Church Juice Awards 'Juicys'

First Christian Reformed Church in Grand Haven, Mich., has been awarded a $1,000, mini-grant by Church Juice, a project of ReFrame Media, to help the church in Grand Haven improve its communications capability.

ReFrame Media is the English-language, outreach ministry of Back to God Ministries International, the media ministry of the Christian Reformed Church. Along with Church Juice, ReFrame offers a range of media-related resources, programs and projects to people of all ages.

Besides the church in Grand Haven, Church Juice awarded two other congregations a $1,000 grant as part of what are called "The Juicys." The awards either highlight congregations that have undertaken or want to start innovative communications projects.

For the awards, Church Juice, which is multi-faceted communications resource to churches, looks for "churches doing great things in communications," but it also realizes there are churches "who have good ideas, but something—like money—gets in the way from making it happen," says a Church Juice news story.

First CRC of Grand Haven is one of those churches.

First CRC has about 225 people. The church is becoming well known for environmental outreach in the community.

Known as the "Creation Care" church, First CRC looks at recycling as a way to care for people. Through a used appliance ministry, the church collects gently-used appliances and gives them to people who need, but can’t afford them.

Last year alone, nearly 200 donated appliances passed though the church to families.

But online, the church needed help. The church’s website doesn’t serve its needs.

Like many churches, the church found itself facing a situation where it costs at least $80-per-hour to make changes. And even then, there's no guarantee how timely changes will occur, says the Church Juice story.

First CRC wanted to incorporate the appliance ministry into its website by making it easier to connect with donors and recipients.

Plus, says Church Juice, they wanted the ability to update announcements, add sermon audio, collect online giving, create stronger connections with the community and more.

Leaders in the church have met to talk about the changes they want and a new church secretary, who has experience in maintaining websites, is in place to make it happen. First CRC has found a local web designer they want to work with.

"So as First CRC moves forward with a vision to better serve their community and members online, we're excited to help them," says the Church Juice story.

The other awards went to a non-denominational church in Anchorage, Alaska, that has gone through a complete communications overhaul. To accomplish that, it decided to focus on mobile communications and a revamped weekly bulletin.

The third award went to a Baptist church in Las Vegas, Nevada, to help it establish a new image for itself as it moved into a new building.

ChurchJuice.com provides articles and resources in such categories such as Branding, Visitor's Perspective, Communications, Signage, Direct Mail, Worship Folders, Outreach Projects/Events, Media Relations, and Social Media.

Direct links to resources offer easy access for church personnel interested in using media for more effective ministry and outreach. Church Juice also includes a place for churches to share creative ideas to energize ministry and outreach. To learn more about the awards, visit: The Juicys.