December 3, 2002

Local churches have a new way to reach the people in their congregations: a free newsletter developed by United Methodist Communications.

The newsletter is provided by e-mail as a template that can be filled with local church news and sent out electronically or by postal mail to congregation members. The template includes space for a pastor's message, local church calendar, prayer concerns, feature stories and other content. It also offers denomination news from United Methodist News Service.

"We want to encourage local churches to tell their own stories and to find easy, economical ways to tell those stories," said Garlinda Burton, director of United Methodist News Service, which developed the newsletter template. "With this tool, a congregation doesn't need a big budget or staff to have a quality newsletter."

Local churches can offer the newsletter to their members on a weekly or monthly basis. The eight-page monthly template is already available, and the four-page weekly edition will follow in January. Both will be e-mailed as Word documents, suitable for editing on PC or Macintosh.

The newsletter is designed for ease of use by churches of all sizes, small as well as large. Step-by-step guidelines enable a church staff member or volunteer to put the newsletter together regardless of level of experience. Frequent tip sheets will offer additional advice on designing a lively, sharp-looking publication.

The versatile template will allow the church to be as creative as it wants with the design. Each edition will include two locked-in features – the UMNS briefs and a box that promotes United Methodist Special Sundays, churchwide funds or other programs.

United Methodist News Service