Monthly Church Newsletter

Many church offices built their monthly newsletter in Publisher, and that file is the one people miss most. This template rebuilds the usual layout in Word: a big masthead, the pastor's letter, the worship schedule as a table, short news items, and a full calendar grid for the month on the back.

What's in it

• Masthead: your newsletter's name in large type, with a ruled line for the church name, month, volume and issue number.
• From the Pastor's Desk: three short paragraphs with a sign-off.
• Worship in [Month]: a table with the date, sermon title, scripture and preacher for each Sunday.
• News and Notes, Every Week (the regular schedule with dotted leaders) and Welcome for new members.
• [Month] at a Glance on the back: a seven-day calendar grid with five weeks, big enough to write two or three events in each box.
• Birthdays and Anniversaries side by side, Ministry Updates, and a footer line with your address, phone and office hours.

Fill it in with Word

Start with the masthead. Click on [Newsletter Name] and type your newsletter's name. If it's long, it will wrap to two lines; select it and pick a smaller size from the Home tab until it fits on one.

The calendar is a table. Click in a box and type. To number the days, type the date in the first line of each box and press Enter before the events. If the month starts on a Wednesday, leave the first three boxes empty. If it needs a sixth week, click in the last row, then on the Table Layout tab choose Insert Below (Microsoft's steps).

Add a Sunday to the worship table the same way: click in its last row and choose Insert Below. To delete a news item, select the whole paragraph and press Delete.

To find anything you missed, use Word's search box (Ctrl+F on Windows, Command+F on a Mac; Microsoft's list of Word shortcuts) and type a single [. Word jumps to every bracket still in the document. When the search finds nothing, you're done.

Ask before you print anyone's birthday. A month and day without the year is the usual courtesy.

Open it in Google Docs or LibreOffice

To work on it with others, upload it to Google Drive (New > File upload) and open it in Google Docs (Google: work with Office files). Share it with the pastor so the letter can go straight in. Check that the calendar still fits on page 2 and that the masthead hasn't wrapped.

In LibreOffice Writer, open the .docx with File > Open and keep saving it in Word format when asked, so the next person can open it in Word.

Print, email or mail it

To print: two-sided, flipped on the long edge, so the calendar is on the back of the letter.

To email: save a PDF (in Word, File > Save As and choose PDF; in Google Docs, File > Download > PDF document). A PDF looks the same on every phone and computer, and nobody can change it by accident.

To mail: fold it in thirds to fit a standard business envelope, and print the addresses on labels from your member list. Our address label guide walks through it in Word and with a Google Sheets list.