Connecting through Click, Call, or Chat

How can a church more effectively reach out to its community?

How can we engage teens and young adults in the life of the church?

Do you have resources for training elders and deacons?

How do we create an abuse prevention policy?

Where can I get information about ministry shares?

These are the types of questions that churches ask. The answers exist, but often churches aren’t aware of how to find them or who to turn to for help.

The CRCNA is making this process much easier by collating resources, improving search tools, and offering trained support staff to help guide church leaders to the tools and answers they need. These resources and support will all be just one click, call, or chat away.

The need for this type of assistance was identified and suggested by people involved in the CRC’s Connections Project, a three-year pilot project funded by a nearly $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc.

In a 2017 report, the Connections staff wrote about the need for creating a database of easily accessible resources:  “As our team began their work, they were searching multiple locations to find what CRC-produced congregational resources were available,” and they found that many of these valuable resources, including news, newsletters, and learning opportunities “lay buried on the webpages of the individual CRC ministries and agencies.”

In response to this, the denomination began to pull resources together and make them all accessible in one location at crcna.org/Resources. They also used technology to improve the online search tool to make it easier to filter results by topic, date, author, or keyword.

As a result, with one click, church members can access hundreds of online ministry materials — from information on how to set up a pastor search committee to the best methods for sharing the gospel with your neighbors.

Also available are a range of leadership-training materials and videos, study guides on church-development and communication strategies that can be of use to your church or classis.

“We have collected and are offering all of this information in one place,” said Scott DeVries, manager of the Connections project. “When I was serving as a pastor, I didn’t know about all of these resources, and there was no single place to access them all.”

Meanwhile, the CRC has realigned the Faith Alive Christian Resources customer service department into a team that helps churches access resources from all the CRC ministries.

At a new, toll-free number — 800-272-5125 — trained staff are now available to answer questions or to get churches in touch with the best person from the right ministry or agency to address their needs.

“Our goal as much as possible is to answer basic questions without having to transfer you to another area,” said DeVries. “And then if your question is more in-depth, we’ll get you in touch with the right people and resources for your situation.”

The same team is also available through live chat from any page on the crcna.org website.

“This new effort has been created as a way to improve service for our churches,” said DeVries.

“We see it as a way to improve trust. When churches approach us, they will know there is someone they can go to for resourcing. They will know we are listening and are committed to help.”

In addition to suggesting the Click-Call-Chat initiative, the Connections Project has put together teams of local resource persons who are trained and equipped to help churches in the process of connecting with one another and with local, regional, and denominational resources.

Especially important have been one-on-one meetings that Connections’ resource coaches have had and relationships that they have built with members of local churches.

“Above all, this project is about connecting — personally, in regional meetings, over the phone, online, and in other ways — so that we can share with and learn from one another the ways in which God is using us, the church, to love one another and help bring the gospel to the world,” said DeVries.