St Michael le Belfrey forums

What is our communication like at St Michael's?  How could we do better?

Sorry I am not sure what you mean. could you communicate it a little differently.....haha only joking.

I'll leave this to real people.

Yeah... real people like me...

oh no... wait.


Seriously folks, it would be great to get some feedback on this subject.

Could you specify exactly what you mean by your question? I mean its quite vague

Communication could mean so many things, I have noticed many aspects in St Mike's in the three weeks I've been going.

On the whole I'd say you communicate great...but that may just be me and my newness...

I've deliberately asked a vague question!  Do you feel you know what we are about?  What we are doing?  What things are on the horizon?  Where could you serve?  Do we have the right tools for communicating to the church and to the outside world?

Aha, well this is the first church I've been to that has a working forum so a definate horray to that!

I feel that I know what the church is about but that may just be because you seem to have a very similar setup to my home church. As far as where I can serve I have already had much in the way of guidance in fact I believe I had all the information I needed within the first week which is impressive by any standards.

This is all in my humble opinion...so if anyone feels like saying anything to contradict me I won't be offended :P or anything else for that matter...

Anything at all...I'm sure I'm not the only person with an opinion here...

Hi Mark,
I think it would be really helpful to have a CONCISE list of all the organisations / projects that St Mike's is involved with, which people could volunteer for if they wanted.  Include a contact name and a brief description of the organisation / project, so that if someone is interested in getting involved then it is easy for them to find out more by contacting that named person.  It would be good if that list was included in each monthly bulletin. 

Good thinking.  Thanks.  We have avoided this a bit in the past because things change so quickly but now that w have a monthly bulletin and an active web site I think that the management of such a list would be ok.  Thanks again.

I have a question. Why is it that this thread has been viewed 130 times and there are less than 10 posts? Is there a reason why people feel inhibited when it comes to sharing their points of view? Or are we asking the wrong questions?

It seems to me that any information required is out there, so is the problem that a) people aren't aware of where to look/who to ask b) people feel they can't ask for some reason or c) people aren't sufficiently engaged to look for information in the first place d) something else? ???

Great to hear Tainted Echo's perspective - thanks for posting and for introducing yourself. Did you make it into the parish centre today?

I did indeed, caught Mark as he was leaving...delayed him a little :)

Had a good chat, discovered that this church is approx 8 times the size of my home church, which is one of the biggest I've been to in my home city.

Hi

you might have to ask a more specific question to get a wide response.

I reckon the views of newcomers are the most significant. Us oldies now know who to ask if we need to know anything, but appreciate it was not always thus..........

I'd say communication from the centre is good  ;D - a lot comes out via Cell Material and leaders meetings. Bulletins, notice sheets and the web site carry details of 'events' and there are other good initiatives about. I havent noticed the monthly bulletins reducing the content of the notice sheet - maybe you should go for a term booklet instead,  the youth team used to do one and it had a real focus and value.

I have only one criticism  >:(........ there are too many notice slots and notices in services, some seem more like news broadcasts than acts of worship!  >:(

I think you've touched on some issues there Alan. For me, a big part of the problem is the size of St Michael's, and the amount of stuff that happens.

The result is loads of stuff in the noticesheet, even more stuff in the bulletin and then because people don't actually read all this stuff, there are notices given in church as well.

I think there needs to be these different levels of communication, but there also needs to be a better structure for what and how things are communicated. At the moment pretty much everything that's submitted goes into the noticesheet and bulletin. Is this appropriate, should we limit the size of these and have an editorial process to decide what goes in.... I suppose the question is whether there's a limit to what people will read and digest.

As well as the day to day stuff, there's the vision and what the position we take as a church on big issues.

So here are some specific questions:

Do you read the noticesheet every week?
Do you read the bulletin every month?
Do you find it easy to take in the information you find in the noticesheet and bulletin?
Do you use the website to get information?
If notices are to be given in services, how many is acceptable?
The PCC have been working to a vision document over a five year period. Do you know what this contains?
If you have an issue, or wish to give some feedback to St Michael's, do you know who to approach?
Do you feel you have enough information about what goes on at St Michael's to make an informed decision about how to get involved?

  Do you feel you know

what we are about?  Yes. God. And I know about this sort of stuff through the services

What we are doing?  Yep, a mizture of through the services and cell.

What things are on the horizon? Same as what we're actually doing now, and through cell, notice sheets etc.

Where could you serve?  I know that I could ask at cell.

Do we have the right tools for communicating to the church and to the outside world? As a church yes we do have the tools , I think communication to the church is exellent but communication to the outside world? I'm not sure. We can and do make info about what's going on available, but other forms of communication like love and charity....we all have the resources and tools but it takes individuals to act and to step out in faith - I'll stop before I go off on one about this....the issue of homelessness in York is getting to me.......

Overall I think St. Mikes is doing a wonderful job!

In faith,

Han X

Hi, I know I have now registered but don't know how to log in as I have never used a webpage before.   However regarding communications would like to say is it possible when mentioning people for prayer regarding illness, death or good news in one service that you also mention it in the other services, as people do know one another from different services.    Especially if you have been in St. Mike's for a long time, like me.   Often you find out about someone weeks after it has happened.   Many thanks.   Jan.

Hmm....I am interested where the boundaries are in this discussion.  I am ALL for love and compassion (really) and for serving the poor (let's REALLY get behaind Besom and make it work for us), but I wasn't really thinking of these things in the light of 'communiction'.  Maybe therein lies the rub - maybe they are all ways in which we communicate and I am worrying too much about the 'Christian to Christian' communiction and not enough about the 'Christian to the world' stuff - but maybe that's outsie this remit?  Help, I am stuck in my own vicious circle!

Keep the thoughts coming though, it's good.  Would any of you like to be on the communications group?  We haven't settled on the membership yet. ;D

Thanks to Jan for her comments - she nipped into the discussion whilst I was answering the previous one!  I think your comments are very valid Jan and I will feed them into the pot.  I think sometimes what happens is that notices about someone being ill or having lost a family member are fed ina t the very last minute to the leader of the service and so we have no way of making sure the same information gets into all services.

I think our mighty wardens [hi, guys] personify good communication. They make you feel welcome, ask how you are, try to get you involved.

By the way, have you asked the youth the same question? You'll get some interesting feedback from them [and not all about using pirate flags.....]

I dont know if it is me and my silliness of not knowing where to look (which in itself i guess is down to communication) but I had really wanted to be involved in the mission trip to Mongolia I think it was or if there was something else but I found out way after things had been organised....

also I wanted to organise a mass St Mikes trip to Momentum this year but again dont knwo who to contact and i would think it good to know about this so something on the websie would be grand....

Thanks for your comments Aimee, I will pass on your comments to the world mission committee - though I believe that  the Mongolia (and other short term mission) plans have been talked about in the monthly bulletin and the weekly notice sheet in the past few months.  These are the key publications to keep your eye on week by week if you want to know what's happening (they are also on the web site).  As for who to contact with new ideas you can always contact the Parish Centre (01904 624190 or admin@stmichaelsyork.org) and we will able to point you in the right direction - whatever the area of interest is.