At Robertson-Wesley, we are currently expanding our communication — that is, our use of various communication media that are available to us today. We are pressing beyond the usual internal communications, such as newsletters, bulletin boards, pamphlets, and Sunday bulletins toward internet media such as this blog, our website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, podcasts, and email; and toward public media such as newspapers, radio and television.

On the surface, this is just smart marketing. We are using the communication tools that are available today to let our community — and our world — know that Robertson-Wesley exists and that there are wonderful things happening here. It is not the intensive, strategic marketing of the commercial world — shaping a product to meet market demand, packaging and branding to dazzle the eyes. Rather, we are communicating what we have to offer, because we believe it is of critical value to people who will recognize the value when they learn about it.

But at a deeper level, communication is an expression of the church’s mission. At the heart of the church’s mission lies “evangelism”. This is a word that for many people today conjures up a picture of a glitzy, aggressive, arrogant, and self-centered promise of salvation. The real meaning of the word is simply “telling good news” — it is essentially a process of communication. Not manipulation, not heroically “saving” souls — just communicating a truth that is from God, a love beyond all understanding, embodied as best we can in the church.

So through all of these modern communication media, we are simply trying to tell our story and tell our truth — the sacred truth that transforms our lives — and how we endeavour to embody that truth in the life and work of the church. Jesus was an excellent communicator of divine truth for his time and, as his followers, we seek no more than to do the same for our time.