Church Newsletter Ideas for Every Month

Written by: Jordan Meyers Date: August 27, 2021

Church Newsletter on a Tablet - Ideas Blog Finding the perfect church newsletter ideas is key to building one that is extraordinary. And, you need it to be great to stay connected to your congregants. Without the newsletter, church members would be out of the loop. Over time, you'll be looking out to the pews and seeing fewer and fewer faces.

In the U.S., Christianity is experiencing a sharp decline. It's time to be proactive about ramping up church efforts to involve the community and grow. To help you get started, this guide offers 15 unique church newsletter ideas that you can use right now. Aside from covering the basics of what to put into a church newsletter, we'll detail ideas for every month and major holidays.

Table of Contents

Naming Your Church Newsletter
Monthly Church Newsletter Ideas
January Church Newsletter Ideas
February Church Newsletter Ideas
March Church Newsletter Ideas
April Church Newsletter Ideas
Easter Church Newsletter Ideas
May Church Newsletter Ideas
June Church Newsletter Ideas
July Church Newsletter Ideas
August Church Newsletter Ideas
September Church Newsletter Ideas
October Church Newsletter Ideas
November Church Newsletter Ideas
December Church Newsletter Ideas
Christmas Church Newsletter Ideas
Fun Newsletter Ideas
The Comprehensive Church Newsletter Guide

Naming Your Church Newsletter

Before you dig into church newsletter ideas, you'll need to have a name for your monthly editions. You'll want something catchy, memorable and appealing to let the content you produce each month shine. We built a free resource with church newsletter name ideas to help you properly christen one of your ministry's most valuable marketing tools.

Monthly Church Newsletter Ideas

Marketing experts recommend planning out big ideas on a monthly calendar. Using a monthly calendar is a common church marketing strategy. You can use it to see the year's events as a whole. You'll more easily see how the events and ideas pan out over the individual months.

Most importantly, you'll be able to see which months will have a lot of content to share and which months will require extra effort.

It goes without saying that certain months of the year are jam-packed with events for Christians. The winter and spring months, such as November to December and February to April, will be much easier to find ideas. The rest of the year has much less in the way of holidays and events.

It's unlikely you'll be able to spread out all that content from the Christmas and Easter season through the rest of the year because it is time-sensitive. Instead, you'll need to get creative about finding extraordinary things in ordinary times.

How To Plan Your Church's Monthly Newsletters

First, you'll need to keep your unique situation in mind. If your newsletters are physical paper copies, you might have a lot less flexibility with the space you can work with. You'll need to make sure that each section you choose fits like a puzzle piece into the open slots on the newsletter. It's best you choose some small sections and some longer pieces to add visual interest.

If you're organizing digital newsletters; however, it is a lot easier to make them the size you need. But, there are still limitations to consider. Keep these limitations in mind as you're planning out your months.

Then, create a calendar consisting of separate sheets for each month of the year and put them in order. Then, write out all the church fundraisers, events and holidays that you have planned for the year on their respective dates. This is a great time to also plan other events during less busy times to keep your congregation active throughout the year.

As the year goes on, more events will likely pop up and be planned with less effort. Remember to record these new events in your calendar so you don't forget to include them in your newsletter!

January Church Newsletter Ideas

What's one thing that everyone looks forward to in January? It certainly is not the bitter cold. New Year's Eve is the big holiday that redeems January's otherwise long and bitter period. If you're looking for great content ideas, it's most likely you'll find them within the theme of the New Year.

To put a religious spin on New Year's Eve, try thinking about New Year's resolutions. When the clock strikes midnight, people are committing to becoming better people in many ways. Most people focus on fitness, eating habits and relationships.

Religious people are called to look beyond the physical world to make themselves better people. Beyond taking care of your body, you must take care of your soul. Here's how to use this lesson as content for your newsletter:

Remind your congregation that they should make Christian resolutions about their habits in faith.
Write about how improving ourselves is not a practice only to be started on January 1st and ditched a few weeks later.
Offer examples of resolutions that will help them grow in their faith.
Write up a guide for coming up with faith-based resolutions.
Remind congregants of activities, services and other resources provided by the church that can help them achieve their resolutions.

By using New Year's Eve and resolutions as the theme for your newsletter, you'll be able to offer congregants actionable ways to improve their faith life.

February Church Newsletter Ideas

February is no more enjoyable weather-wise than January. Two weeks into the month, though, many people have a reason to warm up. St. Valentine's Day sweeps the world on February 14th, giving you a great excuse to talk about love and faith.

This is a great time during the year to celebrate Godly marriages in your church. It's also an excuse to educate your parish more about marriage and faith-based relationships. You might even be able to talk some members into devoting their life to God through vocation.

