Communications, in a sense, is evangelism. It’s telling people not only about what’s going on in your community, it’s also about communicating the love of Jesus through getting the word out.
When I chose my career as a communicator, it was based solely on the fact that I love writing, but there’s so much more to it than that. Communicating is about creating, and it stretches across multiple areas of artistry: photography, videography, graphic design, storytelling, writing; and communications is bridged by the skills that bring those arts together, like making newsletters, editing, website design, getting a mailer out, or handling social media.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be good at all these things at once to help out with communications. If you love to do even one of these things, guess what, you’re a communicator!
It doesn’t matter if you’re only great at ________ (fill in the blank with one area of communications), because having someone great at that one thing can compel a message to reach farther and have more impact, meaning more people show up to events and more people hear about God’s love.
These skills are special, and not everyone can do them. Not everyone can take a good photo or write a coherent paragraph. Not everyone can design a website or make a viral video. If you have any of these gifts, don’t downplay yourself! Share those gifts.
In college, I realized communications is never a solo job. At the time, I was writing a lot of articles for our student newspaper, but someone else would take the pictures. Someone else would edit and help me refine my writing. Someone else would post the articles to the website and social media. Further into my career, I had to do more and more of those things myself, until I got a little experienced in everything. But collaboration makes communications better.
Communications takes teamwork. So if you have even one of these skills that you’d like to apply in your community, here’s what you can do:
1. Practice your favorite area of communications (photography, writing, design, etc.)
2. Email your parish administrator or rector to let them know you have some skills that could help communicate the church’s mission, fellowship, and outreach.
3. Keep creating!
If you have questions about communications, reach out to me, Rachel Carr at rcarr@diocesewnc.org.