Church bulletin content, design

Most every church has both a Sunday Worship bulletin plus a periodic church newsletter. What goes in which? This is something that the Worship Work Area (will we never adopt the "normal" word "committee"?) and Administrative Council should deal with. It's a policy type decision. Making such a decision official helps everyone involved with the production of these publications.

Tips in Reformed Worship magazine are a good place to start in your decision-making process. The article covers the bulletin's purpose, cover, content, and composition. Some key points in the article:

Cover and Content

• Importance. Congregations acknowledge the important of the Sunday bulletin, but few put much effort into improving this crucial communications tool.
• Purpose. Specify a purpose for the Sunday bulletin and one for the church newsletter.
  Make sure the content and composition of each satisfies the stated purpose.
  
• Impression. Your Sunday bulletin says a lot about your church. Is it saying what you want?
  [Does it use church jargon? Does it have large blocks of text? Does it look crammed together? Can people, both members and visitors, quickly and easily find what they are looking for during the worship service? Etc.]
• Decisions. The Worship work area/committee and Administrative Board or Council should decide matters such as what types of information go in which of the publications (bulletin and newsletter) and who decides what gets in the publication when there's more information than space allows.
  
• Cover. The cover of the bulletin gives an initial and lasting impression and as such deserves special attention.
  Is that impression one you want?
• Ease of use. Matters such as size and number of folds affect how "user-friendly" a bulletin or newsletter is.

Design

Some tips for good composition:

• Simple. Use a modern, clean look. Use standard sections such as Order of Worship, Prayer Requests, Church Calendar, and Announcements.
  
• Short. [A standard goal in modern writing is to aim for a 50% reduction in words from the draft to final stage]. Omit items in the bulletin that can wait for the next newsletter.
• Spacious. Use white space to make the design attractive and to separate unrelated elements. Large blocks of text discourage reading.
  
• Sensitive. Be sensitive not only to privacy concerns of members but also to who will read the bulletin, including children. Make at least part of the bulletin attractive for kids. Avoid church jargon.
  
• Superior quality. "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well."