We’ve been at this new start thing for about two years now so I wanted to share a few of the little, practical things we do that I think helps us to share our message and communicate with people.

* Use meet up.com
We began using meet up this spring and the results have been amazing.  We are able to advertise directly to people who are looking for things to do.  We have to pay a monthly fee for each activity, right now we have two, but it is such a great way to meet members of the public that we would not otherwise be able to engage.  Check out our events at http://www.meetup.com/Meditation-Hiking-in-Portland/  and http://www.meetup.com/Spiritually-Thirsty/

* Make our cover photo our calendar.
We have a Facebook page for the Sellwood Faith Community and every month I create an image of our calendar that I post as our cover photo.  This means that when someone wants to see what is going on in our community that month it is very easy to find.  For Mac users simply create a slide in keynote and then export it as a jpeg.  Here’s our page so you can get a look at how I do this:  https://www.facebook.com/sellwoodfaith

* Create a group on FaceBook
Our FaceBook is a means of outreach to lots of different people.  We have about 160 likes and these range from neighbors to clergy colleagues.  It’s a great tool to share about our community and is one of our pieces of externally focused communication.  For us to communicate with the core group of SFC  we have a private FaceBook group.  We use this to share our contact info, lift up prayer requests, or share a video or article we think the community would like.  This is our internally focused communication.  Having 2 different places to share internal and external communication allows us to effectively talk to one another while keeping our main page as a brochure type source of information about the community.

*  Blogging
I made a commitment to blog every single week.  It is a discipline for me, causing me to reflect on what we’re learning and how we are growing.  It is a thank you to the people of our annual conference who have supported this ministry.  By sharing our story I hope it inspires others who are thinking about ministry in innovative ways.  It is a way to let new people know what we are about.  Reading the blog entries gives a sense of this community that is a bit deeper than our FaceBook page or our upcoming website.  Some weeks are great blogs and other weeks are filler, but consistency is key here and over time the collected work speaks clearly about what kind of community this is becoming.

* Create signage
We wanted to engage our neighbors so we created a yard sign through Kinko’s online program. It is very simple and states our name and refers folks to our FaceBook page.  We wanted something else that also communicated our sensibilities, so I found an old chalkboard and we hung it on our porch.  Every week or so I update the sign with a saying that is positive and encouraging.  The idea is to be a hopeful contribution to our neighborhood.  The sign has brought one family into our community so far. It’s also known within the neighborhood and I receive lots of comments on it from friends and neighbors.

I hope some of these ideas help you to communicate within your ministry setting. Feel free to share in the comments about other ways you have found to help share your vision with your neighborhood.

-Eilidh

My mom showing us how she learned to write with a slate.  Today kiddos use iPads to learn.  Are your communications in a slate era or an iPad era or best of all are they a little bit of both?