The invention of YouTube and Social Media allow anyone to become an influencer and famous seemingly overnight. Chip and Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper made us believe we all can take old things and make them beautiful. Church is no longer contained to an hour on Sunday morning.
The real opportunity is in the 167 hours outside our Sunday gatherings. In order make the maximum impact in those 167 hours, branding must be beautiful, and the message must be clear. Social Media gives churches access to more people than ever before at the lowest cost ever. Mailings cost hundreds of dollars to reach 1,000 people. With social media, you can reach 1,000’s of new people for less than $50.
To set the stage for making an impact with the additional 167 hours each week, we spent much of 2019 working on crafting our message and aligning our ministries to that message. 2020 began with making our brand beautiful and appealing to the younger generation, while giving a nod to our past 145 years as a church. Ultimately, our goal was to make our branding and messaging clear, so it wasn’t a distraction to the Gospel.
Here is our new logo:
The logo is a combination of the three simple steps of our discipleship path:
Little did we know, God was setting us up to do ministry in a COVID-19 world.
We were prepared to dive headfirst into doing virtual ministry. Our Facebook page reaches more people in a week right now than our old forms of communication and ministry reached in a month. We are seeing people who have never been associated with our church like our videos and Facebook posts. And our members are feeling connected and cared for even when we are a part.
We love watching God grow His kingdom through this unknown season.
In March, we began our new Mission of the Month initiative.
Each month we pick one organization and encourage our members to go all in on supporting the ministry. We believe building relationships and partnering with ministries with our gifts and talents is just as important as our financial gifts. Our first Mission of the Month was Kid’s Life Bible Club which meets at Southeast Kelloggsville Elementary just down the road from our church. We were able to raise over $1,000 for this mission and had a few new people volunteer to help with the weekly program. One family from Kid’s Life Bible club attended our family movie night in March and we were able to bless them with a night out they normally don’t get due to financial reasons. Unfortunately, the ministry was cut short due to COVID-19 and schools closing but we are excited to continue to partner with them in the fall.
Thank you for your continued support as we continue to reach out into our community and make an impact for the kingdom! Stay healthy and safe in this season.
Jonathan Norder
Established Church Spring Ministry Report
