As pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Brethren Church in North Tonawanda, New York, I am interested in new ways to communicate the Good News with people inside and outside of our congregation. Bob Bailey, a member of our church, has been working on a new communication tool, a web-based service called a Video-e-Newsletter.

It’s a unique way of delivering a video via e-mail in the form of a newsletter that also remains on the web for other people to see. With this new technology, I can deliver a themed video that includes an article and links to other websites and online blogs. The congregation enjoys receiving them even if I sometimes feel a little goofy speaking in them. The one page website the Video-e-Newsletter produces is ranked in all the major search engines. As a result, I’ve had e-mail inquiries from people across the country who discovered the video while surfing the internet for inspiration and spiritual knowledge.

The best way to explain what the Video-e-Newsletter looks like is to view one already online. We made one when we took our church youth to Tuscarora Inn & Conference Center for winter weekend – a time of fun, bonding, praise, and worship. To see it, type “Saint Peter’s Lutheran Brethren Church Video-e-Newsletter” into Google without the quotes and click on the link (or click here).

The technology behind this new service is proprietary. Putting together the content is easy. All you need is a camcorder or a webcam. Once you record a video, you can send it to the production department at Video-e-Newsletter.com and they will edit the video. You can include photographs with your raw footage that will be included in the finished product.

Along with the raw video footage, you can send links and text copy you want delivered to your congregation, such as announcements and upcoming events. The production department can customize your one page Video-e-Newsletter with logos or graphics you provide to them. Each time a Video-e-Newsletter is delivered to your email list it becomes a mini one-page website. If you produced one a month, by the end of the year you would have twelve mini websites all ranked in Google and delivering your message consistently. Getting the message out for Jesus is a high priority these days. Bringing people the hope of the gospel is the bottom line.

St. Peter’s is using this Video-e-Newsletter for fundraising, delivering information to the congregation via e-mail, and sharing the good news of Christ. We plan to do more throughout the year. The response has been great. If you have an interest in using this tool for your church, please send an email to info@video-e-newsletter.com or visit the firm’s website at http://www.video-e-newsletter.com.

Click here for an example of St. Peter's Church e-newsletter

Pastor Bob  Lawson serves St. Peter’s Lutheran Brethren Church in North Tonawanda, New York (bobandkareninntonawanda.blogspot.com)