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Local Churches Use The StillSpeaking Campaign To Reach Out

March/April 2005

Stephen L. Sterner, Interim Minister and President, recently reported that as a result of the Advent StillSpeaking initiative campaign ads, there were over 500 articles in newspapers and several thousand reports on TV and radio. In 10 weeks, the web traffic at the UCC web page totaled 1.2 million hits; there were 175,000 hits on the find a church site.

During the Lenten season, the StillSpeaking ads ran exclusively on cable. According to Ron Buford, campaign coordinator at the national setting, "We continue to receive heartfelt stories from the wide variety of people who heard the message, "no matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome" and found the welcome we advertised - in our local churches. Each time I hear such stories I remember that we are marching, not in our own light but in the light of God."

In the Massachusetts Conference, several churches are marching to the beat of that same drummer.

• Memorial Congregational Church UCC in Sudbury spearheaded an effort for twelve churches in its area to do joint advertising in the Metrowest Daily News;
• First Congregational of Somerville, UCC, advertised on Air America , a progressive AM talk radio;
• First Parish Church in Lunenburg posted approximately 2 dozen lawn signs around town with the God Is Still Speaking logo and their church's name and address;
• Townsend Congregational Church UCC, Mattapoisett Congregational Church UCC, and First Congregational Church Brimfield with First Church of Monson UCC placed small ads in local papers;
• First Congregational Church UCC, Stoughton , bought a billboard ad.

"It is important to remember that the success of the God Is Still Speaking campaign is dependent on the work of local churches," says Tiffany Vail, MACUCC's Associate for Communication & Technology. "Advertising alone is not enough." Surveys of Massa-chusetts Conference churches following the Advent portion of the campaign have shown that those churches who reached out into their communities like the ones above, using the Still Speaking theme to invite people and make them feel welcome and appreciated, are the churches who saw increases in visitors in December.

For ideas or to share your

experiences, visit www.macucc.org/discus .

What can we do to make the most of this moment?

The Still Speaking Campaign is scheduled to continue hrough 2007 with TV ads during Advent and Lent each year. Ron Buford, from the UCC National Office, offers these suggestions to keep the message fresh.

1.Pray. Enlist others to pray that this effort will ex-pand God's extravagant wel-come and radical hospitality.

2.Stay on message. Take each opportunity when asked questions about the campaign to proclaim the message of God's welcome and to invite people.

3.Renew your commitment to the principles learned during training to welcome absolutely everyone and to find ways to get seekers to the best spiritual home for them - even if you have to refer them elsewhere.

4.Measure and compare it with the same time last year. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Measure numbers of guests, church attendance, giving, etc.

5.Work your local media. The national UCC will send out sample releases and ideas you can use locally. This will be much more important in time because it will not be a hot story on the national level.

6.Show your signs and colors. Fly your banners prominently and encourage members to wear and use God is Still Speaking items at group events to make a statement that reinforces the message on TV.

7.Show your support financially, if you have not already done so. Our decision to go ahead means that we will continue to raise the rest of the funds we need to pay for the campaign.