Toolbox For Faith

Late last year, I read an article in Wired Magazine entitled: “The Good Enuf Rvlutn: Why lo-fi high tech will rule the world.” The author discusses a a trend in business he calls “Good Enough” by tracking the development and marketing of several products including the Flip video camera and the mp3.  He concludes that products which focus on low price, flexibility and convenience are becoming more popular than products with all the bells and whistles.  A product, the article suggests, does not have to be able to do everything, it simply has to be good enough to do what we want it to do.


This morning, Alban’s weekly email conversation entitled “Faithful Finances: When to Adopt New Technology,” discusses a congregation’s shift to an email newsletter.  The author notes that instead of a huge attachment, “Effective congregational e-newsletters reshape the content to fit the form. Instead of a big attachment—in effect, a do-it-yourself newsletter kit—the e-mail itself acts as the front page of the newsletter. The three or four most newsworthy stories get headlines and a sentence or two, with links to a web page with more. The e-mail is so short you can see it without scrolling.”  The e-newsletter is not nearly as extensive as the old newsletter, but it is good enough in today’s world to connect people to the information they need.


At St. Michael, we do both.  We have a traditional newsletter that is mailed monthly which includes lots of stories about people and as many pictures as we can fit in.  By all accounts, this newsletter is still well read.  We also do a weekly e-newsletter which includes basic information about the activities for the weekend and links to new information on the website.   It is a simple email with a little color and at most a couple of links.  Overall the e-newsletter has been a very effective tool for St. Michael for the last several years.


I know in the past, many churches focused primarily on producing formal communications (newsletters, official phone trees, neighborhood groups).  In today’s world,  I am convinced that we also need to focus on developing the informal ways in which God’s love is communicated and explore tools like email, facebook and texting which facilitate and encourage fast, convenient, “just in time” methods of communication and participation.  These new forms of communication may not be as extensive or carefully crafted as previous methods of communication, but in most cases they are just good enough to get the message across, which for today’s world may be exactly what we need.