To fill up your February church newsletter with fulfilling and educational content, you can focus on how love with God and with each other should triumph over the material aspects of the holiday.

For your newsletter, you can:

Talk about marriages that are strong in faith.
Offer advice or quotes about healthy relationships that don't get in the way of your relationship with God.
Recommend great scripture passages or other faith books on love.
Set up a way for members to meet and help each other with relationship concerns.
Give insight into chastity and modesty from a faith perspective.
Add a column that gives information on vocations.

Keeping to the theme of love and faith will help you easily build a newsletter to keep your congregants involved.

March Church Newsletter Ideas

When most people think of March, they instantly think of St. Patrick's day. March 17th holds the award for the most Irish people celebrating at one time. You don't have to be Irish, however, to celebrate where you came from.

In addition, the Irish have a deep history of Catholicism and Protestanism. The religion that an Irish family has now most likely depends on from where their family originates. This holiday is a great excuse to dive deeper into this history of Christianity.

If you're stumped on March church newsletter ideas, think about what ethnicity and background mean to faith. Involve your congregation in thought and discussion about what it means to be one with their faith while still being human.

For your newsletter, you can:

Ask congregants to send in answers to questions like "How did your family raise you in the faith differently from your friends?"
Tell the congregation about how your background affected your faith.
Don't forget about Lent. Use the time of year to educate members on what the Lenten season means to Christians and what points they should reflect on.

Remember to have fun while offering educational opportunities for your church members to get closer to their faith.

April Church Newsletter Ideas

Easter is integral to the Christian faith and should inform how we behave through life. Help your congregation prepare for Easter through prayer, sacrifice, and reflection. In addition, give them resources for after Easter so they can respond as Godly people to the Good News for the rest of the month. If you're up for it, you can even call this newsletter edition "The Good News Letter."

You can do this in your newsletter by:

Asking congregants to reflect on their progress in their faith so far this year.
Offering volunteer opportunities that will help members prepare for such a deep and important holiday.
Reminding church members to look out for events and services coming up for Easter.
Giving a scripture passage recommendation that helps the members prepare for Easter.
Using Easter imagery like the cross to help congregants reflect.

Your April church newsletter might be spread thin due to Easter taking up a lot of the attention, but make sure you're always offering a substantial resource for your church members. These could include callouts to key programs like in-person and online Bible studies, how members can get a hold of church leaders for spiritual guidance and advice, open prayer groups an much more.

Easter Church Newsletter Ideas

You might have already sent out the April church newsletter, but send out an extra newsletter that pertains to just Easter information. If your church has a lot of events for the week of Easter, this will be easy.

Write up a schedule for all the Easter fundraisers, events and services.
Offer some great faith-based activities that families can integrate into their otherwise commercial and superficial celebrations.
Give some ideas for faith-based conversation starters for the family dinner table on Easter.
Recommend volunteer opportunities to help those in need.
Talk about the Christian symbolism of common Easter imagery.

Providing a special newsletter just for Easter can help remind your church about how important the holiday truly is for their faith.

May Church Church Newsletter Ideas

Easter has passed. Some church members might still be in high spirits from the holiday, but others might have moved on already. Your May church newsletter needs to keep spirits high as a more ordinary part of the year sets in.

You don't want church attendance to drop off after the holiday like it usually does, so you need to make attendance and participation irresistible. A great way to keep good morale and increased involvement is to remind the church members how great the year has been so far. Thank them for all their help and comradery in God that has made the church's success possible.

You'll want them to realize that if their attendance and participation drops, it's possible that there won't be a church to go back to. They need to be reminded that their responsible for the success of their faith. To do this, theme your church newsletter after the success of the past month's, especially Easter time.

In your newsletter, you can:

Offer encouraging words about the full academic year so far to help parents, teachers and kids make it to the end of the school year.
Highlight members who have made sacraments this past year.
Talk about all the money the church has raised for important causes.
List all the great past volunteer opportunities and their results.
Remind the members that there is so much more to come this year, and list those things.
Encourage members to get acquainted with your online worship opportunities before they head off for their summer breaks and vacations. Doing this will ensure they stay engaged with your faith community while they are gone.
Ask members to set up recurring giving before Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer breaks. Doing this will help your church avoid the summer giving slump. If you've never heard of the summer giving slump, it is the term churches and many nonprofits use to describe the lull in donations received during the summer. The reason for the dip is that members are less involved during the summer. This is why it's so important for churches to make sure members are engaged before they leave for the summer.

This type of newsletter will be very encouraging and exciting for church members to read. It's always nice to hear about what the community has accomplished and even learn about more ways to get involved.

June Church Newsletter Ideas

In June, people are getting really excited for the summer. Kids are getting out of school, which means teachers are free and many people choose to go on vacation. This also means that a lot of people struggle to keep a routine and may fall out of the good habits they've kept up for the year so far.

