What we DO. What we DON'T do.

We typically do at least one volunteer message series per year. We cast vision about the catalytic impact serving has on an individual's spiritual growth.

However, the actual promotion and message series is only half of our preparation efforts. We spend as much time, if not more, making sure we're ready when people show up and say "I'm interested. How might I help?"

One of the ways my teams prepares for volunteer prospects is to clearly communicate up front what to expect. This is important because, as people evaluate the opportunities for serving in their church, they have preconceived ideas about what various teams do. Without context, they may end up frustrated when they're not able to serve the way they pictured.

Since every person has their own idea about what a role on the "communications" "graphics" or "web" team looks like, here's an example of a summary we created a few years ago about what we do and what we don't do.

The Communications department is involved with what you read, touch or click beyond the auditorium. We believe excellence honors God & inspires people. One of our primary goals is to simplify everything our audience sees or touches, to make their life easier and more rewarding, in every aspect of their engagement with Granger Community Church.

Content

What We DO:

• Pithy, short, quips, bullets and easy, scannable copy; maximum 2-3 paragraphs in length.
• Communicate context and information for next steps: message series, classes, events as well as volunteer and connection opportunities.
• Share stories about life-change.
• Support all-church vision and reinforce core values.
• Provide an opportunity to “drill down” online for more information.
• Address felt-needs and insider information “at a glance”.

What We DON’T DO:

• Fiction or poetry.
• Detailed or journalistic accounts of each ministry/event or full-length testimonies.
• Be all things to all people
• Leisure reading publications or newspapers.

Graphics

What we DO:

• Provide concepts, creative rationales and graphic deliverables for print and online mediums.
• Design tools to help remove barriers and support desired objectives.

What we DON’T DO:

• Design for cool-factor alone or because everybody else is doing it.

Web

What we DO:

• Use admin panel to make regular content changes on four to five primary pages on GCCwired.com.
• Develop new pages using templates.
• Continually review the site to ensure it is functioning well based on our vision, goals and objectives (i.e., keep the “main thing the main thing”)
• Generate interest and leave them "wanting more" so they'll take their next step.

What we DON’T DO:

• The heavy lifting (e.g., design from the ground-up, major functionality programming, etc.)
• Try to be all things to all people (e.g., telling the whole story online, constantly creating new pages contributing to the bloated navigation of a “big” website).
• Lots of scrolling or “deep diving” on our site navigation.

Team Affinity

• We are here to serve and need to model servant-leadership. Egos have no place on our team. No matter how great the talent, we will not tolerate lack of preparation, chronic lateness/missed deadlines, lack of submission to leadership.
• There is an overall ministry, communications and technology strategy in effect — it drives all the elements for promotions, Web, enews, print resources, etc. There is a reason for everything. If you have comments, observations, ideas or opinions…please let us know. We value your input and encourage you to share your thoughts with us, but do not cause dissension or confusion among the team.
• We are a church that models and expects encouragement from and for each other. Negativism, criticism and complaining are not embraced.

People want to make a difference with the time and talents God has given them. This simple tool respects their time. It helps them screen us before they go deep and get frustrated they've wasted their time. At a glance, they can decide if this team is something they want to say yes or no to.

Comments

[linda]

Kem,
We would like to bring more clarity to the area of how [media that we use] to communicate to our members,,in particular email. Seems like we need a guide: referring to this comment-There is an overall ministry, communications and technology strategy in effect — it drives all the elements for promotions, Web, enews, print resources, etc. There is a reason for everything. Would you be willing to have email dialogue about this?

[Alison Lehman]

I am in communications and I put together an 8-10 page magazine monthly for the church. What do you do when the senior pastor is chronically late getting submissions in. My deadline is Friday and he usually waits til the next Tuesday. Two days before printing. I get so frustrated with this.

[Francisco Vargas]

This is a great post, Kem.Thanks! It helps me to better articulate our communicational needs as we get ready to build a team of volunteers and improve productivity at our church. How is the volunteer rectuting process at Granger? It's amazing the amount of work that volunteers do in your church!

[jordan fowler]

So you do or don't do puppet scripts?....hahaha.

[Tommy Bowman]

Just started reading your blog - I love it! Great post!