Since 2010, Dana Cadman, Communications and Information Services Director, has provided EPC churches with free webinars on the topics of church communications. Topics have ranged from Sunday bulletins, to web sites, to making videos with PowerPoint.

“The problem with the live format is that we have churches in four time zones. Trying to find a day and a time when everyone could be available for the call-in was impossible,” says Cadman. “I needed to do something different.”

It was after having a conversation with Susan Holland, Student Ministries Coordinator and Susan Nash, Interim Women’s Ministry Director that he had a solution. “Student Ministries had been using EPC Community (EPC.SocialGo.com) discussion forums to facilitate online classes. Women In Ministry were interested in putting some of their R.E.A.L. training into webinars. It occurred to me we could make a “mashup” of the two concepts.”

Cadman now pre-records all of his communications presentations and uploads them to the EPC’s YouTube channel (www.YouTube.com/EPChurch80) for viewing. After people watch the videos, they can log into EPC Community and discuss the videos. “People have been very excited about the new format,” says Cadman. “People can stop into EPC Community any time to ask a question about the video, leave a comment, or share other resources they are aware of. And the great thing is people can join a conversation months after a video is uploaded. Another advantage is that I’m no longer constrained to a 60-minute format. I can expand a topic to 90 minutes if necessary, then break the video into 10 to 20-minute chunks.”

Cadman is grouping the videos into topics. The current series include Communications Basics, Building a Communications Team, Developing a Communications Plan for Your Church, and general communications topics.