THIS is the third incarnation of Neil Pugmire’s indispensable resource for all things communications and publicity. It is jam-packed with ideas to help you to raise the profile of your church and promote its ministry.
This book is not just about getting your church noticed. Pugmire is passionate about making the Church’s physical threshold easier for the enquirer or newcomer to cross, as well as enabling congregations to cross that same threshold in the opposite direction into the communities that they are called to serve. Ideas range from the simple and low-budget (tidying up your display boards, or keeping your church open during the day) to ambitious, strategic projects (redesigning and rebuilding your church’s entrance) — and everything in between. There is something here for churches of every size, tradition, and context.
When the first edition was published in 2006, the digital revolution was still in its adolescence. Pugmire acknowledges and embraces the “dizzying rate of change”, with which the Church so often struggles to keep up. Consequently, this edition encompasses the advents of Canva, CapCut, and TikTok, while still providing a wealth of guidance on traditional media. There is, for example, a whole chapter on the parish magazine. Pugmire also builds on the positive legacy of the pandemic, and the techniques — live streaming among them — that the Church was catapulted into using.
One hundred ideas are organised into 22 sections, making the book easy to navigate, and offering the opportunity to pick and choose tips and topics according to context and need. Each idea is followed up with a “How to do it” section, with practical suggestions to transform vision into reality. Where relevant, there are links to further resources. There is a companion website too, offering further support.
Pugmire is not merely a marketing expert. He roots everything in his conviction that “we worship a God who loves to communicate,” and in the example of the one whose communications skills mean that “we are still reading and absorbing [his] words and values 2,000 years after his earthly life.” Pugmire’s innate sense of the Church’s mission and purpose — honed from decades of experience as communications director for the diocese of Portsmouth — shines through every page.
If there is to be one, small, gripe, it is that some of the images and graphics appear to come from earlier editions, and — ironically in a book which is so focused on presentation — look incongruously outdated. But don’t let that put you off for a second. There is not a PCC in the land which wouldn’t benefit from this book. And, if the advances in communication continue to progress with anything like the acceleration of the past decade, there will be a fourth edition before you know it.
The Revd Daniel Sandham is the Vicar of St Paul’s, Winchmore Hill, in the diocese of London.
100 Ways to Get Your Church Noticed: Third edition
Neil Pugmire
Church House Publishing £18.99
(978-1-78140-474-4)
Church Times Bookshop £17.09
