NCC Sunday Bulletin
Nesconset Christian Church
Nesconset Christian Church is my church where I currently attend & am on staff as the Creative Communications Director. We went from just having a Sunday bulletin as the main communications to building an entire process, policy, platform, and presence. Nesconset Christian Church is a multigenerational small church community on Long Island, NY that walks with Jesus together to impact, love, and serve one more life.
Since our church started 70 years ago, the bulletin has been the staple of communication, but since covid, that shifted. With a variety of different communication outlets, we were finding that our weekly bulletin was not getting utilized, but instead of getting rid of it all together, as a staff team we decided to improve it.
The Problem:
Underutilized bulletin that needs an uplift. Weak brand identity and guest information. Several church members said they were only checking the bulletin for offering numbers. Lacked announcement information.
The Solution:
Complete design redo and increase brand identity. Create a way for the bulletin to be more looked at and utilized. Better announcement information.
Work Done:
Research
Design
Copywriting
Printing
Research included looking at multiple different church’s bulletins, asking church members questions about what they would like to see in the bulletin, and reading articles about the best practices.
New Design Elements
-
Our previous bulletin needed an uplift in general, but by looking at it, you could only tell it belonged to my church from the logo. Brands tell a story and the previous bulletin was lacking that.
To increase brand identity, I knew I needed to make the front cover very welcoming. We are a church that wants to make you feel like you belong — that we’re so glad you’re here. We’re also a multigenerational church, so my goal is to make it youthful, but also something a Baby Boomer could love.
To add our branding colors and a welcoming youthful timeless feel into the design, I went with the soft gradient wave. After the wave, I thought, “What could be better branding than featuring our community on the front page?”
Our brand is very image driven, especially real pictures of our people.
My favorite brand font of my church is Montserrat, I used it in different weights throughout the bulletin.
Inside the bulletin, I wanted to bring some more of the blue gradient, but didn’t want it to be overwhelming blocks of color so I used the dome shapes to spotlight key information.
On the back, I continued the wave from the front for a cohesive look that makes it look like it was designed with intention.
-
The front cover features a photo from our church that represents our community. The photo gets changed every week so it creates this fun and exciting mystery of what picture will be next. My church members love being featured on the front of the bulletin and find it so special. This unique touch increased peoples interest in the bulletin and is a natural conversation piece.
-
Believe it or not, the previous bulletin did not have contact info on it. I added contact information including our phone, email, website, social media handles, and staff names. Contact information is important for our guests to connect with us.
-
We serve free bagels and coffee in the connection cafe after service each week. This information was not in the previous bulletin, so I not only added it, but spotlighted it. Connection and community is a huge part of our brand so highlighting this information was important.
-
In the previous bulletin, the announcement section was 16:9 event graphics with little to no information. People were lacking details so instead of using our event graphics, I decided to create an announcement section that was copywriting and details focused. People are asking less questions about events and more people are showing up to events than ever before.
-
To reach my goal of creating a bulletin that is utilized more, I decided to design a section for note taking during the sermon.
One of the people that did not use the bulletin at all in the past, not only uses it now for notes, but takes it home and goes over it throughout the week.
Copywriting Created:
Information about our church:
Nesconset Christian Church is a multi-generational church that desires to build God's kingdom here one life at a time.
There's plenty of ways to get involved by serving, growing, and connecting with others here at NCC. We would love for you to connect with us via our connect card (located on the back of the pew chairs) and drop It In the offering plate or the Welcome Desk and we will connect with you.
Information about the service:
Children: We have fun Jesus-centered teaching for your kids. Nursery to Pre-K classes are upstairs and K to 5th grade classes are downstairs.
Teens: We have a student service In the Youth House which Is located In the house next to our upper parking lot. Our service starts at 10am with student-led worship followed by a relevant message.
Adults: Join us In the sanctuary as we worship in song together, partake In communion, and hear a relevant message that will encourage and challenge us In our faith journey.
Announcements:
Midweek
Adult Bible Study Is going through the book of Ephesians, join us on Wednesday Nights at 7pm In the Connection Cafe.
Kids class (K-5th grade) starts at 7pm in C19.
Impact (6th-12th grade) starts at 6:30pm In the Youth House.
The Journey
This program is designed to help you learn more about the Gospel, about our church, and what it means to be a member of Nesconset Christian Church.
Whether you are new to the church or have been a member for years, we encourage you to join us for this exciting opportunity to grow in your faith and understanding of what it means to be a member of our church.
The Journey classes will be on Saturdays at 10am in February and March. Every other week there will be childcare. If you can't do Saturdays, we will have two Monday night classes towards the end of February.
Sign up by scanning the QR code below or going to Nesconsetchurch.com/Journey
Prayer Wall
We have a virtual prayer wall that you can share requests and pray over other requests that people from NCC have shared! Visit our virtual prayer wall at Nesconsetchurch.com/Prayer
Was the change successful?
With the previous bulletin, 80% of bulletins printed would end up in the trash or not used at all. Since the bulletin redo, we tend to always run out of bulletins even when printing more on a weekly bases. Only 10% of the bulletins printed end up left on the seat or thrown away in our trash cans. That means 90% of the bulletins printed are not only utilized at church, but the church is taking the bulletin home with them. That is a huge success!
