Grants Energize Church Communications

Eleven churches and ministries in the United States and Canada will receive grants totaling more than $75,000 from ReFrame Ministries, the media missions agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

The limited-use grants propel churches to implement innovative ideas to improve their media, communications, marketing, and technology use. The 11 grants were awarded to ministries selected from a field of 75 applicants, and this year’s recipients include ministries from California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Texas, New Jersey, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.

One of this year’s grant recipients is Iglesia Reformada Gracia Latina, a church plant with the Reformed Church in America in Austin, Tex. Rev. Gerson Joel Aguirre Aguilera, the church’s pastor, said he is passionate about a new generation of Hispanic people living in Austin.

There’s a lot of work to be done, considering the great need of passing along “a genuine faith” as the church connects with “a new Latino generation,” said Aguilera. And to help meet this need, Gracia Latina’s grant will springboard its communication outreach to the local Hispanic community.

Another grant recipient is All Nations CRC in Halifax, N.S. Valerie Joan Matthews Walker, chair of the church’s communications committee, said they applied for the grant after connecting with Church Juice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the pandemic, all of a sudden our front door was locked, and it opened up my eyes to realize our lack of communication to people outside our church because we had no way to show them who we are as a congregation,” said Walker. “Church Juice has been really persuasive in helping me understand the value of focused, refined communications.” All Nations will use their grant to develop a comprehensive communications strategy, including outreach to people in their surrounding community.

Church Juice, part of ReFrame’s English-language ministry, administers the Church Communications and Marketing grant program. Aguillera, Walker, and representatives from the other ministries receiving grants this year will take part in a cohort experience from October through June. This year’s grant program nearly doubled its influence, thanks to additional funding from the Christian Reformed Church’s Ignite funding initiative.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Church Juice and ReFrame Ministries launched a grant program to help small and struggling churches access funds for technology upgrades, to ensure that congregations could remain connected while not gathering in person.

Now in its third year, the Church Communications and Marketing grant program provides limited grants (up to $8,000 USD each) to churches and ministries across the U.S. and Canada who have a big communications idea and just need a little help to make it happen. Learn more at churchjuice.com/grant.