by Phil Andrews
The first issue of The Congregational, the bi-monthly A5 community newsletter produced by the Friends of Isleworth Congregational Church, has been distributed to 1,000 dwellings around the locality. My special thanks go out to Bridget and Rayne, who assisted with their delivery.
There isn’t a great deal of information that can be crammed onto an A5 flyer, especially when details of forthcoming services, the web addresses and a map have been included. The actual object of the exercise is to create a community which receives, reads and eventually anticipates our communications on a regular basis, bringing them into our orbit and, frankly, reminding them of our existence in their midst.
Importantly, the cost of the newsletter is all covered by donations and no expense is incurred by the Church. However, with even a little extra financial support we could expand the circulation, or make it bigger – or both!
Allow me to offer a few examples. A regular donation of just £2.25 per month would enable us to grow the circulation to 1,100, bringing news of our Church and its activities to 100 more households in Isleworth. Or, a regular donation of £27.50 per month would allow us to double the size of the newsletter to A4 (for 1,000 copies). The larger the newsletter, the more information about our Church and its activities we could include.
One option I am exploring is to seek out some advertising from local businesses as a means of facilitating expansion. But private donations would always be welcome, and I can promise that every penny would be put to good use in the service of the Church.
The other way in which healthy outdoor types can help is to take a few leaflets each time for distribution. Even 100 would lighten the load, especially if we are going to increase the circulation. And remember, it’s only every two months!
If you can help in any of these ways, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. You can e-mail me at info@phil-andrews.co.uk – or just speak to me in Church!
Thank you.