“ What challenges currently face the church in the area of effective Communication – Solutions to Consider?” The view from the USCCB and national perspective.

Leading through a vision of mission. Creating content and message that impact people. Engaging people.

Knowing what we want to achieve? Our role as leaders is changing ? Tendency to focus on outputs rather than outcomes. Our own understanding of technology Social media tools are just that – tools to do something. Be disciplined and focused on long term.

Messages and content need to connect people’s lives with Jesus Christ and the Church. Why Be Catholic? Clear sense of what we want to say to people about Jesus and Church. Messages tend to become unnecessarily complicated. Competition for people’s attention requires unified, clear, and simple communications.

Changing roles and responsibilities driven by technology and learning models. Role change from gate-keeping to facilitating/mentoring. Respectful dialogue - Two way: interactive and participative. Competition for time and attention.

Vision drives action – this is all about bringing people into a relationship with Jesus Christ! Communicating as essential element in building community of believers. Get the right people involved. Training-formation. Create a culture that includes assessment of outcomes. Focus on need to develop right content expressed with right messages. Be willing to take a risk – a measured risk.

Identify what it is that you want to share with people – content? Create messages that engage and impact people. We are not just creating content and messages for ourselves - I am not the audience! Focus on desired outcomes, not just outputs. Value of “branding” as tool for evangelization. Create strategies and communication vehicles to get messages to right people at the right time.

Create strategies to move people from passive “receivers” to active “participants.” Using social media – know what you want to achieve (desired outcome) and understand how social media works best. Respectful dialogue. Transparency. People are choosing methods and formats that they are most comfortable. A unified approach for parish as a whole.

1.Build a culture and organizational structure for effective communication within the parish. 2.Develop relationships and work collaboratively with key stakeholders, ministries and the community. 3.Create a unified strategy for Catholic Communications in the parish both internally and externally. 4.Create clear and consistent messages