By Deacon Peggy Hahn (she/her), Director of Innovation at LEAD

A little love from LEAD: What we are learning through Communication Audits

If you suspect your church isn’t great at communication, you’re both right and wrong.

Congregations are great at:

1. Communicating with people they have known forever.
   Example: Birthday lists with names everyone already recognizes. New folks might think – “Who are these people?” “What about my birthday?”
2. Keeping current members comfortable.
   Example: Hanging onto a newsletter name long after moving from paper to digital. Yes, the Joyful Noise email.
3. Using insider language.
   “Meet in the narthex.” “Coffee in Grace Hall.” “Call Maryanne.”
   If you don’t see the issue, try explaining any of that to your neighbor who isn’t familiar with your church.

Congregational leaders are learning:

1. Email mostly works for ages 45–80. Younger folks are hit-or-miss and care about format, visuals, and brevity. Some older folks print emails. Many don’t read them at all.
2. Every leader has a preferred communication style—texts, calls, email, meetings, messaging apps, social media, Zoom, you name it. Teams need to agree on priority methods and revisit them as leadership changes.
3. Members are usually satisfied with current communications. Changing communication style feels unnecessary if it works “well enough” for them.
4. Neighbors are largely clueless about what happens inside our buildings. Signs help. Relationships help more. Many churches are dying – how do they know yours is alive?

LEAD began doing Communication Audits as part of our strategic planning and now we offer them as a stand-alone resource. Why? Because communication has become a black hole in sharing the faith, teaching our theological perspective, and knowing the stories of Jesus.

People are bombarded with texts from doctors and ads from algorithms, yet rarely hear messages reminding them they are deeply loved by God. We know ten places to buy what we Googled, but we don’t know our neighbors—or why that matters. We text our families constantly, yet feel anxious praying together or talking about money, values, or faith.

And sometimes, we forget to simply say it out loud:
“God loves you so much. And you matter to me.”