If there’s one thing church communicators love to hate, it’s the church bulletin. Some have tried to kill it, but the rest of us just make do. We decided to talk to some church communicators and see how the bulletin is working (or not) for them.
Today we talk with Charla Wilkerson, the director of communications and administration at Fairfax Circle Church in Fairfax, Va.
What do you love about your bulletin?
What I love about our bulletin is that we make it work for us rather than us working for it. Our congregation is used to seeing it in a variety of formats—sometimes a half sheet front and back, sometimes a full foldout or more. If we need to put more in, we use more space. If we don’t we save a few trees.
We keep the newcomer in mind so we’ll never fully do away with the bulletin. We want them to have something to look at in that time before the service starts so that’s where we put our most basic welcome info.
My pastor always tells a story of a gentleman that received Christ because he found a discarded bulletin with a Bible verse on it. So we’ll always use sermon notes as well.
What would you change about your bulletin?
Not a thing! Well, maybe if I could train it to give hugs, I would.
Is there anything unique about your bulletin that other churches don’t do?
We rarely focus on announcements in our bulletin. Instead, we point people to our app, website, or weekly email for information. These, of course, are mentioned in our bulletin.
How is your bulletin process working these days? How have you improved it?
Pretty smooth! Especially since we’ve completely stopped doing inserts and added our app, which also has the sermon notes.
Bulletin Example
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Need more help with bulletins?
- Free tips: Grab 40 Church Bulletin Tips to get a host of help for your bulletin.
- Pro resources: Our Courageous Storytellers membership site spent a whole month focused on bulletins, including examples, templates, how to go digital, expert advice, and more. Join Courageous Storytellers today to get access.
