September 2004 Guest Columnist: Sharon R. Kumler
Ministry: Communications Director, First Baptist Church,
Champaign at Savoy

What's Happening with the "What's Happening?" Newsletter?

Of all the many facets of working in a church office -- and believe me, there are MANY! -- my favorite is our church newsletter. I have been working in the First Baptist Church of Champaign at Savoy office for over nine years. I came to the job with many years of advertising and print experience, with hopes that God could use me to make a difference. Great support from the professional staff and the boards has enabled this to happen.

Each month our newsletter "happens". There are the normal repeats, but the personality of each issue is definitely directed by the Lord. When I clean out the past newsletter in preparation for the next issue, I ask the Lord "what are we going to do next month?" and he always triggers something that opens up a plan.

E-mail is my greatest tool! An idea starts to formulate and people come to mind and I send out requests for information and article ideas and the people respond! It is exciting to see how God works out the details of what the people provide. I feel that the information

- must be easy to read

- have information our members and guests need

                              and most of all

- communicate to the people what is going on in our church.

That's my job -- communication -- and we all know and are guilty of not absorbing information until it applies to our lives.

Another great asset of a useful a newsletter is the support of the professional staff. They pretty much leave me alone with this publication, but are always very supportive of anything I need from them. I often ask for endorsements for some of the information I put in, giving the newsletter credibility.

Proofreading is a BIG challenge. I usually have three proofreaders each month, which takes each of them several hours to pick things apart, and can you believe, we still have errors! We miss dates, typos in headlines and yes -- even mispelling of names - the greatest of errors!

All of the wonderful information, good ideas and staff support would be of no value without the support of the Trustee Board. Since I started in the FBC office, the trustees have always been able to grasp the vision and need for equipment. Because of that, we have grown over the years and we are a total inhouse production. We have been blessed with great opportunities for computers, copiers, folders, binders and other tools we need to keep the cost down, and enable us to do so much more for so much less and in a much more timely manner.

In conclusion ... it takes a lot of people working together to put out a good newsletter, support from staff, good equipment, good proofreaders, and a staff of dedicated volunteers to label and seal the publication and make sure it gets to the post office. Our people look forward to "What's Happening?" each month and most of them at least read the parts that interest them, and that helps them feel more connected to what God is doing in our church.