The Importance of a Church Communication Budget
- Why Set a Budget for Church Communication?
It is still disputed among churches why they should set aside part of their budget and resources for communication. One recurring notion is that funding communication isn’t viewed as a ministry. However, the church is home for many missions, and communication makes those ministries possible. How communication is handled is a huge determinant how the gospel is shared across all nations today.
No longer are flyers and pamphlets about upcoming services the only way to inform a church’s members, no longer do members have to directly approach individuals to inform them about the gospel. Why not take advantage of the vast opportunities that communication offers today and translate it into recruiting new church members and engaging and serving existing church members?
2. Setting a Budget is The First Step
When you realize that communication goes far beyond face-to-face interaction, new doors begin to fly open. For important information to arrive at the receiver’s end, a plan and strategy has to come first to achieve this goal. It involves selecting the communication channels that will help deliver the messages.
Websites, advertisements, promotions, emails, or even text messages, all require funding. The more a church is concerned with successfully delivering their message the more resources are needed. It is understandable that for many churches this is a brand-new step in approaching members and non-members. However, setting aside a budget that solely serves the purpose of supporting church communication can soon be very rewarding with more engaged attendees as an outcome.
3. Budgets Should Continuously Exist
It isn’t just a one-time thing. Setting up a website and automated text message reminders is one way to improve a church’s communication strategy. But being truly engaged goes further than that. It takes a lot of effort to keeping church members involved and even more to recruit new ones. Sending out emails, creating new content on the church website, managing a social media presence, and using text messages to contact people are all tasks that are part of communication. Considering the variety of available options and at what cost they come, having a budget available is significant for success.
One reasonable option is to have at least one person or a small team in a church that can take on this modern-day responsibility. It will be worth the investment, especially thinking in long-term views of keeping the gospel alive for future generations. In order for those future generations who are wanting to be involved, churches have to become up-to-date with their ways of communicating. To day and even more so in the future, people’s schedules will be entirely run through their smartphones. Churches that know how to stay relevant and accessible today will most likely be successful in the future.
About The Author
Rebecca Leim is an international student from Germany. She is a senior at the University of Mobile and has a major in Business Administration with a concentration in management and a minor in Psychology.