One sign of a vibrant organization of any sort is that it has news. Lots of it. Things happening, events taking place, opportunities to engage.
Other than Dysfunctional Bob’s departure, Grace Church has no news. None. That suggests Grace is lurching towards existential crisis and possible closure.
Before we go further, let me preempt the words-don’t-mean-what-words-mean crowd at Grace with a definition of “news” from Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary:
The key word here is “recent.”
Now, let’s take a look at the landing page of the church website. On it we see imagery from Easter. Posted sermons were last updated more than a month ago.
So-called “news” includes:
- Easter celebrations, dating from April
- Foyer registration, dating from August
- Sunday school registration, dating from early September
The rotating images are every bit as bad, including a rather dreary classroom scene from last winter. (I like educational opportunities, but the class looks excruciating.)
Turning to the church’s Twitter feed, things look no better, with where the site was not only abandoned last April, but there’s zero engagement, just announcements that a new sermon has been posted.
In short, Grace Episcopal may or may not be dying, but its communications efforts do their best to create the impression that death is imminent.
