Jennifer Thompson
2025-01-28
I spent three hours on that email. Crafted the perfect subject line. Wrote compelling copy. Included a clear call to action. Hit send on Tuesday morning feeling like a communications genius.
By Thursday I checked the stats. 35% opened it. Of those, maybe 10% clicked through.
Which means my carefully crafted masterpiece effectively reached... about 3% of our church.
Cool. Great. Love that for me.
Here's the frustrating reality of church communication in 2025: you can do everything right and still have 90% of your congregation miss the message. It's not that they don't care. It's that they're drowning in information from every direction, and your church newsletter is competing with their boss, their kids' school, seventeen subscription boxes they forgot they signed up for, and that one aunt who forwards every political email she receives.
The churches that communicate well haven't figured out how to write better emails. They've figured out something more fundamental: how to reach people through channels they actually check, at moments when they're actually paying attention.
Let's be honest about email. It's not dead, but it's definitely on life support for most churches.
The average person gets 120+ emails a day. Your church newsletter is #73 in a list they're scanning at 6 AM before coffee or 11 PM while watching Netflix. The subject line has about 0.3 seconds to earn a click before they swipe to the next thing.
"March Newsletter" isn't going to cut it. Neither is "This Week at First Community Church" or "Important Update" (which everyone ignores because everything claims to be important now).
What works better:
Be specific. "This Sunday: Free childcare for all services" tells me exactly why I should open this. "Weekly Update" tells me nothing.
Create curiosity. "The one thing we're changing about Easter this year" makes me want to know what it is.
Lead with value. "Your kids' summer camp registration is now open" matters to parents. "Announcing Summer Programs" is generic.
And for the love of all that is holy, please stop putting three thousand words in your emails. Nobody reads that. The most important thing goes at the top. Everything else gets skimmed at best, ignored at worst.
Here's a stat that should change how you communicate: text messages have a 98% open rate. Ninety-eight percent. And most get read within 3 minutes.
Your emails? Maybe 35% on a good day. Maybe.
So why aren't more churches texting their congregation?
"People will think we're being intrusive." Nope. Research shows church members actually appreciate text communication when it's done well. The key is "when it's done well."
"It seems too casual." Church isn't supposed to be stuffy. Jesus didn't communicate in King James English. Texting is how people actually communicate now.
"We don't have the tech." There are dozens of affordable text platforms. MosesTab has it built in. It's not hard to set up.
Here's what works for texting:
Keep it short. 160 characters or less. That's it. Anything longer gets split into multiple messages and loses impact.
Include a clear action. "Reply YES to confirm you're coming" or "Click here to register" or "Save this date." Don't just inform—give people something to do.
Time it right. Not at 6 AM. Not at 11 PM. Mid-morning or early evening. Never on Sunday morning when people are already at church (or should be).
Segment your lists. Parents get children's ministry texts. Volunteers get serving texts. The whole congregation gets weather cancellations. Nobody gets everything.
My favorite use: event reminders. A simple "Women's Brunch tomorrow 9am—can't wait to see you!" sent Friday afternoon reduces no-shows by 40%. That one text probably does more than the three emails you sent about the same event.
I need to tell you something that might hurt: your organic social media reach is terrible and getting worse.
When you post on Facebook, maybe 5% of your followers see it. Instagram? Similar. These platforms are designed to prioritize paid content and viral engagement—not church announcements about potluck signups.
So should you quit social media? No. You just need to use it differently.
Stop treating it like a bulletin board. The church that only posts events and announcements has a dead page nobody engages with. The church that shares behind-the-scenes moments, celebrates member wins, posts funny stuff, and occasionally promotes events? Their promotional posts actually get seen because the algorithm rewards accounts people engage with regularly.
The 4:1 rule. For every promotional post (event announcement, signup request), share four posts that provide value without asking for anything. Inspirational content. Funny moments. Member spotlights. Helpful tips.
Facebook Groups > Facebook Pages. Pages are dying. Groups are thriving. A church community group where members can post prayer requests, share life updates, and connect with each other is 10x more valuable than a page where only the admin posts.
Video wins. I know, you don't have a video team. But a pastor talking to their phone camera for 60 seconds about Sunday's message? That outperforms designed graphics almost every time. Authenticity beats production value.
Different messages belong on different channels. This seems obvious but most churches blast everything everywhere and wonder why nothing works.
Urgent stuff = text first. Weather cancellation? Text. Death in the congregation? Text. Emergency building issue? Text. If it's time-sensitive and everyone needs to know, text wins.
Detailed information = email. The newsletter with all the week's activities, ministry updates, and longer form content? Email. People expect email to have more substance.
Community building = social. The youth group's fun video from their retreat? Social. The photos from the women's event? Social. The pastor's quick encouragement? Social. This is relationship stuff, not announcement stuff.
Reminders = multi-channel. Big event coming up? Initial announcement in email, social post a week before, text reminder day before. Layer the channels for important stuff.
Most churches track the wrong things or don't track anything at all.
Email metrics that matter:
Text metrics:
Social metrics:
The churches that communicate consistently aren't working harder—they've built systems.
Weekly rhythm. Same thing, same time, every week. Monday morning email. Wednesday social posts. Friday text reminder for weekend events. When the rhythm becomes habit, it stops being stressful.
Monthly planning. First Monday of the month: map out everything coming up in the next 4 weeks. What needs promotion? What goes in the newsletter? What deserves a dedicated text? Plan it, schedule it, stop scrambling.
Templates. Your weekly email should look basically the same every week. Your event text should follow a format. Your social posts should have consistent branding. Stop designing from scratch every time.
One person owns it. Not "the staff takes turns." One person owns communications. They might get content from others, but one brain is coordinating the full picture. Divided responsibility = dropped balls.
Here's what I want you to think about: what would be different if your congregation actually received the information they needed, when they needed it?
The grandma who didn't know services were canceled because she doesn't check email would've gotten a text in time to stay home safe.
The young family would've registered for the kids' event because the reminder came at the right moment.
The volunteer would've shown up on the right day because the schedule reminder was clear.
The visitor would've felt welcomed because the follow-up text came within 24 hours instead of never.
Communication isn't about newsletters and social metrics. It's about connection. It's about people having what they need to be part of the community. Every time you get a message through, you've made someone's experience of your church a little bit better.
That's what makes all the metrics-tracking and channel-strategizing worth it.
What's your church's biggest communication headache? Drop it in the comments—I've probably dealt with it and can help.
Church Communications Director with expertise in digital marketing and community engagement. Jennifer specializes in helping churches develop effective communication strategies that bridge generational gaps and strengthen community connections.
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