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Issue #1: BeginningsOctober 15, 2000 - 18th Sunday after Pentecost http://www.laufers.com/churchvoice/
__.+._______________________________ From Barbara’s KeyboardThis is the debut issue of A Church Voice. Thank you for your interest! Twice a month I’ll send you tips for church Web sites and church newsletters, a feature article, graphic and clip art resources, and other resources both online and off. I hope this newsletter will help us accomplish more with less effort by helping each other. Email me your tips, favorite resources, and questions and I'll publish the most helpful. Please pass this newsletter along to friends, colleagues, church staff, pastors, whoever you think would enjoy it. As this is the first issue, I decided to focus on beginnings. blessings,
__.+._______________________________ You are receiving this newsletter because you requested it. Thank you! I will n e v e r share your name or your email address with anyone else. If you need to unsubscribe, you'll find that information at the end of the newsletter. __.+._______________________________ C o n t e n t sFeature: Find Your Church Voice Web tip: Accessibility Newsletter tip: Evaluate! Resources: Thinking about a Web site? Start here. Graphics/clip art: Denomination HQs __.+._______________________________ - Feature: Finding Your Church Voice -A clear, appealing voice is one that catches the ear of the hearer and turns hearers into listeners. Once their attention is caught, they will listen for the words and the ideas. If a church knows itself -- its identity and goals -- that will be easy to express in every publication and will catch the attention of readers and visitors, who will also be able to quickly determine whether they are interested. Has your church found its voice? If not, it’s time to start! Does your church Web site have an overall focus and does each page have clarity and structure, or is it all sorts of stuff put together without an organizing structure and purpose? Does your church newsletter show what is most important to your congregation, with presentation that highlights those top priorities, or is it a scattershot approach, squeezing each item in any space that fits? You’ve got a great start if, with perhaps a bit of thought, you can state three or four things that identify the uniqueness of your church, your congregation, your parish, your ministry. If you draw a blank, you have just found the first thing to work on that will improve your Web site or newsletter. This is fundamental to great communication about your church. Once you know your church’s core identity, it’s time to study the Web site or newsletter for how well it expresses that identity in its design. If you can’t tell what’s important, have to struggle to find things, or important elements are often missing, it’s time for a change! Learn about making good newsletters or Web sites; many great resources are available for every aspect of newsletter and Web site design. When you’ve found your church’s unique identity and started to make that as clear as possible in how it’s presented, your church’s voice will become clear and appealing. People will start to sit up and listen. Once they’re listening, what do you want to tell them? __.+._______________________________ - Web tip: Accessibility -A crucial but often overlooked aspect of every church Web site is its accessibility. You’re quite likely to have at least a few parishioners with some Web-related limitations -- poor vision, color blindness, limited mobility, old and slow hardware or software, or other limitations -- and your Web site ought to be adaptable to these circumstances. I would strongly discourage tailoring a church Web site to a certain browser or higher access speeds. Make it possible for all of your visitors to use and enjoy your Web site -- it's very simple and doesn't hold back good design in any way. In fact, a site that is accessible is also ready for visitors using personal digital assistants (Palm Pilots, etc), browsers in automobiles, and more to come. An accessible site is almost always an improved, more usable site for everyone! Why Accessibility? Six Principles of Accessible Web Design __.+._______________________________ - Newsletter tip: Evaluate! -Are you revising or starting a church newsletter? Invest some time in an evaluation of your readership (who are they?), your goals for the newsletter (what do you need; what do you want), and your church’s identity (what is distinctive about your church?). Thoughtful evaluation at the beginning will help you decide what content to publish, how often to publish, how important the newsletter is to you and to your congregation, and many other aspects. This is best done with the help of a diverse group of members, either bringing together or polling a wide variety of people in your congregation. Include newcomers, cradle attendees, young adults, seniors, parents of young children, older singles, people very involved in one or a few programs, people who barely come to services, and others between these extremes. Invest in an honest evaluation of what your church needs and wants from the newsletter, who the readers are, and what is distinctive about your church. This will make a solid foundation and pay long-lasting dividends as guidance for the decisions to come. __.+._______________________________ - Resources:
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