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I assume most of you have heard of the 14-year-old from Pennsylvania that, as a science fair project, researched the cost savings of using particular fonts. His findings showed that the federal government could save in upwards of 30% -- or $136 million per year by switching their default font to Garamond from Times New Roman. I don’t care who you are...that’s a lot of money!

Whether or not his findings are accurate, it brings up a good point: what are ways that we could be saving on ink usage in our churches? And maybe even more importantly, how can we start cutting down our paper budgets? 

We want to be good stewards of the money the Lord has entrusted to us, right? Then why are we still printing six-page bulletins and 30-page monthly newsletters that are mailed with a $.49 stamp (and realistically it probably costs closer to a dollar if it’s 30 pages.)

I’m not saying we shouldn’t think about or consider the “I need to read on paper and not a screen” crowd, but when Encyclopedia Britannica decides to go digital and leave the book printing behind, maybe we should follow suit. For this group, maybe it is just a few handouts printed that can be found in the lobby after church. 

A whole lot of money could be saved by taking the 30-page monthly newsletter to a weekly eNews. Not only is it saving money, but it is more engaging. Imagine if your congregation could share that fall picnic event to their Facebook page and invite their friends to attend.  Or maybe it’s as easy as shortening the content of the six-page bulletin to a one-page handout, because you and I both know the whole congregation doesn’t need to know when the adult handbell practice is scheduled every week anyway.

So maybe you won’t save millions by switching to Garamond. But taking an inventory of what you are printing is a good step toward seeing if there are more innovative ways to get the word out.