We finalized our all church communication values at Granger and shared them with the staff yesterday. I'm sharing them with you now.
Granger Community Church Communication Values May 2005
- Reinforce that we are a unified church working toward a common vision, not a federation of sub-ministries.
- Be driven from the outside-in. That is, there will be a heavier emphasis communicating to those in the outside circles (community and crowd), and a progressively lighter emphasis toward those in the inner circles (congregation, committed and core).
- Focus on the needs of our guests, not the needs of our ministries.
- We will ask more questions than we answer in communications--allowing people to absorb and seek on their own terms--drawing them into the content we have to offer.
- Deliver excellence in timeliness, accuracy, design, layout and ease of use.
- Be simple and clear, eliminating unnecessary fluff or complicated content.
- Always be in a language, style and method that is visible and understandable to the first-time guest.
- Not be fair, but instead will be appropriate based on ministry priorities. This means that “equal time” is not valued or considered.
- Be designed so that it reduces the noise in people’s lives and eliminates competition between ministries. Too much information can be just as dangerous as not enough. Therefore, we will provide the basic information for people to easily scan.
- Capitalize on our strength. Most people will connect to GCC for the first time through a weekend service. Therefore, most of our communication resources will be expended on inviting people to the weekend service, and then helping them take their next step beyond the weekend service.
- Be sustainable. We won’t launch a deliverable (i.e. newsletter or web page) if we don’t have the systems and personnel to maintain it with excellence.
- Actively balance inspiration and information. Therefore, everything will be evaluated in context of the church; not just a ministry audience.
"context of the church" = "all church"
"ministry audience" = "individual ministry department"
Posted by: Kem Meyer | Mar 06, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Though posted close to 3-years ago, would you mind clarifying and elaborating on the last point? Specifically, what do you define as the "context of the church" and how does it differ from "a ministry audience"?
Thanks!
Posted by: Andrew Norton | Mar 06, 2008 at 11:55 AM
The sustainability point is great. Full credit as there are a lot who don't see pass the first deliverable - which tends to be great and then progressively gets worse...
Posted by: DefSol | Aug 22, 2006 at 09:44 PM
Kem - SO, SO good! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: scott hodge | May 28, 2005 at 05:41 PM
I received an email today from a "david@gccwired.com" containing a virus you may want to check out. I'm signed up for the newsletter at wiredchurches.com and i thought this was it and I opened it and it said it contained a virus!
Posted by: Sarge | May 27, 2005 at 07:49 AM
Kem - It's an honor serving beside you where our mission / identity is valued enough to put on paper a list of values that help us practice what we claim. Our people are the benefactors!
Posted by: Mark Waltz | May 26, 2005 at 11:41 PM
Hey Kirt,
I partnered with the pastors on our Senior Management Team. The document combined values we've operated off of for years, but never documented, as well as new best practice values we adopted over the past couple of years.
Posted by: Kem Meyer | May 26, 2005 at 10:14 PM
Thank you, Kem, for sharing these bold statements. Who was involved in the creation, polishing, and "blessing" of them?
Posted by: Kirt Manuel | May 26, 2005 at 09:19 PM