Go & Make Disciples : A Communication Strategy For Educating & Engaging a Church Community in Missions Outreach

Communicating information is essential for bringing about changes in existing perceptions, helping people learn, and issuing a call to action. Within a church community, though, these actions are often hindered by the transmission of information that is haphazardly planned, inconsistent across mediums, and that fails to inform the recipients of the communication in a way that helps them take action. The field of missions outreach is one specific area that suffers from a lack of attention and participation, a problem that is directly related to the way that information is communicated and then perceived. In order to educate, engage, and increase the total participation of a church community in missions outreach, I conducted a research study that employed human-centered design research methods to explore the current state of missions communication and to develop concepts for design interventions that improve the way that information about missions outreach is communicated. In the end, I designed a cohesive system of communication pieces and methods of delivery that rely on a set of fundamental design principles to effectively communicate the message of missions outreach and facilitate participation. This solution will ideally produce a well-informed church body that is motivated and empowered to take action to serve outside the walls of the church. In addition, many other churches and service organizations should be able to benefit from more effective outreach and stronger communities as a result of employing this flexible communication framework to educate and engage their members.