Use listservs to stay or get connected

I'm from Iowa--land of corn, soybeans, the nation's largest state fair, and a relatively small number of professional Christian educators. Many towns have no paid Christian education or youth ministry staff members in any church. It's tough sometimes to feel connected to others who understand the life of a CE staff person.

When I was asked to take over the Christian Educators Fellowship newsletter for the Iowa chapter, I mulled it over and decided it was time to see if we could accomplish many of the same things with a listserv. A listserv, simply put, is an email group made up of people with a similar interest. Some listservs are unidirectional; that is, the list moderator is the only one who can send messages. Other groups allow any member to post, but replies go just to the original sender. (Freecycle is a very useful listserv that operates in this fashion.) Still other groups are set up so all messages go to every member in the list, regardless of who sends them. This is the kind of list I set up for our CEF chapter. Currently, our list has 126 members--pastors, volunteers, youth workers, Christian education staff members, conference staff persons, and more. Connecting with 125 others is a whole lot more useful and interesting than connecting just with the very small number of CE people I know in my area.

Starting and moderating a listserv is really easy, free, and not very time-consuming. I moderate at least five groups at any point in time, and rarely do I spend more than five or ten minutes a week taking care of list-related tasks. Listservs are great because people can sign up or remove themselves from the group on their own. My favorite place to set up listservs is through Yahoo! Groups, but there are other similar services, such as Google Groups and Topica. The procedures for starting a group are all pretty similar--give it a name, decide on the settings you want, create a welcome message for new subscribers, and invite people to join. Honestly, it's not hard at all, and there are plenty of help files to assist you if you get stuck.

Let me describe some of the groups I moderate, and maybe you'll get some ideas for your group. (All group names are the Yahoo! Group name you would search for if you wanted to join.)

Group #1: ia-cef is the Christian education group I just mentioned. It's a great way for us to share ideas, ask questions, post job listings, announce special events, and more. You're welcomed to join our list, but I'd really encourage you to create your own network in your area.

Group #2: ia-aym was the second group I started. It was created for our Academy for Youth Ministry--a 9-month intensive training program for youth ministers in the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church. This is an example of a discussion and support group created for a particular small group/event.

Group #3: menince is a group I began a few years ago for networking men who are Christian educators--a pretty small subset of the total population of CE staff. The group still exists (I'd love to have you join us!), and occasionally a message or two gets sent to the group, but apparently we haven't quite reached a critical mass yet or just haven't felt enough need for the group. I've learned as a result of this group that it's important to a) have a passionate facilitator and b) have at least a few passionate members if a group is going to survive over the long haul.

Group #4: summersundayschool was a group I started for my congregation this summer. We don't normally hold Sunday school in the summer, so I thought I'd try using a listserv to create a class. Participants were sent a PDF document each week during the summer for them to read and discuss with the group. (The curriculum I chose was The Thoughtful Christian.) Our group never really got any dialogue going, but everyone said they appreciated getting the lessons to read. I'll definitely try doing this again in the future.

So, to sum up: listservs are email lists that are great tools for connecting to others with the same interests as you, and being a list moderator is really quite easy. You might use a listserv in Christian education to connect with other educators from your state, to connect people in a Sunday school class, to announce information about church events (so members feel more connected to the church), or to help the people in your congregation who are passionate about movies to connect with one another. Have another great idea about how to use listservs in Christian education? Leave a comment and share it with others!