information for the monthly newsletter (deadline the middle of the preceding month) is my starting point each month. From this, I create stories and events on our website, slightly changing the wording to be more appropriate for the web. I also use these articles to create shortened notices for our weekly eNews and even shorter blurbs for our Sunday announcement part of our leaflet. During the month, I also share what’s going on in the life of the parish on Facebook and Twitter, our two main social media outlets, and on our flat screen monitors in the hallway. There was some concern when we replaced our hallway corkboards with the monitors—but today folks will stop and watch and comment on the slides, enjoying the pictures that go along with the informational notices. Along with the website change, this was a change no one regretted!

Email Blasts

We have over 900 folks on our email list who receive our weekly e-blasts and other email notices. Because we have a good many members and visitors who have Internet access, we only mail out about 150 paper copies of our monthly newsletter. Having a website that is up to date and easy to use is important to our members, as well as connecting with us through social media and the weekly e-blasts.

Communications as Evangelism

I believe that a big form of evangelism is through our website and social media. We have over 1000 Facebook fans and over 500 Twitter followers. More than half of these are nonmembers and I’m thrilled to reach so many who are not sitting in our pews each Sunday. They are connecting to us and are attracted to us—I’d like to think—through the stories we share.

Stewardship

The past two years, our stewardship themes have centered around members telling their stories. Last year, our awesome stewardship committee chose the theme “Giving is your story: What will your next chapter be?” They developed a series of videos featuring different members of the church—a young family with a small child, senior members, new members, a child, a staff member, and more. These video stories are still online: www.gracestlukes.org/why-we-give/. On a similar note, this year’s theme is “Our Community of Grace.” Each Sunday this fall we focus on a community within the church: EYC, seniors, music, outreach, pastoral care, fellowship, addiction and recovery groups, and more. A key person from each group is invited to share for 5 minutes about their “community of grace” at the beginning of Sunday school. Information about each community is also listed in the weekly eNews and Sunday leaflet. On the pledge card, we have invited members to briefly share about their community of grace.

Other Episcopal Sources

Another way we utilize stories in our communication is by staying connected to the Episcopal Church—from a local to a global scale. So many wonderful stories we share come from Episcopal Relief and Development, from the Episcopal News Service, and also from other churches right here in the city of Memphis. Passing along these stories to our members connects our parish to the larger church.

Time Commitment

Does this way of communicating and sharing take much time? Yes, it is time consuming, but it is something I love doing and take pride in doing well. Without all the wonderful help from the congregation’s leadership – and the generosity of our volunteer writers - it would be more difficult to get all of this accomplished in addition to my other duties. I started out at GSL in 1986 as the secretary/receptionist (barely knowing what a computer was, much less internet!) and continue to have most of those same responsibilities, in addition to all the newer ones revolving around the technology mentioned above.

Our volunteers—outreach, pastoral care, fellowship, altar guild, choir—all of those involved in various ministries share a part of themselves. They connect with others in the GSL community and also those outside our community. These volunteers are not only benefiting others, but when they are able to give of themselves, they also reap the rewards of enriching their own lives, of feeling needed and connected and a part of. They are creating new stories to share, stories of giving, loving, laughing, and even stories of sorrow and pain.

Try This

The first thing a visitor to Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church website is an invitation: “Take a closer look,” followed by a few questions and an invitation. For a newcomer or seeker, there is a clear path to follow to learn more about this congregation.

Does your congregation’s website provide newcomers or seekers with an easy way to learn more? Here’s an exercise for the Vestry or a small group of congregational leaders or staff, including the person responsible for developing content for your website:

1. Each person in the group asks someone you know and who is unfamiliar with your church to look at your site with the eyes of someone who is seeking a place of worship.

2. Invite them to be candid with you and as they speak, just listen. Please try to avoid the urge you will have to defend your site; just listen with an open mind and open heart. Take good notes about what you hear.

3. Probe a bit, by asking questions, such as:

Were they able to easily find what they were looking for?
What did they expect to find, but did not?
What do they like the most about the website?
How would they describe the ‘feel’ of the website?
What recommendations do they have to make the website more helpful to those unfamiliar with the church?

4. Come back together as a group and share what you heard. Listen for common reactions, themes, and questions shared by the people who visited your site.

5. Establish a small task force (2-3 people, including people with responsibility for the website) to develop an action plan for making your website more responsive to ‘the people we don’t know yet.’

Lucy Owens is the communications administrator and webmaster at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. She’s also serves as secretary and receptionist and is a member of Episcopal Communicators.

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