Paperbound Ministry

One of the Presbytery’s pastors told me, “We are finding out how many of our people we don’t have email addresses for. So all our email updates and on-line invitations to worship were passing them by.”

With every member becoming homebound the church has pivoted to serve them with long wished for robust online services. Those that can’t or won’t follow the folk to the screened in church are the paperbound.  They are the new overlooked faithful remnant of the church.

What online ramps are needed to let the paperbound enter into the church online?

Shut-in from the world wide web and even email, and denied the in-person networking which connected them with the church, the paperbound are left with the US postal mail and phone calls while in person gatherings are suspended.

What are some churches doing?

• Mailing the online eblasts to folks without email
• Tracking email opens and replies to make sure the emails are being received and read (Mailchimp, Constant Contact and other mass email services provide this tracking) and following up on the unopened or bounced emails of members
• Calling folks not only to see if they are okay but what issues they have with attending on-line worship
• Dusting off and updating a phone tree to communicate to the paperbound
• Mailing a paper copy of the sermon, bulletin or online worship aids especially when they contain prayer concerns and
• Considering installing digital ramps over the many steps to participate on-line   
  • Mailing a DVD with recordings of the worship videos
  • Posting on YouTube that some can get on their smart TVs without a computer
  • Dropping off laptops with webcams or webcams on porches of those with computers and some tech skills but without webcams and microphones
  • Highlighting phone numbers for call-in participation in on-line meetings

What is your church doing for paperbound ministry? Let me know and I’ll update this article

Reaching Out to Young Families

I’ve responded to some questions from a church that I thought I would share here.

Our small church has struggled to attract families and has become a congregation with an aging demographic.  What would your approach be to reach out to families and younger people?

If the primary task of your pastor is shepherding the congregation with an aging demographic (see A Pastor’s Role) then outreach to families and younger people, who are not part of the congregation I imagine would lead to conflict. So my approach would be “careful”. ;)

I would be guided by always asking families and younger people in the congregation and without how the congregation was doing. Would you recommend us to your friends? Why?

I would seek out a relationship the school board and principal of the high school. This is where young families are. I volunteered as tutor and substitute teacher, putting myself under the school’s authority and helping them in their need, not my own. I got funding and a venue for a program the guidance counselor dreamed of providing, not my own program. (So, I was there when her husband left her. She ended up joining the church and becoming an elder.) When a High School football star was nearly killed I opened up the church for a healing service and provided a website for messages to him. (Over 100 young people came forward for anointing. The next day the web server crashed from overuse.) I would be at the football games and other events as a supporter not a competitor.

I would seek permission to add video to a participatory worship experience and work on the church’s social media friendliness. A change in worship would be a sacrifice from the good folks there now. A major part of this approach would be to reach out and work with the folks who like worship and church the way it is and to provide for them.

Christy Ramsey. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Growing a Small Church

I’ve responded to some questions from a church that I thought I would share here.

What have you learned in your current church that would help you to grow a small church?

I am part of a team that went from 700 out of 1100 in ratings to a Number 1 ranking of all Geek Squads in the nation. Our team leader did this by stressing our one job was to make sure that every client had a good experience at Best Buy.

Everyone we dealt with at Geek Squad was having a bad day; their computer was broken and they didn’t know what to do other than come to us for help. All were at a lost, most were sad, some were angry, a couple wanted to direct and correct me, Geek Squad, Microsoft or the laws of physics.  I did well, and was the go to person to convert a “detractor” to least to a “passive” or even a “promoter”.

1 Peter 4:9-10 tells us that Hospitality is rooted in God’s grace. It is a form of service to others. I would apply the attitude of customer service, hospitality, I lived at Geek Squad to the lost, sad, angry, and even demanding folks who come to service.

I would also prepare, execute, and follow up major events in the year. We had so much training for Black Friday to be ready for visitors. I would seek to prepare for church shoppers on our big days, not only Christmas and Easter but also Mother’s Day the third biggest day for church visiting. I would seek to have  faithful and fun follow ups to make the Sunday after these high holy days not be a let down.

Christy Ramsey. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Work Rules

Some notes and links from the book, Work Rules, by the person who seeks out Googlers, Laszlo Bock.

“Kiss up and Kick Down”

p. 72n Searching for the Best

Confrimation bias article “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know: How Our Unconscious Minds Undermine the WorkPlace” on Google blog

p. 88n Don’t Trust Your Gut

Questions for a structured interview: www.va.gov/pbi/questions.asp

p. 97 Don’t Trust Your Gut