It’s been said that church communicators wear many hats. We’re creating engaging graphics (or at least trying), telling interesting stories (that are hopefully grammatically correct), providing IT support (did you try restarting it?), and if your job has shifted like mine during this pandemic, you’re trying to stay calm as you stare at Adobe Premiere, editing another Offertory Anthem video due in an hour. Set it all in a once organized home office, add Zoom meetings for days and a seven-month-old puppy trying to capitalize on all my time, and you, my friends, have a current snapshot of my life.

It may sound like bad times, but the good news is it’s a mess. You’re probably thinking, “messes are bad, and this guy has clearly lost it”. I probably have, but I am writing to encourage you all to embrace the mess.

As a church communicator, I believe that most parishioners don’t want to hear that everything is great, or that we have all the answers. People need to hear that we and God are with them. When things get messy, that message is life-changing. If all you can do one Sunday is a horribly pixelated live-stream with bad audio, it tells your audience that you will do whatever you can to reach them, even if it’s a struggle. As communicators, we get to remind people that we are traveling together and our journey is missional. Messy is authentic. Searching for that authenticity is what drives my aesthetic.

As a church communicator, you know all too well that our job has never ended at 5pm. Even before COVID-19 affected every aspect of our life, there were always communications requests, emails, and last-minute bulletin additions that made it hard to disconnect from work. COVID-19 has only accelerated that feeling of always needing to be “online”. Since we no longer have the feeling of closing down our computer and making the commute home after a long day, how do we avoid burnout and remain sane during a global pandemic?

Since our couch/dining room table/bed have become our workspace, there is no longer a clear divide between work and home. For many of us, who may be workaholics by nature, that means that the work never really stops, especially with increased pressure to learn new technologies and be the church in a new way. I used to relish my 15-minute bus ride home from my office job before COVID-19 hit. That space of time allowed me to take a deep breath, listen to a podcast, and transition from work to home.

by Mike Orr, Canon for Communications, the Episcopal Church in Colorado

Worship is largely about connecting to God and to one another in deep and meaningful ways. But there’s no one right way. Each church is different. Each church has its regular attenders and its mission field—people in your neighborhood, town, or city looking for ways to connect with your church.

As we move from Season I into Season II, a number of churches in the diocese continue to explore and build on options for “doing church” online. For example, livestreaming your worship service or alternative ways to meet people where they are, online—all the while remembering that personal connections, the connections we make individual to individual, remain essential.

The technical information—cameras and hardware, steady internet, lighting, audio equipment, streaming software, streaming platforms, and more—can be overwhelming. We know some churches are looking at the need for more volunteers for coordinating these efforts. Then there are the financial burdens involved. Equipment needs to be purchased. Volunteers have to be supported as they launch and maintain these endeavors.

by Mike Orr, Canon for Communications, the Episcopal Church in Colorado

As a communications person in your church, you have an important job. Whether you are a volunteer or a full-time professional on staff, you are charged with communicating the mission of your church. Your job is to inspire and challenge people to grow deeper in their walk with Christ through the communications channels of the church.

As children grow up, they learn different things and encounter new experiences as they move from Kindergarten through College and on. The curriculum of each grade level has been carefully planned to build upon their previous learning and compounds to develop your children into adulthood. It is important that the educational system has a plan in place to grow the math skills of your children from grade to grade. If your First Grader is confronted with Algebra, they will be lost, as they don't have the foundation of Elementary Math to think abstractly in dimensional ways. If your Third Grader is asked to develop an English sonnet of their own, they won't understand the grammatical structure itself that defines what makes a sonnet a sonnet. Our experiences grow upon one another and produce growth.