New Messenger Focus and Schedule

In our increasingly digitized world, it can be tough to keep pace with all the ways we communicate! Third Church currently uses: the spoken word on Sunday mornings, printed materials, email (at least three per week!), our own website, videos, and social media to speak to the congregation and to the public. Last year this newsletter, the Messenger, evolved to more fully embrace a digital format. Now it is evolving further to bring new perspectives and fresh content to the reader.

We will use the 2021-2022 program year to experiment with a new schedule and new focus. The Messenger will move from monthly to bi-monthly publication and will emphasize stories and celebrations of all the wonderful things Third Church is engaged in, inside our congregation and beyond our walls. 

We already use Sunday morning announcements, the Congregational Update email, our website, and sometimes our social media to publicize upcoming events. We have an opportunity in the newsletter to not just duplicate that information that is available elsewhere, but to get a more in-depth look at the ways Third Church touches our lives and the lives of those around us.

This new model will take some getting used to! Those among us who do not use email will begin to receive the Congregational Update by mail so that they remain informed about upcoming events. The Congregational Update and the website will be the most up-to-date places to look for information about Adult Spiritual Formation offerings, congregational fellowship groups, preaching schedules, and all special events. Also, note that this allows more flexibility for programs to adjust times and locations as Covid variants continue to wreak havoc upon firm plans of all kinds.

If you are not currently on our email mailing list, please send a message to connect@thirdpresbyterian.org and we’ll get you signed up.

Another adjustment will be that events that in the past you might have submitted for the Messenger will now be on our website and in the Congregational Update. In order to successfully advertise your events, please alert Rachel Norton at least four weeks in advance, and be prepared to submit a short write-up (50 words or so), a longer write-up (250 words or so), and one or more photographs or graphics.

If you have a story you’d like to tell, or an idea you’d like to see explored in the Messenger, please let Rachel know. Otherwise, enjoy this issue, and we’ll see you again in November!