By Tim Lubinus, BCI Executive Director/Treasurer
Tim Lubinus, BCI Executive Director/Treasurer
Relationship requires communication. Below is a list of the tools that we use most to communicating across larger audiences throughout the Baptist Convention of Iowa. The first one, the one that we use most may be a surprise.
The Pulpit: It seems a little old-school, but among our Iowa churches we still recognize that our primary medium to communicate truth is the pulpit. At each church the frequency of the messages, their context and length, delivered by skilled Bible teachers who have personal understanding of the audience, are all right for us. Of course, the pulpit isn’t unique to us, it has been a life-transforming medium for thousands of years. This tool has now been made even more valuable through podcasts to help people who couldn’t make it to church to stay current on any teaching series. To hear these sound biblical messages, visit a BCI church, a map and list of BCI churches is available here.
Website and e-newsletter: At the Baptist Convention of Iowa office our most used means of communication is through posting information on our website. The site is available 24/7 and easy to update. We highlight key events, stories of progress, valuable information, and link to other articles of interest carefully selected for our audience.
Content from the website is available and delivered according to your preference:
1. Visit the website at bciowa.org whenever you like. It works great on mobile devices, laptops and desktop computers.
2. Sign-up here for the e-newsletter delivered to your inbox every Friday morning.
- Visit our Facebook page here, and click follow to get updates in your Facebook news feed.
- Follow on Twitter here.
At any time that you wish, you can easily unsubscribe from any of these options..
Paper newsletter. We ended our newsprint newspaper a year and a half ago and now do a quarterly paper newsletter. I’ve seen this newsletter on church bulletin boards in various churches across the state; it is effective in reaching some audiences that are less connected online. Also our auditor tells us that a good practice for accountability is to publish amounts given from churches so that people who send contributions to our office can see that we’ve received the same amount as the church leadership says that they send. Subscribe to the print version here.
Mass mailings and email blasts that have no unsubscribe feature? This is becoming more and more ineffective. We’re trying to cut down.
What about the Phone? We’ve eliminated the toll free number and three of our phone lines at the office to save over a hundred dollars each month. However, we still have enough phone lines and staff to provide great support for anyone who calls the office. The number is (515) 809-2819. We still haven’t eliminated the FAX machine though! Send us a FAX at (515) 278-0875 and remind us of what it was like in 1992!
Let us know if you have suggestions to improve our communication.
Write me here: TLubinus@bciowa.org.
