Why Communications Matter for Mission
A strong communications presence helps your parish connect with:
- Younger generations who expect online visibility
- Families exploring local churches
- Those returning to faith quietly
- Isolated or homebound members
- Volunteers and supporters wanting to get involved
The communications ministry is pastoral, missional, and deeply relational and every parish, regardless of size, can grow in this area.
Stories
From The Parish of Ollerton with Boughton
A volunteer from our community recently offered to set up a new Facebook page for one of our churches. She began sharing posts from that page into local community groups to build connection and curiosity. What started as a few shared posts soon became something deeper — people began reaching out with questions about faith, church, and belonging through Facebook Messenger.
One woman wrote, “I’d really like to come to church, but my husband is in a wheelchair, and I sometimes work shifts on Sundays.”
That simple message opened the door to conversation. By listening and talking with her and her husband, we were able to find ways for them to join in — at times and in buildings that suited their needs.
This is the power of simple communication: one Facebook page gave someone the confidence to reach out, and that message led to welcome, inclusion, and a place to belong.
From St Saviour’s Church, Nottingham the Meadows
Last year, we launched our first student event, handing out flyers across uni halls, on the streets, and at church. But when the day came, we stood at the door full of excitement… and twenty minutes passed and no one who’d taken a flyer came. It was hard not to feel deflated. What we didn’t know was that one of those flyers had landed in the hands of a young woman named Deborah. Three months later, she walked through the doors, She told us she’d kept meaning to visit, but life kept getting in the way. Still, she held onto the flyer. In her words; “I remember feeling instantly welcomed walking through the doors for the first time at St Saviour’s, way before anyone even said a word. That flyer that hung on my wall for months had already prepared my heart, giving me a quiet assurance that I’d be received with warmth. It’s amazing how something so small can open the door to a whole new community.” something simple that helped her remember the invitation, find the details, and feel confident enough to walk through the doors.
From Holy Trinity Lenton
A few years ago, we wanted to update the signage outside our church building. Although we aren’t on a main road, we are opposite a park and on a busy thoroughfare used by people travelling to school, work and university. As the building is quite dark, many people thought it was a closed church.
We refreshed the notice board to make service times clearer and added banners to the railings outside. One banner displays the church name, logo and service times, while the other features part of our vision statement, ‘Creating home in the heart of Lenton’.
We quickly saw the fruit of this when a family new to the area began attending after noticing the banners on their walk to school. They looked us up online and came along on a Sunday, and have now been part of our church family for several years. These banners give our local community a glimpse of who we are and serve as a reminder that we are open and ready to welcome them home.