As a church leader, you'll need to put out a newsletter that encourages members to get excited for summer while also keeping up with their faith habits. You can gently remind them that God doesn't take a backseat while they go on summer break.

Keep this all in mind when thinking of ways to construct your newsletter. Stick to the theme of being "faithful" during summer break for your June church newsletter.

For example, you can:

Offer advice on how to keep a faith-filled routine in the summer time.
Talk about taking God with you on vacation.
Highlight the exciting church events happening in the summer.
Write up a prayer for safe travels.
Recommend faith-filled events that members can attend outside of the church community.

Offering guidance on keeping God in your life even as the seasons change and routines fade away will help your church members stay active with their faith.

July Church Newsletter Ideas

July brings us Independence Day, and there's so much to be thankful for. Patriotism and faith have had an interesting relationship, and as a church leader, you'll need to guide your members in this topic.

There are so many political issues that Christians should be concerned about, but it can be difficult to moderate how much religion should be involved with the governance of countries. Everyone will have different opinions about this, but it's your job as a church leader to help guide them.

Focus on the issue that people are increasingly struggling with, whether faith and patriotism should have anything to do with one another. During the season of patriotism, you should help your members think about this topic through the sections in your newsletter.

For your July church newsletter, think about including these ideas:

Remind your congregation about any church community Independence Day events.
Offer a scripture passage to reflect on loyalty to one's country and fellow citizens.
Give tips for giving back to one's community to celebrate the holiday.
Write a pastor letter on how faith and patriotism can work together.

Your church community can love God and country at the same time. Focus on helping them know how to prioritize the two!

August Church Newsletter Ideas

For many, August is known as the final scorching days of summer. But for Christians, it is a good time to reflect on endings. It's the end of summer, and to youth, it's the end of freedom. As a church leader, you can bring the metaphor of endings into your preaching and guidance for your members.

At the end of days, for example, God promises a newer, brighter beginning. He offers a chance to start over fresh with mercy and forgiveness. Use these teachings as a guide for your August church newsletter.

In this month's newsletter, you can add:

A pastor letter about the faith metaphor of endings and beginnings.
A reminder about God's mercy and forgiveness.
A scripture passage about our ability to be forgiven as God's people.
An offer to set up an appointment to ask the pastor questions about faith. To facilitate these questions and answers, many churches turn to a free church app that offers private chat. This way the pastors can efficiently answer questions privately.
A call to look out for sign-ups for religious education courses for the year or to join faith groups.

Using this theme of accepting endings while looking to new beginnings will help church members come to terms with where they are. As a church leader, you can help them take stock of their lives and understand that there's always something good on the other side.

September Church Newsletter Ideas

January might be the traditional month for new beginnings, but for many people, September represents that, too. Parents, kids and teachers are all gearing up for a new school year. The summer is ending, so there's a bittersweet feeling.

As a church leader, it's a good idea to support your community in all of these changes and anticipation. You might even have new religious programs starting up for the fall that you want members to get involved in. Additionally, families will be setting new routines as school starts, so it's important to remind them to make time for God in these new schedules.

Think about all this when your craft your September church newsletter. For example, you could:

Offer a prayer for parents and kids starting a new school year.
Give a blessing for educators .
Highlight your youth group and other clubs that students can get involved in.
Add in an overview of youth events that will be happening once school starts.
Make church announcements about any new sacraments occurring soon.

September is a month that's full of anticipation and sometimes anxiety. Being a confident leader with a lot to offer can help bolster your newsletter and strengthen your faith community.

October Church Newsletter Ideas

Many Churches struggle to find a direction for their October church newsletter. It's a bit too early to discuss Advent, and it's too late to discuss changing routines during the fall.

That's why it's a great time to focus on stewardship. Although churches should be hesitant to make stewardship the primary feature of their newsletter every month, they should feature it once.

Fall is the perfect time of year to talk about stewardship. It is just before the Christmas giving season where churches get most of their donations for the year. Bringing the topic up in late fall will help members get back into the routine of giving after being away for the summer and keep the topic on their minds as they head into Christmas.

Most choose the traditional pledge drive or stewardship campaign as the vehicle for their stewardship focus, but it is important members understand the Biblical importance of stewardship. Your October church newsletter can help by sharing Bible verses that focus on stewardship, such as...

Corinthians 4:2
Peter 4:10
Proverbs 13:22
Timothy 5:8
Deuteronomy 8:18
Acts 20:35
Colossians 3:23
Genesis 1:28
Corinthians 4:1-2
Luke: 1-13
Mathew 25: 14-30

When discussing these verses, try not to make giving sound like a duty. Help members understand how giving enriches their spiritual growth and the growth of the community.

