With all in-person services, meetings, and activities canceled until at least mid-May, you would think there wasn’t much the Communications Ministry Team can do. I beg to differ. Here are some of our activities this month:
Live Streaming
We are continuing to live-stream services via our Facebook page. So far, the Sunday services are going well, thanks to Robert Joines and his expertise. The Easter and Palm Sunday services were pre-recorded and masterfully spliced together by Robert. We are so thankful that Robert is on our Team!
Over 150 viewers watched our Easter service in total, and “ordinary” Sundays draw as many as 90 who watch the whole service. Live-streamed Wednesday evening services during Lent were continued after Easter. The feedback has been so positive that we will certainly continue to do all in our power to live-stream one Sunday service every week.
Text Messaging
The Communications Team had approved a move to add text messaging to our communication vehicles, since responses to our survey in the fall indicated that many people used texting as their major means of communication. Thanks to David Dykes for his work on this. But this is on hold until after the order to shut down is lifted, since setup would require a lot of work and it was decided that was too much to do during these difficult times.
Facebook and Twitter
Joan Parente and Megan and others are continually updating our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Please LIKE our Facebook page!
Website
Google Analytics indicates that there is increased traffic to the website since the beginning of the lockdown. Alfred Christensen has made many adjustments to the website to smooth the move to online services only.
Directory mailing
The week before the lockdown was ordered, Alfred Christensen and Megan Miller finalized a brand-new up-to-date parish directory. We have always promised not to put it online, to maintain privacy and avoid telemarketers getting hold of your email addresses and phone numbers. It will cost the church too much to snail mail a paper copy of the directory to each of the 270 households in the parish, so we will have to hold off distribution until we can have in-person services again.
Diocesan contact:
Gail Christensen and Waltye Rasulala are on Zoom conferences weekly with the Communications Directors of the Diocese and other churches’ communications people to learn tips and information about what other churches are doing during these interesting times.