HeLP Project is a united communications initiative, purposed to promote things churches are doing to help people within their communities.
WHEN WILL IT BEGIN?
In 2023. In 2022 we are working on the data and web systems needed, and might do a small media spend in Tauranga – testing some ideas. However, the intended media, and media strategies, will not be created or tried until the option of including ‘help on offer” has been extended to churches nationally – with a simple process created at every step.
WHAT WILL IT PROMOTE — SPECIFICALLY?
Help on offer to communities via local Christian churches and their connected initiatives.
- This includes efforts based in one church, as well as collaborative efforts between churches and their people.
- A ‘local Church liaison’ will be needed / invited from each city and town, who can ensure things churches are doing are well represented.
What will the 2023 National media effort include?
- A public media campaign mid-year — including TV and web-media.
- Year-round promotion via various social media platforms, google ad words and the like
- HeLP Project website — to which people can go to search for areas of help available by location and category
A key part of this will be the telling of hope-inspiring stories about how people are being helped — shaped / styled with social media platforms in view.
HOW WILL HeLP Project BENEFIT CHURCHES?
- It will give promotion to things churches are doing to help others — so these efforts are better utilised.
- By doing this it will also address something of the negative perspectives developing in our nation toward the Church, as a result of our negative stories being told — but not our positive.
- It will enable church leaders and members to become more aware of what the united Church as a whole is doing in their city or town – enabling wider promotion of help on offer by individuals…
- …and also increased collaboration, where efforts are discovered that people are well suited to volunteer within.
What do you do when only your negative stories are being told?
You speak up to tell your own story — and the Christian Church has thousands of positive stories for every negative one told via public media.
This is a simple initiative – but can add value.
HeLP Project represents another innovation from the Shining Lights Trust, arising from consideration of a broad scope of challenges the Church (as a whole) faces by way of public profile, witness and local engagement. The proposed ‘solution’ is made easy by both the elegant simplicity of what is proposed (leveraging what exists — rather than creating something new), and could come together quite easily due to existing relationship with pastors’ groups nationally, as well as media connections due to Hope Project.
The Start-up Team
This is the third of the proposed ‘Hope Project’ annual media efforts — initiated by the Shining Lights Trust. The three proposed efforts were:
- Hope Project Easter (initiated 2014)
- Hope Project Christmas (Initiated 2019 — applying strategic analysis from the 2014 to 2016 Easter efforts)
- HeLP Project (Originally proposed as ‘Hope Project Family’, as a result of the same strategic analysis)
The team is therefore made up of people with expertise in marketing and media, database and web systems, networking and story-telling.
For more information please contact the team through this website.
‘Hope Project’ (who run ‘HeLP Project’) will contact city and town pastors’ groups regarding this late 2022 / early 2023, once ideas and systems are created and tested.
Comment from Dave Mann (Director, Shining Lights Trust)
For every negative story told about the Christian Church somewhere in the public square there are literally thousands of positive stories. It is necessary that we speak up to tell a few more of these stories, as no one else is going to do this for us. The amazing work local churches are doing also deserves some credit – and promotion Our teams began considering how we might help this happen as part of our post-event analysis following our first 3 national ‘Hope Project’ media engagements in 2014 to 2016. We could think of no better approach than to simply start telling stories of things churches are doing in their communities, while providing an opportunity to people to connect with those things. Instead of getting churches to do more, how about utilising what we already do – better?
By simply telling stories we worked out that our light as the Church will shine brighter — making us more effective in bringing the help and hope in the way Jesus desires.