Wil Triggs, director of communications

Truth often comes alive inthe form of story.

So much of what Jesus taught came as parable or story or examples from life happening at the time. The sower. The prodigal son. The good Samaritan. The widow’s mite. Often people didn’t understand, not at first. But God is in the business of opening eyes and transforming hearts.

College Church is blessed with people, people with stories, and stories that need telling, not only to us, but also to the world around us. God is working in our midst. How can we not tell the stories of amazing grace? We can be living Good Samaritans or lost sheep or people who find the lost coin. Jesus is with us in our boats in the storms, and he can and does say “Peace. Be still.”

When we share the stories of God at work with one another, hope grows. God is not far away. He’s close. Look at what he’s doing in Kara Beth’s life. Think about our missionaries to Ukraine and the pastors we met. Be encouraged by Charles’s perseverance in visiting and caring for the sick. The gospel came alive in James and Jerusha and they shared that story with us. Roger journeyed to the 9-11 Memorial and he took us with him through story. This was especially true with our missionaries and visiting pastors from Ukraine in the days just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Maybe it’s because of coming out of the pandemic, but the stories we tell one another seem more powerful than ever before.

This year, we have added visual artists into our communications like never before. I’m grateful for the artists and photographers in our midst being willing to share their gifts with College Church. You’ll notice them on the cover of Connections, inside, too. And they also have been showing up on OneWord Journal. We are working toward a group to affirm, support and grow the artists here at church.

After many years of work, the website of College Church was redesigned and launched this year. The new website reflects College Church’s “Discover, Grow, Impact” story of gospel-focused identity. Thanks to Christy Truitt for her perseverance in navigating the creation of this through the pandemic months and beyond. The site seeks to be friendly and accessible to newcomers but also offer a depth of content the we members and regular attenders want. Thanks, too, to Christy Chiodras, Tony Visconti, Joseph Abdelmelek and our support staff ministry team in their work keeping the site up to date and using our events page to give easy and comprehensive access to upcoming events.

I’m grateful to Kathryn McBride, our creative communications coordinator, for her excellent graphic design work. Thanks goes, too, to Elaine Meyer for helping us produce worship folders every week and to Nancy Weckler for her volunteer work most every week to keep our print media available and our bookstore stocked and clean. Thanks, too, to Lenny Johncola, Debbie Keefe and Pat Fallon for their staffing and selling of books on Sunday mornings. Grateful, too, to Lorraine, for everything.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. (Eph. 4:25)

WEBSITE FROM APRIL 1, 2021 - APRIL 1, 2022

WAYS PEOPLE GOT TO THE WEBSITE:

33,681 organic searches

32,361 direct

16,171 paid search

5,127 referral

1,946 social media

83,869 users

410,833 total page views

2.62 pages per user

2:08 average time on site

79.7% were new users

almost a 50/50 split from male to female users

45% mobile

51% desktop

4% tablet

The home page accounted for 28% of all traffic

The live stream accounted for 21.48%