Leverage your local edition space in creative ways

If there’s one thing we all have in common right now, it’s this — our calendars have been wiped clean. And if you’re a church or association that normally publishes events on your back page of The Alabama Baptist, this means you’ve got some space to work with.

But that’s not a bad thing. Though we’ll all be ready to gather together for events again one day when COVID-19 is a memory, right now you have an opportunity to leverage your local edition space in some creative ways.

Consider these ideas:

• Use the space to tell a story. Stories are powerful, and everyone in your church has one, if not more. Recruit different church members to write a story about what God has done in their lives, what He is teaching them during the coronavirus outbreak or what they are doing to help their neighbors at this time.
• Share the needs of members. Some church members may have new and specific needs because of COVID-19. Others may have ongoing needs that are harder to fill for right now. Use your page as a bulletin board to share (appropriately of course) the needs in your church and ways to (safely) meet them.
• Highlight encouraging Scripture passages. The Baptist Church at McAdory, McCalla, is calling on a different deacon each week to share his favorite Bible verse. And First Baptist Church, Birmingham, and others are sharing daily devotionals.

Another option is to utilize simple, free graphic design websites — like canva.com — to create visually appealing graphics with Bible verses or words of encouragement.

• Explain how your church handles online giving. Right now, in-person giving isn’t an option for churches. If online giving is new to your church, or if every member isn’t familiar with using it, use the space one week as an opportunity to explain the process of online giving.
• Direct your church toward helpful resources. You could use the space as a place to provide websites with reliable information about COVID-19 — websites like cdc.gov, alsbom.org or namb.net. (And thealabamabaptist.org, which is constantly being updated with coronavirus-related information.) You could also list the contact information of crisis counselors.
• Create a prayer calendar. If you don’t want to throw out your calendar format altogether, you could compile a prayer calendar with ways people can pray each day — for your church, for other churches in your association, for people affected by the virus and for any other needs your church members may have.