I work in a parish and because it is a small one I wear more than one hat. This summer I am working on a PR proposal for the parish. The parish bulletin just isn’t enough when we are all inundated daily with information. Somehow my job is to keep Christ and our parish in the forefront of parishioner’s minds. It’s not an easy task but one I am embracing anyway.
So far my plan includes social media like Facebook and Google+ (though I will say that very little is happening with Google+ at this time).
We updated our parish website this year and I continually update it with pictures and events. A twice-yearly newsletter supplemented with two postcard campaigns are in addition to the usual offertory mailing. In my opinion it is somewhat in poor taste to mail only requests for money to parishioners. And, yes, I consider offertory envelopes a request for money.
We are also considering advertising in the local paper, which is just for our town. The other churches and synagogues do this so it may be time for us to step up as well. There are a few more ideas on the list but the point of it all is to make parishioners and other people aware of the parish as a place not only to go to for Mass but as a place of community. We need to help people learn about their faith and make living it a priority.
So many times people wonder what is happening at their parish but cannot find information. One of my goals to make it easy to find out when Masses are scheduled, when new activities are taking place, and how people can participate.
I remember a few months ago I was looking at a parish website to find out the Ash Wednesday schedule; it was buried and if I had been less motivated, would have quit long before the information was found after the five or six places I looked.
The point in all of this campaigning is that we need to spread the word about what is happening in our parishes through many ways. I believe that many people are searching; let’s do all we can to make it easy for them to find us. And once they do, we can lead them to Christ!
Copyright © 2013, Deanna Bartalini
Deanna Bartalini
Deanna G. Bartalini, is a Catholic writer, speaker, and educator. She serves on the retreat team at Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center. Deanna loves teaching about Catholicism and how it fits into our daily lives. She writes at DeannaBartalini.com, serves as the editor of the NewEvangelizers.com blog, and is a contributor there as well as at AmazingCatechists.com. Deanna contributed to A Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion published by Ave Maris Press. She is the author of “Invite the Holy Spirit into Your Life: Growing in Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control” published by Our Sunday Visitor. Deanna is available to lead retreats and speak at catechist and ministry events.
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