Sunday worship preparation message - ideas needed

[bpalermini]

We're thinking about putting out an email message before Sunday explaining the theme of the week, describing the sermon topic, how the music supports the theme, the readings that will be used, etc.

Does anyone else do this? If so can you share examples? Do you tie the graphics in to what you use at the services?

We would like to let people subscribe to a weekly html email. Is this the best way to do this? What do you think?

[adamdiehl]

Who's the recipent? People planning and working the service or the general "anybody." ??

[revjbat]

I've never tried anything like that but sounds like a neat idea. I'm not sure about the part of telling how the songs fit the theme. Seems to me this should be self-evident within the service. Maybe think about adding a "teaser" question or two with the promise that the answer will come in the sermon. Ginghamsburg UMC does a weekly on line poll that ties in with Sunday's theme.

Personally, I think having images that fit the theme, (metaphorical images at that) are absolutely the most important part of worship planning.

[bpalermini]

Originally Posted by adamdiehl

Who's the recipent? People planning and working the service or the general "anybody." ??

Well, since you have to subscribe I think the readers would mostly be regular attenders who are interested enough and want to prepare to have a deeper experience on Sunday.

Originally Posted by revjbat

I'm not sure about the part of telling how the songs fit the theme.

Maybe I said that wrong, every week during our planning meeting the W&M director tells a bit about why he selected the music, and how he thinks it adds to the worship experience. I was thinking that he would do a paragraph, kind of blog style, helping people understand and know what to listen for, maybe telling a bit about where the music came from, etc. To me that would be good insight.

Thanks for the ideas and keep them coming.

[Gene]

We don't do anything like that (after all, what's the point of getting an email about Sunday's sermon late Saturday night? ), but if you're prepared enough in advance, it sounds like a cool idea. Your last comment makes me think...why not do it as a blog? Most blog software lets you have multiple authors, so the WL could contribute entries, too. It could be a bit more casual feeling than an email, and people wouldn't need to subscribe and unsubscribe (though they could get an RSS feed). And it would easily allow including graphics and audio w/o filling up people's email boxes.

[bpalermini]

Good idea, thanks Gene. Anyone else?

[mschutz]

That's a great idea, Bob. I will have to keep it in mind... we're just in the process of developing a new site for our church and I want to have a number of interactive features. This would be a great one.

If you want to send out an email, I'd suggest looking at something like PHPlist or some sort of email-list publishing software like that. There are some open-source options out there as well as paid. They will let subscribers manage their own subscriptions, and give you a decent WYSIWYG editing interface. You can integrate them into your site fairly easily.

But I also love the blog idea. I think I will need to hijack that for my area of the web site, being the Minister of Worship!

[essentricaudio]

I guess I missed this thread till now! We have been talking about doing some of these same things - Some thoughts I had compiled:

1. The initial thought was to send out an email newsletter and/or publish on the website a "guide to worship" for the upcoming weekend. This might include:

• order of service
• intro or teaser for the sermon or series description
• song information and background (such as bpalermini mentions above) including why the song was wrote or how it has significants to this service
• Other tie-ins such as revjbat mentions - polls, hints, etc.
• announcements for events that weekend
• background or prep materials
• self study or prep verses, reading resources, etc.

2. This could be published to the website AND emailed to those who want to subscribe to it. Some thoughts were

• Electronic Magazine style - slick and polished
• Blog style, mostly text and sequential post as info is available
• Movie Poster Style
• Flyer / Mailer

3. This would really have to be "published" by mid week at the latest some people like planning ahead and those are the kind of people this information is most valuable to.
So to do this, order of service, sermons, themes, etc all would need to be done at least a week in advance.
Would last minute changes drive these same people crazy?

4. The least time consuming method for everyone would be the "blog" method were the planning team (Pastor, Music Director, Creative Team, Drama Lead, etc) could post their information as they got done with it. This also requires the most commitment from everyone as no one person is driving the effort to get this done, so everyone has to motivate themselves.