Communications Ministries
Communications in the Baltimore-Washington Conference is more than just Facebook, Twitter, and a website. For us, it's a ministry.
Sharing the story of United Methodists around the conference and around the world shows how God intersects with the lives of people, people who are doing great and wonderful things -- and small and very important things -- to further God's kingdom on earth.
Our narrative defines our reality and is essential to our faith (John 1:1). Christian communicators, who bring the best of sound journalistic practice, language, art
The Baltimore-Washington Conference Communications Department utilizes several tools to tell our/your story. These include:
Tools:
United Methodist Communications offers a vast array of web services.
An overview of resources from United Methodist Communications. Download the resource sheet (PDF).
Launching a Church Website in Word Press
(an online class with 8-weeks free hosting)Launching Your Church Website focuses on going beyond just having a church website to effectively implementing a broader online presence. We will cover the tools to plan, build, and launch a successful online strategy that helps people connect with your church in a new way. With people living a big part of their lives online, what does this transition to an online world mean for the church? This course will cover the basics of creating your church website. However, this course also looks at going beyond just having a church website focusing on how to effectively implement a broader online presence. By engaging your audience online first, you extend your reach beyond Sunday services and expose your audience to your message before they visit your church.
Cost: $19.99
Course Start Date:
Launching Your Church Website is an open enrollment course; students can register for this class at any time. Students will have access to the online course for one year starting from the day of registration.
What will I learn?
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Begin navigating and building a website on the WordPress platform
- Identify your website’s target audience
- Craft the goal of your website and your overall message
- Create and design content for a church website
- Develop menus and proper page structure
- Access resources, training
and support through United Methodist Communications and its web and internet technology sites, forums and events.
What can I expect?
- You will have access to the online course for one year starting from the day you register.
- A course moderator will assist you with questions within the course.
- You will receive 8 weeks of free WordPress hosting. If you wish to continue after the 8 weeks, a fee will be charged depending on what level you choose.
Online Courses:
$19.99, anytime 24/7, uses Moodle (Access for three months)
- Social Media for Churches – Coming October 2018
- Welcoming Ministry – Coming October 2018
- Launching Your Church Website
- Internal Church Communications
- Church Marketing
- Connectional Giving
- What it Means to be United Methodist
Micro-Courses (20 minutes) – Free, anytime
My Com Tips: e-newsletter
MyCom brings you share-worthy tips and videos on church communications, outreach, worship
Free Stock Image Sites
Making Infographics
UM Social Media Graphic Library – a Topical index that includes graphics for Back to school, Advent, Lent, Embrace Love, the Lectionary, God’s Creation and more
Bulk e-mail
- VerticalResponse – free for up to 10,000 emails per month. If you do a weekly newsletter, your contact list should not exceed 2,500. This option provides free templates, social media integration, subscription services and more to nonprofits! Going beyond this limit involves a large price tag.
- MailChimp – free for your church up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. Above this limit., the cost is $25 a month for nonprofits for 2,500 subscribers and unlimited emails per month. The maximum upgrade is $200 a month for 50,000 subscribers.
Communications and Evangelism:
- Church Marketing Sucks – a trove of resources to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to communicate the truth of Jesus.
- How a small church can build a big marketing plan
- How to Better Communicate with your Congregation
- Getting the entire congregation involved in church communications efforts
- How to organize communications requests at your church
- 9 tools for managing virtual teams
- 3 Common Communications Mistakes and How to Fix Them
- Pew Internet & American Life Project: Wired churches, wired temples: Taking congregations and missions into cyberspace (PDF)
eMinistry Basics: Making Your Website a Daily Part of Church Life (PDF)
Social Media:
- 7 deadly sins of church social media
- 13 tips for improving Facebook Live broadcasts
- 4 ways to use Facebook Live beyond the worship service
- Turn boring announcements into engaging Facebook posts
- How to make church memes and why they matter
- Essential podcasts for United Methodist leaders
- Using Snapchat for Ministry
Web Sites
Web ministry
Writing for the Web
Website Development Grants
Website Development Grants are for local United Methodist churches and church entities who do not currently have a website.
Through this new grant, United Methodist Communications will offer the following:
- One year of
webhosting - One year of domain name registration
- Free WordPress online training through UMCOM
- Free online support throughout your training and during your year of web hosting
- Free pre-designed templates for
easy development of your new website
Other resources
- United Methodist Communications – offers a variety of online resources
Techsoup – Hardware and software for sale to non-profits at discounted prices- United Methodist Branding Toolkit
- Online courses in church communications and church vitality