Typically, when I write, it is on behalf of Citychurch. The information is about the ministry and all that God is accomplishing through your support. However, I need to start a conversation with you about the transition we are going through. This change affects Citychurch but has felt very personal for me.

Over the past year, we have been laying the groundwork for a pivot in our communication with you, our supporters. However, some genuine challenges have made it impossible to continue relying on the systems that have served us so well in the past. Specifically, I am referring to using local television broadcasts and mass direct mailing.

Years ago, when we first began to buy local air time on our TV stations, the cost was affordable, and streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix had yet to be conceived. We learned that video is powerful because, with it, we could take you along with us in our day-to-day ministry. We could not only speak of what we experienced, but we could also show it. Many people found us this way. Some of our longest-serving supporters have never been to our physical location in Amarillo. Their connection has been through our weekly programs broadcast to a broad, tri-state geographic footprint.

No doubt you have noticed that there has been a tremendous shift in the audience size of local television. Many families have “cut the cable” and chosen instead to stream whatever programming they wish to watch whenever they want. This new pattern is exciting in many ways, but it also has made it difficult for us to communicate our needs and the needs of the children we serve. Simply put, fewer people are watching local TV. At the same time, the cost to broadcast over local television has risen sharply to the point that it no longer provides a viable way for our ministry to reach our supporters. Wise stewardship of God’s resources has always been very important to me, and I have felt for some time that we needed to reevaluate this effort.

You may not know that we have consistently produced all of our media ourselves. Whether video, print, or social media, we have always done everything necessary to engage our audience. Years ago, this was an effort made by my brother James and me. However, some years ago, James moved his family to serve as a media missionary with JAARS, a logistical support for Wycliffe Bible Translators in North Carolina. I love James, and I’m so proud of his work, but his departure meant that the responsibility of producing our media has fallen on my shoulders. For 25 years, I have enjoyed working as a photographer, videographer, musician, and digital designer for Citychurch. However, producing a weekly television program has been personally challenging. Most weeks, to meet our broadcast deadlines, I have had to pull at least one and sometimes two “all-nighters.” You can imagine how difficult it has been to keep up this work rhythm. It has distracted me from the relational part of my calling and made meeting the ministry’s daily needs nearly impossible.

Traditionally, we have also used large direct mail campaigns to introduce folks in our city and beyond to the unique work of Citychurch. This is still an effective method of communication. However, the cost of reaching our supporters through mass mailing has quadrupled in recent years. As much as we have tried to be creative to keep the cost to a minimum, the cost has reached a point that it, too, is far beyond the resources of our ministry. For example, this Christmas, we designed a campaign that, in the past, would have been affordable but that now would have cost more than our entire summer ministry budget. We simply could not look to this method as a realistic alternative.

While we have struggled through these challenges, I have been meeting with local business people and other ministry leadership to find more affordable alternatives to share our stories of ministry and keep you informed on the ways that you could help. I want you to know that you are vital to this ministry. Without your help, it simply would not be possible. God has called us to such a critical mission that simply choosing to wind it down and let it die due to lack of funding would be tragic. However, if we continue on our current course, I am afraid that, in time, we will be left with no other choice.

We have always been innovative and “light on our feet” at Citychurch. We have no debt. Our full-time staff is small and very efficient, and all of our planning has flexibility built into it so that we can adjust to the flow of resources to care for the children in whatever season we are in. In response to our communication challenges, we have chosen a different path that I am excited about. It will allow us to produce media content that will be more relevant to our partners and a better use of God’s resources. In addition, I will be able to make better use of volunteers and other staff who can lend a hand in the job of communication.

With those considerations in mind, we will no longer broadcast on local television and will focus on creating ministry stories that we stream from our website. We have also launched a new YouTube channel that will be our media’s online archive. To the greatest extent possible, we will communicate through a much simpler letter that we can print and mail using volunteers at Citychurch and a weekly email newsletter.

The cost of this new approach will be a fraction of what we have had to invest in traditional media. These new formats will also allow us to create media around our weekly ministry schedule instead of meeting rigid external deadlines. I love the creative process of story-telling, and I look forward to bringing you fresh content that will more accurately reflect the realities we face in the neighborhood.

We have launched a new weekly podcast, “…for the heart of the city,” that allows us to have a deeper conversation about our philosophy of ministry, answer tough questions, and better communicate the need for a robust and healthy church in the poorest areas of our city. We have also re-launched a more straightforward preaching ministry that will allow us to share the preaching and teaching at Citychurch every week. In addition, we have been communicating weekly through a digital newsletter that allows us to write more frequently and share all of the photos and videos we capture as we work.

Again, I’m excited about these changes, if for no other reason than the time and freedom they will add to our work schedule. I ask that you consider visiting us online to see the changes we have made to our website. I would also ask that you pray for us during this time of transition. It will take time for folks to learn where they can find the information online that used to be available through our regular broadcasts. I also know it will take time for our supporters to provide us with their email addresses so we can inform them digitally.

Finally, I’m asking you to continue to support Citychurch financially. I know that as we step into these changes, it might leave some folks with the perception that Citychurch is losing steam or changing its direction. I want to assure you that this is certainly not the case. If anything, we continue to grow as we lean into the same mission, calling, and conviction that we have held since our very beginning: that every child has the right to hear about Jesus.

I still believe, with all my heart, that if someone desires to make a difference in a child’s life, there’s no more effective and efficient way to do it than to support the work of Citychurch.

In Your Service,

Donnie

Philippians 1:3-6

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. ~ESV