Long-Term Campus Sustainability Team
Some communications projects are straightforward. This was not one of them. In 2021, First United Methodist Church Plano was facing a significant financial crossroads - one that required honest, compassionate conversations with a congregation that had deep emotional ties to the future being reconsidered. As Communications Lead for the Long-Term Campus Sustainability Team (LTSC), my job was to help people understand difficult information without losing their trust or their sense of belonging in the process.
I assembled and led a dedicated communications team, and together we developed everything the LTSC needed to present its findings - to church staff, the full congregation, and leadership up to and including the Bishop of the North Texas United Methodist Conference. Every piece we created had to hold two things at once: the facts, and the feelings. That balance was not incidental to the work. It was the work.
Challenge Guide a congregation through a sensitive financial discernment process, including the potential sale of 10 to 14 acres of church property, with transparency, empathy, and clarity. Communications needed to reach multiple audiences with different levels of context and different emotional stakes, from longtime members to denominational leadership, without fracturing trust or community during a period of significant uncertainty.
Strategic Approach
Assembled and led a volunteer communications team, establishing shared voice, tone, and messaging standards across all materials
Developed a communications framework that prioritized transparency without alarm, giving the congregation accurate information while preserving space for discernment and dialogue
Created audience-specific messaging for church staff, congregation members, and conference leadership, recognizing that each group needed to hear the same story told differently
Built in consistent talking points for team members so that informal conversations carried the same clarity and compassion as formal communications
Implementation
Produced polished slide presentations for congregational and conference-level meetings
Wrote newsletter articles that synthesized complex financial and logistical information into accessible, pastoral language
Developed informational brochures that could be shared broadly and referenced independently
Created and maintained consistent talking points for team members navigating one-on-one conversations with congregation members
Managed the pacing and sequencing of communications to ensure the congregation felt informed at every stage rather than surprised by decisions already made
Click on the images below for examples.
