[context: a description of a church service in Tom's town]

After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Sprague turned himself into a bulletin board and read off “notices” of meetings and societies and things till it seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of doom–a queer custom which is still kept up in America, even in cities, away here in this age of abundant newspapers. Often the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.     (Mark Twain, 1876)

Often the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

aaaand scene.

Kem Meyer is the Director of Communications at Granger Community Church in South Bend, Indiana.   I’ve been following her blog for a while;  it has become a source of great insight for creating clean, uncluttered communication within a church.

Kem has now written a book: Less Clutter, Less Noise

True to the title, this book leads the reader through clean discussions about communication purposes, priorities, methods, and myths. In the freshest way possible, it brings clarity to how an organization like the church can most effectively communicate to those it serves.

Today, Kem is on a blog tour.  Twenty-six bloggers submitted questions to Kem, she replied to the questions, and each blogger is posting their conversation.  This allows a wide audience of readers to learn more about this idea of less clutter, less noise.  Plus, each tour stop will give away a copy of the book to one lucky reader.

My brief q & a with Kem:                                                                                                         

KIM: As I read your examples of Granger Community Church’s communication policies and practices, it’s apparent that both the method of communication (medium) and what is being communicated (content) strive to be uncluttered.  To me, this indicates an overall mindset of simplicity regarding what actually happens as a part of GCC ministry, not just how things are communicated.  How did this mindset come to be a part of the DNA of the leadership of the church?

KEM:  Kim, you’re right. It’s part of the leadership DNA. Mark Beeson set the stage when he planted our church 22 years ago with GCC’s mission statement “Helping people take their next steps toward Christ…together.” Since that time, he has led from the front with the wisdom of deliberate simplicity…communicating over and over that people experience life change one step at a time.

As the church grew, more ministries evolved outside of Mark’s individual scope. So, he raised up leaders and empowered them in their roles to protect and extend the mission, to create systems that help the parts see what the whole is doing.

People are busy, skeptical, bombarded and life is hard. They’re looking for answers that make a real difference in their lives. The value we provide grows in direct proportion to how easily people can find and say yes to their next step.

 __________________________________________________________

Did you see that idea of  ’helping the parts see what the whole is doing’? This is gold.  

As a bonus, Kem includes a ‘Back of the Book’ section with examples of GCC’s policies & communications processes.  A super bonus leads to a free download of the entire GCC Communications Manual which I highly recommend.

Read more of Kem’s blog tour.

Learn more about Less Clutter, Less Noise

Find examples of GCC’s communications forms & processes

 __________________________________________________________

June 1 edit: the winner of a free copy of Less Clutter, Less Noise (randomly chosen from those comments posted prior to 9am CST today)  is Larry Baxter.  Congrats Larry!