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As a church communications leader, planning ahead is essential for guiding your congregation through each season of ministry. A well-thought-out communications strategy, based on the church’s calendar and tiered messaging system, will ensure that your messages align with the church’s mission and priorities and help increase engagement. It may help you work more efficiently as well!

Here are some key points to help you develop a proactive and effective communication plan:

1. Align Communications with the Church's Seasonal Calendar

The church year has distinct seasons, and each one presents opportunities to highlight specific themes and events. For example:

• New Year/Winter (Jan./into Feb.): Renewal and goal-setting.
• Lent/Easter (Feb.-April): Spiritual preparation and celebration.
• Summer (June/July/August): Focus on community and outreach.

By understanding these rhythms, you can tailor your messages to fit the focus of each season. This alignment makes communications more relevant and timely, helping to engage the congregation in meaningful ways.

2. Start with the Master Calendar

Your planning should always begin with the church's master calendar. This is where you’ll identify key events, sermon series, and church-wide initiatives for the year.

These big-picture priorities will drive your communication strategy. Make sure your plan reflects what the church leadership wants to emphasize, whether that’s spiritual growth, service opportunities or community outreach.

The earlier you start planning, the smoother the execution will be. Here’s a basic timeline to follow:

• One year out: Begin master calendaring.
• Six months out: Start brainstorming themes and ideas.
• Three months out: Finalize messaging, visuals and stories.
• Two months out: Start promoting to key leaders and volunteers.
• One month out: Promote to all of your audiences (congregation and to the wider community as appropriate). 

3. Use a Tiered Communications Strategy

Not every message requires the same level of visibility. A tiered communications system allows you to prioritize the most important messages for your audiences at the right time and in the right way. 

• Tier 1: All-church messages (like sermon series or major events) that get top priority and are communicated through all available channels, including worship services, email, social media and the website.
• Tier 2: Messages aimed at specific ministries and for specific groups of people, which may be communicated through more targeted means, such as ministry-specific emails or social media groups.
• Tier 3: Messages focused for even smaller groups or gatherings within ministries in less public ways. 

This tiered system ensures that major church-wide events are given the attention they deserve, while smaller but still important messages don’t get lost in the noise but get communicated to the right audience in an intentional way. 

4. Be Consistent Across All Channels

Once your priorities and messaging is clear, consistency is key. Whether someone visits your website, attends a worship service, or follows you on social media, they should see the same messaging and visuals.

For example, if you’re promoting your Easter series, make sure that the visuals and language used in your worship services matches the signage in the lobby, what's promoted online and even throughout your community. Consistency reinforces the importance of the message and makes it easier for people to engage.

5. Provide Clear Next Steps

Whether you're welcoming a guest or promoting a sermon series, an event, or a volunteer opportunity, make sure your communications offer clear, simple next steps. Every piece of communication should answer the question, "What can I do next?" Whether it's getting connected for the first time, signing up for a group, inviting a friend, or volunteering for an event, provide easy ways for people to engage and grow.

With the new year just ahead, it's a great time to consider these concepts and practices to strengthen your church's communications efforts!

As you consider the seasons of the year, align with the church calendar, use tiered communications, grow in consistency, and have clarity around next steps — you’ll help your church stay more focused and be more impactful in the new year. And it can lead to more people engaging and growing in their faith!