The Communication Secret Your Church Needs

From the final Sojourn worship service at 930 Mary Street

Too often, church communications is all about event promotion, whether that event is a new class, sermon series, vision campaign, retreat, seminar or outreach festival. Then when the event is over, we’re onto the next thing.

If you consistently promote events as “a huge opportunity” or “can’t miss,” but you say nothing about the event when it’s finished, then you are unintentionally communicating that the event wasn’t a big deal after all. Over time, people will be less likely to believe that future events are “can’t miss” because nothing in the past turned out to be as special as what the event promotion led them to believe.

This is why we’ve posted recaps, photo blog posts, and testimonies following Sojourn Church events like our recurring Redeem Marriage seminars, baptism services, Fall Festival, campus launches, medical clinics and other events. And it’s why we took time to look back, even in the midst of looking forward, when our Midtown Campus left its original building for a bigger one down the street.

The first building Sojourn owned was originally a school building, built in 1906. We bought it nearly 100 years later, launching services at “The 930” in 2006. In the years since then we’ve outgrown the Sunday worship space, so we bought a former Catholic cathedral named St. Vincent’s, just two blocks from The 930. We’ve spent the last year on a massive renovation project. The new St. Vincent’s looks amazing, and the seating capacity is double the capacity at The 930 (which will remain our central staff office building and our meeting place for student ministry).

We’ve spent much energy promoting the launch of services at this new building, but we knew something would be missing if we

Song Premier & Interview With Sojourn’s Brooks Ritter

Brooks Ritter wrote the modern hymns “Lead Us Back” and “Living Faith” with me. My good friend is the Worship Director of Sojourn’s Midtown Campus and a regular fixture on Sojourn Music albums. And on November 18 Brooks Ritter will release his second full length solo album, titled Gather Round.

He’s received a lot of airplay here in Louisville on our AAA station, WPFK 91.9, and in fact will sing live there on Thursday, November 17 at 11am (listen world-wide at wfpk.org – just click the WFPK “Listen Live” tab).

Listen to my interview with Brooks Ritter, and the world premier of his title cut on this record, Gather Round. Besides the new song, you’ll learn about Brooks’s songwriting process and

World Song Premier & Interview w/ My Songwriting Partner Dave Moisan

Dave Moisan wrote the modern hymns “Warrior” and “We Are Changed” with me and Neil Degraide. He’s a good friend and a big part of our worship community, Sojourn Music. And on November 18 Dave Moisan will release a 12-song solo album, produced by Neil, titled Ungravity (pre-order and preview on iTunes here).

He’s received extensive airplay here in Louisville on our AAA station, WPFK 91.9, and national attention for his song “Mexico,” which is included on a playlist with Maroon 5 in Hollister stores.

Listen to my interview with Dave Moisan, and the world premier of his Ungravity song “Down To The Felt.” Not only will you hear a cool song, but you’ll benefit from this keen look at Dave’s songwriting process and

Church Communications: When Your Church Relocates, Part 2

Churches relocate for different reasons. Your church may relocate someday. And if it lasts long enough, it may relocate several times. So you’ve got two primary communication challenges:

• Communicating the church move to your church members and regular attendees (the congregation)
• Communicating the church move to your neighbors (the community)

Last week we began covering the basics of how to communicate “Our church is moving to a new location” to each of those audiences, in the first of a two-part series. We used my church (Sojourn Community Church, in Louisville, KY) for the example Our Church Is Moving: How To Communicate To The Outside Community. Today, we’ll talk about communications with your church members and regular attendees:

“Our Church Is Moving!” How To Communicate Effectively To Your Own Congregation

This can be difficult, because the people in your congregation likely have fond memories of big events that took place in your current building:

• Their salvation, and the salvation of friends and family members
• Weddings
• Funerals
• Baby Dedications
• Meeting their future spouse
• and the countless joys of corporate worship environments: praising Christ together, growing in God’s Word, forming friendships, crying out to God, hearing from God, etc.