Email Church Marketing: How to Write a Church Email Newsletter

• A title: Okay, so it’s basic, but it is important. What will you call your church email newsletter? “Community Church Newsletter” is fine, of course, but you may want to get creative and find a unique way to title your newsletter.
• A featured article: This is the “meat” of your church newsletter. Provide a brief and helpful article on Christian living, a short Bible study, or an inspirational story. You can use articles from the Internet or a Christian article, as long as you have the correct permission. Or, you may want to feature articles by the pastor, youth pastor, Sunday school teacher, or other church members.
• Church events: What’s going on in the church calendar? People need to know. Provide a look ahead at upcoming special events, meals, youth activities, or special services.
• Announcements: Let people know what changes may be going on in church, whether it’s a change in Sunday school classrooms, different service times, new classes, etc.
• Scripture: Be sure to include a brief passage of Scripture. You can use a verse that is particularly meaningful to you, a current church memory verse, or a seasonally-relevant passage.
• Prayer Requests: What prayer needs do people have? A church email newsletter is a great way to provide church members with the prayer requests of others in the church.

Other ideas

• A word from the pastor: Place a brief message from your pastor, whether it’s a Scriptural encouragement, a brief discussion of current events, or simply an announcement of the next sermon series.
• Featured family: This is great idea for helping to knit your church family together. Obtain permission to give a quick profile on a family in your church. Provide a picture, tell about their kids, list their favorite verse, and tell about their hobbies. In each newsletter, you can feature a different family in the church, allowing people to get to know one another better.
• New members: Announce new church members and place their picture in the newsletter.
• Sermon snippets: Share some excerpts from a recent sermon.
• Church vision: Include the church purpose statement, vision, or goals.
• Member submissions: Get others involved. Allow people in the church to submit articles, poems, or letters.
• Fun stuff: Include some Bible trivia, a humorous web link, or funny photograph of church staff.

• Typos: This one is obvious. Just be careful. Proofread–several times if you need to.
• Personal information: If you haven’t gained permission to write about a certain family or individual, don’t do it. Also be careful that you don’t give offense.
• Tackiness: This one is sometimes hard to avoid, but we’ll explain in the future some sure-fire ways to avoid tackiness. For starters, try not to use too many fonts, all caps, or multiple exclamation points.
• Really long articles: Sad as it may be, people may not have time to read an extensive article on a church email newsletter. Keep it brief, relevant, and to the point.

Some church email newsletters get a standing ovation for their excellence. Here are some features that distinguish the best church newsletters.

• High-quality relevant content: Whether it’s a riveting piece on a Christian view of current events, an encouraging word on my walk with God, or even a friendly word of encouragement for the day, meaningful content makes a newsletter really worth reading…and rereading.
• Excellent aesthetic design: We’re a visually-oriented age. Clashing colors, mismatched fonts, confusing design, and cluttered layout do not characterize the best church newsletters. Obviously, not everyone is a graphic designer, which is why we’re offering a way to help out.