Case Study
LIVING STONES RENO
Living Stones Family of Churches has eight locations across northern Nevada. As the first and largest congregation, the downtown Reno campus serves as a model for all other locations. The church has a weekly average attendance of 475+ people and is consistently growing and planting new churches.
I was honored to serve as a part-time Communications Manager from 2019 to 2023, overseeing all digital communications, website and app management, and on-stage liturgy and announcements.
The Challenge
In 2018, church members expressed the need for more consistent and authentic communication from the leadership team. But with so many events, classes, and updates to share, many items were cut from the agenda. The leadership team sought to answer the following questions to address these needs:
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How can we keep all ministry happenings at the forefront while also avoiding information overload?
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How can we equip the congregation with the tools to mobilize those in their sphere of influence?
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How can we create engaging and inspiring content to grab the attention of potential newcomers?
The Solution(s)
As Communications Manager, my approach was grounded in Strategic Storytelling. Each piece of communication sought to equip, inspire, and inform insiders (current attendees and members) and outsiders (newcomers and guests) with intentional and relatable content.
Be Intentional: Purposeful planning is the cornerstone of any communications strategy, while lack of preparation results in missed opportunities. To combat information overload and create alignment, I implemented the following:
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A Sprint vs Sprinkle a framework to clarify priority of messaging and create efficiencies.
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A robust communications calendar allowing stakeholders to collaborate on best practices and be unified in our efforts.
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A formal document of expectations for our speaking team members to set the standard for in-person communication.
Be Relational: Church is a highly relational environment. Being part of the community is a key piece of ministry. So, from on-stage announcements to social media posts and weekly newsletters, we sought to tell real-life stories of people in our church. In doing this we sought to:
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Increase cultural representation within our church by highlighting members from different walks of life.
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Communicate a message from a variety of angles to engage different audiences.
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Encourage online sharing by asking influential and familiar members to share their experiences.
Be Reliable: People crave consistency. They want to know that they can find the information they need, when they need it. To accomplish this, we took the following steps:
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Provide a single action step for all announcements.
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Send a weekly email on Monday mornings to recap the week's communications.
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Use brand consistency across digital and in-person channels to create memorable visual cues.
The Results
Highlights
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Achieved a 91% increase in website page views and a 75% increase in users from Jan 2022 to Jan 2023.
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Achieved 46% email newsletter open rate (industry average is 32%).
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Saw a 50% increase in weekly gathering attendance from Jan 2022 to Jan 2023.
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Gained a 61% increase in social media engagement from Jan 2020 to Jan 2023.
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Implemented the use of video reels with more than 5 video reels seeing 5%+ engagement rates.
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Acquired 25 new City Outreach volunteers in Q1 2023.
Testimonials
"Renelle is a great writer and storyteller. She's displayed the art of communicating with clarity and brevity when needed, and without losing the heart that moves people to action. Not only is she creative, but she has been helpful at building workflows to help maintain alignment across multiple departments and key stakeholders."
— Craig Parish, Executive Pastor
"Renelle has a beautiful way with words that conveys information while keeping an audience captivated. Whether she has few words or many, she puts her heart in all that she does. It is not only her gifting with words that makes her a gift to a team, but also the way that she is able to look through different aspects of a service or event, and sees how to communicate consistently across several platforms and help identify needs that might have been missed."
— Shayla Blount, Director of Connections