Dear Friends,
We’ve been beating the drum for church communication since 2004. But our call for better communication is often little help for small, underfunded churches. These are part-time pastors, volunteers and church plants who don’t have the budgets, the skills or the time to invest in communication.
They’re trying to share the greatest story ever told, but they don’t know how to tell it.
We have a solution: Creative Missions.
We take highly skilled church communication professionals and send them on a missions trip to churches who desperately need help communicating. Instead of putting introverts to work running a VBS or recruiting a graphic designer to paint a fence, this is a missions trip that pairs skills with needs.
In the last five years, Creative Missions has included 55 missionaries serving 60 churches in five different cities. Last year’s trip to Boise, Idaho, gave local churches an estimated $45,000 worth of communications help.
“Creative Missions helped us connect with the audience and get the gospel message to who we were really trying to reach,” says Andy Swart, pastor of Metro Church in Rogers, Ark., which has grown from 50 to 600 regular attenders in the past four years. “Creative Missions is a huge part of that.”
This year 28 missionaries will be serving 12 churches in Vermont, a state that ranks 48th in the nation for church attendance. It’s an area that’s been referred to as a “church planter’s graveyard” in recent years, but that’s beginning to change as churches are planting, surviving and thriving. Many pastors we spoke to believe a new awakening is coming. But they need help.
“I feel like I’ve neglected my people while worrying about tech and communication,” says Branden Rogers, a pastor in Castleton, Vt. “You’re just in time.”
This year’s sixth annual Creative Missions trip will help those churches in Vermont connect with their communities by crafting strategies, building brands, designing logos, coding websites, shooting videos, printing invite cards and more—all so these churches can effectively share the gospel message.
Our missionaries pay a trip fee and cover their own travel expenses to the host city, but those fees don’t cover the full cost of each trip. Every year we need about $20,000 to make each trip happen. That money helps pay for production costs for the churches we’re serving: printing, materials, resources, equipment, software licenses; as well as local transportation, food, hotels and more for our team.
Creative Missions is motivated by a desire to take what God has generously given us—our lives, talents, skills, and knowledge—and give it all back to him. Please prayerfully consider supporting Creative Missions. Our God multiplies everything we give back to him–not so that we can get rich, but so that his kingdom can be enriched in every way, and we get to be a part of that. We’re equipping churches to share the greatest story ever told, in their communities and on to the nations. We invite you to join us in that effort.
Thank you,
Cleve Persinger
Creative Missions Founder
Center for Church Communication Board Member
Support Creative Missions
Please consider a donation to help us help churches:
(all donations are tax deductible)
What People Are Saying About Creative Missions:
“What Creative Missions did in one week in 2013 is still helping the church in Anchorage today. It’s more than websites, graphics and logos. It’s more than videos and tech support. It is coming alongside pastors and churches to equip them to more effectively bring a message of hope and life into their world.” –Adam Legg, creative arts and communications pastor at ChangePoint Church in Anchorage, Alaska
“Creative Missions is more than a communications makeover. It’s helping churches communicate the gospel in ways they couldn’t before.” –Phil Bowdle, creative arts pastor at Westridge Church in Atlanta
“A lot of missions teams come in and help, but I believe Creative Missions does it the right way and the humble way. They come in asking questions, they bring their resources, and they try to figure out how they can help us. Creative Missions has blessed us immeasurably. … I want to thank all of the folks who support Creative Missions—you fund this, you pray for this, please keep doing it. No other organization has been as effective at helping us as the Creative Missions team. … What you guys will do for us in two days would take us two years.” –Michael Crawford pastor of Freedom Church in Baltimore
“The impact of Creative Missions in my life continues to overflow. Thank you for your leadership and passion in walking out God’s vision!” –Kelvin Co, creative arts pastor at The Oaks Fellowship in Dallas
More:
What to know more about Creative Missions? We’re big fans and have supported this imitative since the start. Learn more about each trip:
- 2016: Vermont
- 2015: Boise, Idaho
- 2014: Baltimore
2013: Alaska- 2012: Northwest Arkansas/Joplin, Mo.
- 2011: Albany, N.Y.
To get a real taste for Creative Missions and the kind of knowledge the missionaries bring to each location, check out our book Dangerous: A Go-to Guide for Church Communication.
