Like Michael Jordan, email is still king.
Email is still one of the best tools for communicating with your people on a regular basis. (I actually believe a strong case can be made for the supremecy of texting services can be made, but only if your audience is mobile-responsive and into that sort of thing). Many are not.
There are still more active email addresses than social media accounts combined in the world, so don’t count it out just yet. We just aren’t good at it.
Our typical email practice is…weird
Whenever I talk about this, there’s always that one person who says “but people don’t like to get email.”
Au contraire mon frere….
I would suggest that people don’t like to get bad or unwanted email.
When it’s an email from someone they know and about something they want to know about, email seems to do just fine.
In my experience, church email usually takes the form of the once-a-week newsletter with the purpose to inform people about calendar events of the church. There might be a short…*coughcough*….note from the pastor in there, but the real reason you’re emailing them is to pass on some information.
Which is on the website.
And your social media channels.
And on the note you pinned to their child this weekend.
And on your lobby slides.
That they heard from the stage when you announced it.
Often, we use our church newsletter to tell them about an upcoming series or an event that they either already know about or don’t care to know about. (And personally, I couldn’t care less what your series is about. I’ll find out when I get there but it doesn’t affect whether I’m going to church or not.)
So what can you put in your email besides that?
Email 2.0
Here are some simple ideas to share succinctly in your pastor’s section of the enews:
A Thought your pastor had about a Scripture or issue of the day
Something your pastor recently read in the Bible or in a book you recommend
A story about a conversation your pastor had with someone that applies to last week or this week’s sermon
A funny comic strip, cartoon, or list of funny tweets you saw this week
A Reading guide for quiet times this week
The notes to the sermon from last weekend
Thoughts your pastor didn’t get to share in the sermon last weekend
They need to see that God is doing things in your life; it will help train them to learn to look for him moving in theirs. Email is an easy way to cast vision and demonstrate your church values every week. I don’t mean listing your values out one by one every week, but showing others how a life of following Jesus is supposed to look with stories that demonstrate your values.
Show them your successes, but don’t be afraid to show them your failures too. Show them you are human and be authentic. It will encourage them, I promise.
If you will start to think about your email as a communication tool for more than just information, you will be able to shape the culture of your church, making disciples of Jesus in your community who are excited to do real things for the Kingdom.
Do you have a template for email? We currently only use email to talk about our upcoming events so I really have no idea where to start.
Nick, I don’t have any templates. What the email looks like and what content is in it are two different conversations. As far as how you can format the email, I would look through this blog I wrote to address formatting and getting them opened. If you would like to talk through the strategy in more detail, let’s book a session via the coaching page and do a one-off call to look through it in detail together! Thanks for reading!