November Church Newsletter Ideas

November is famous as the month of being thankful. Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays of the year in which families come together. While it's not technically a Christian holiday, Christians can eagerly celebrate it and incorporate their faith. November is also usually the month that Giving Tuesday falls on. If you've never heard of Giving Tuesday, you might want to educate yourself about it. In just one year, the holiday that occurs on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving helped nonprofits like churches raise $1.97 billion.

There's nothing un-Christian about being thankful, especially when we're thanking God. It's already a tradition for Christians to ask God to bless their food and to worship in thanksgiving every week. Sometimes, however, Christians need to be reminded that prayer isn't just for asking but for thanking God.

Theming your November church newsletter as giving thanks is a great way to engage your church members this month. For example, you could include:

Written prayer for blessing food at the table.
A pastor letter about all they're thankful for this year.
Prompts for church members to explore gratitude to God.
Scripture passages that are great for reading on Thanksgiving day.
Volunteer opportunities like bringing food to the needy for the holiday.
Providing a thank-you note to the congregation, thanking them for their support through the year. Here are a few thank you letter templates you can use.

Guiding your congregation on gratitude is something you do throughout the year. Thanksgiving, though, is a great excuse to ramp up the advice and resources.

December Church Newsletter Ideas

Just like with April, the month of December can be overshadowed by the big event: Christmas. It's very likely that your church members will be trying to rush through the month to get to the holidays, and this month can be a really busy time.

It's important to remind your congregation that they should reflect on the past year before they move forward with a new one. Your December church newsletter can be about the anticipation and reflection that happens leading up to Christmas. Make sure to emphasize this theme by including:

Questions to ask yourself about your faith progress this year.
Opportunities to spend more time on your faith before Christmas comes.
A pastor letter reflecting on the values of Christmas that should shine through the commercialism.
A yearly wrap-up of all the great things the church community has accomplished, such as money raised and events thrown.
A sneak peek at the goals the church leadership is setting for the following year.
A callout to year-end giving. This includes an overview of what impact the church has had throughout the year using the congregation's gifts. It is important to highlight the good your church did with the resources provided. This will inspire members to be more engaged when volunteering and inspire greater generosity.

With a successful newsletter following this theme, your congregation can truly enjoy December outside of celebrating Christmas.

Christmas Church Newsletter Ideas

Once you've successfully helped your congregation reflect on the past year before they wish their way through December, you can send out a special newsletter just for Christmas. As such an important holiday, Christmas never goes by without many events, volunteer opportunities and worship services.

The Christmas season often calls for more services than usual, which means you'll want to dedicate this newsletter mainly to helping the congregation understand their worship opportunities. You'll also want to offer up some special guidance on the holiday, especially regarding family.

Make sure to include:

A detailed schedule of all the worship services for Christmas.
A list of all the extra holiday group activities and opportunities.
The announcement for the live nativity or other special event that the youth group or other organization throws once a year.
The hours that the church is open so that members can spend extra time in reflection with God.
A pastor letter offering guidance on how to celebrate the holidays with family members we don't see often or might not get along with.

This Christmas church newsletter will be an extra special way to mark the holiday and help the community get involved in worship.

Fun Newsletter Ideas for Quiet Months

If one of your newsletters is looking a little thin, or you need that extra section to fill it out, here's some help. One of the best ways to add to your newsletter in a fulfilling way is to add information about new members of the community! You might even choose to add this section in every month's newsletter if your church gets a lot of new members.

Announce New Church Leaders

For example, if you have welcomed a new pastor, deacon, priest, or other church leader, make an announcement in your newsletter. It really helps that leader to connect with the community and receive a warm church welcome. It also helps the community to stay updated on their church.

You can try including a brief bio that will help them out even more. Knowing more than just a new leader's name, such as their educational background, hometown, last parish location and more will set everyone up for success. Members will be more confident in greeting the new leader if they find they have something in common with them, or if an aspect of their background is really interesting.

Welcome New Church Members

The same can be said for new church members. When they visit and register to be a part of your church, you can ask them if they'd like to be included in the newsletter. This is a great way to welcome them into the community. It also boosts morale of the current community by emphasizing that the church is growing.

If there are no new members that month, you can also choose to add a section of general welcome to new members instead. You can encourage the current community to bring friends and family to services and offer contact information and office hours for church visitors who might want to become permanent members.

Celebrate Recent Sacraments

Finally, new member announcements can also be marked by sacraments made. For example, if there has been a new baptism or wedding, make an announcement to the community. These are really exciting events for a church community and should be celebrated publicly.

This announcement will help young couples and newly baptized members know they are supported by their church. They should be encouraged to continue attending and keep up their faith practices. Knowing that their church cares will help with this.

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