Why we can't let go of the church bulletin
What works to understand systematic change in mainline Christianity
The minister was close to tears when she called me.
’Can you help make our church bulletin less of a burden?’
Every week, it took no fewer than five people’s involvement to produce:
The church admin to start the bulletin from a template.
The music director to put in the hymns.
The volunteer scheduler, to make sure the name of every person participating in the service was correct.
The member who managed announcements to make sure those were right.
The minster to edit the content and format the document.
Then it went back to the admin to be printed, folded, and distributed (and then collected and recycled on Mondays).
Each of these people used different platforms to access the document (Google docs, Pages, Microsoft Word, etc).
There were frequent changes during the week - each one requiring every person’s input.
It was technically hard - switching back and forth from different formats required a lot of copying and pasting. For the music, this was often literally cutting selections and taping them on a page.
They were trying to jam as much information as possible into four folded pages, so it was a game a formatting Jenga - delete one wrong character and the whole document collapsed into a jumbled mess.
Members of the congregation were extremely critical if there was even one typo or other error in the bulletin (and there always was), so the staff was always anticipating backlash.
All for booklets they produced every week - 99% of which were discarded after a couple of hours.
I thought this would be an easy consulting gig - processes, technology, and church re-imagination are my specialties!
I earnestly worked with them to streamline the production:
They all got on the same platform.
Each person made their own contribution without approval from others.
We improved the formatting so everything fit easier on the page.
We started using the auto-edit function to catch typos.
We cleared out lots of extraneous information and focused on the worship service itself - no more names of every minister, no more copious announcements (just the one or two most important.
The bulletin itself was reduced to two pages from four - way less copying and folding.
I patted myself on the back for solving their problem, and saving them hours of work and stress each week.
They hated it.
Everyone complained about the changes, and within weeks they went back to the same bulletin in the same format. The one that was causing them so much stress that they paid me to help them in the first place!
What was going on here?
It seemed clear to me that this was not about some folded pieces of paper with the order of service and announcements on it.
People are attached to the bulletin because it holds meaning beyond its function.
The church bulletin is 20th century technology that connects people with their faith and community. It has symbolic value far beyond its function.
No wonder we’re reluctant to give it up - or even change it.
And no wonder it feels like such a burden today. It’s locked into 20th century processes that are actually harder to produce (think physical magazines and newspapers).
But like so much about church, it can be very hard to see the difference between the function of something, and its meaning.
The bulletin has become part of the worship of God for so many - it literally guides them. At the same time, the technology we use for it has become outdated, and the reason we need it is not the same.
Inevitably, people say, ‘how will visitors know how the service goes?’, without considering:
a) there are not that many visitors!
and
b) the format of the bulletin is itself often pretty complicated and confusing for those not used to it.
The church bulletin has become a tangible sign of both how the church needs to change - and why it won’t.
So how do we reimagine the church bulletin?
We don’t.
If I’ve (finally!) learned anything about the church - and life in general - it’s this:
If you try to take something away from someone, they resist.
Even if it’s causing them pain.
I’ve come to believe it’s important not to change the bulletin - but to notice both what it means, and how it’s cumbersome.
In order to move towards reimagining ministry in other ways.
Why are people attached to the bulletin?
It grounds them to the order of worship - particularly their part in it.
The act of picking up a bulletin and bringing it to their seat is incorporated into the preparation for worship itself. It has become a liturgical act.
It is a physical manifestation of the life of the community - announcements, prayer lists, those who are participating in the service.
Members are often responsible for some part of the bulletin production or distribution. This is part of their ministry - their offering to God and community.
People see the names of those they love in it. They read the word of God there. The bulletin often has a spiritual reflection in it. It’s part of their experience of faith community.
Members share the bulletin - with visitors, with those who can’t be at church that day. They put it on their refrigerator or give it to their friends and neighbors as an invitation to come to their church. It’s evangelism.
The problem with the bulletin is that like many other aspects of 20th century church life:
it’s caught between ancient ways of understanding faith community and modern ways of getting things done.
So the re-imagination challenge becomes:
how else are we being invited into our faith life within this community?
I used to be a ‘no bulletin’ evangelist.
I was determined to get rid of these vestiges of the past. I belong to a tradition (the Episcopal Church) that has prayer books and hymnals in the pews. Why can’t we just use those?
I also helped the small community I serve with to start using church management software to produce an app that has Sunday’s readings, order of service, announcements, and prayer list available for everyone, and easy to update.
The congregation politely engaged with these - and also kept producing their paper bulletin, exactly as they always had.
Instead of fighting them on this, I decided to learn from them.
I paid more attention to the meaning behind the bulletin, and started inviting them into:
More liturgical participation and preparation - so members feel like they understand the worship service and their part in it.
Better faith formation - what does it mean to be a Christian, and live a Christian life; participation in faith practices.
Special focus on prayer - supporting members as they grow into their own prayer ministry. Including keeping the prayer list and sharing leadership of intercessory prayer - during worship and at other times during the week.
Strengthening evangelism - as the congregation grows in faith and community, the energy around that naturally encourages members to invite others into it.
And, to my surprise, members have embraced the church app, and the information it provides them. They actively participate in keeping the information updated, and using the app for communication and organization.
But they haven’t stopped producing the physical bulletin.
That’s ok.
Like so much else about the future of church, it’s not really a matter of trying to force things to change.
It’s about learning to interpret how we’re called to grow in relationship with God and neighbor.
Bulletin: yes.
Screen(s) for projection of text: no.
I will try to convince folks that screens take focus away from the altar and actions of the liturgy.
In addition they tend to bring repetitive, musical comedy style music and bring very poor, simplistic theology to the service.
They also detract from a carefully constructed and presented nave.
Catholics often solve the problem of the bulletin in two ways.
Announcements and such are printed on a one or two page handout available at the back of the sanctuary.
In the pews are paperback books which contain everything that is heard, said, or sung that Sunday.
The books are printed for use during the particular liturgical season. No trying to find your way around in several worship sources.
Printed on newsprint quality paper, they are meant to be recycled with each new printing. Easy to include with the Eucharist to shut-ins.
Does the Episcopal Church offer such a product?
Overall I prefer bulletins printed with everything except the hymns from the hymnal. But they do present difficulties (as do other solutions).
I have some additional ideas for bulletins and worship presentation, so rather than add to this comment I’ll write a new one if folks would like.
I was laughing as I read this commentary. If there is anything I love, it is my church bulletin! I look forward to the art work on the front and the mini homily on the back and to see how it all relates to the scripture each week. I do some visitation for this small congregation and I always take a bulletin to the members. It is not surprising to me how it makes them feel a real part of the community - especially when they are homebound. When we do our Episcopal meals on wheels I always say please include a bulletin for that recipient. We recently participated in a Pride Day Celebration. In hindsight, I think maybe we should have had some bulletins to pass out - even leftover ones. Not only is the scripture there ; the Holy Spirit can be at work there, too.