Church Directories and the Body of Christ

My wife and I moved to a new town a few years ago. Before we even settled in, a neighbor invited us to attend her church just down the street from our new home, and we received a friendly personal invitation from the church’s pastor. We have always gone to church (I’m a retired pastor) and we decided to give the congregation a try.

The congregation wasn’t huge, but several people introduced themselves and welcomed us — without putting us on the spot as “new people.”

Here was a church that was doing several things right regarding newcomers to the community! The worship style also suited us, and it didn’t take long to decide to continue attending.

From week to week, we found ourselves struggling to remember the names of everyone we met there. We began learning their names, but then others we had not seen before would show up for the Sunday service, though it was obvious they were not strangers to the established worshipers.

Print Directories Are Frozen in the Past

I mentioned to the pastor our difficulty putting names with faces, and he handed me a printed church directory, apologetically saying “This may help a little … but it’s six years old and the congregation has changed some since this was issued.”

He was right. It did help a little, but in those six years the pandemic had negatively affected the attendance habits of some, others had moved away, some had died, and some new arrivals had joined the congregation. That directory was frozen in time.

Online Directories Build Connections and Foster Relationships

We now know the names of those currently active in the church, but it took some time to get there, and it seemed impolite to ask people for their name several times in a row. To us, it often felt like the subtext was, “I didn’t care enough to remember,” even though that was not the case.

But there’s a more important subtext as well: Biblically speaking, a congregation is part of the body of Christ. It’s not just a collection of names but a living, connected body of believers.

A church directory that can readily be kept up-to-date addresses both of those subtexts. It can help us identify current members, recognize new attendees, memorialize the recently deceased, and view images of ongoing activities and ministries. It can include a place for the pastor to offer an encouraging word to the flock, and reflect on the unity and purpose of the congregation.

Such a directory is, in fact, a visual representation of the church community, including folks we may not have met yet. It can be a tool for connection and fostering deeper relationships beyond just recognizing faces.

The Instant Church Directory does all those things. It can strengthen the church body as it is today, and offers so much more than a stack of paper that is created at great expense, has its moment, and is then left to gather dust in the church office.