Socially Awkward During Post-Service Coffee Time? Talk About IGR!: Some Thoughts About Grassroots IGR Promotion

by Jeff Wilson

                 At the August Interfaith Grand River meeting we had a very productive discussion about branding, elevator pitches, and the deeper purposes that IGR seeks to serve. The conversation was so good, in fact, that we used up our time before we got to the matter of promotional ideas. I’m sure various people have good ideas to contribute, and I wanted to share a few possibilities that occurred to me. Many won’t be especially new or surprising, but it can be useful nonetheless to surface and organize them all in one place for us to remember.

                 Promotion may be usefully divided between actions the organization is taking, and actions we are each taking as members. In a smaller volunteer-run organization, each member needs to take some responsibility for getting the word out. We all have unique networks, and at the same time we share the fact that we’re individual members of religious groups. Thus we can act as liaisons for IGR to our congregations and their connected networks, publicizing IGR’s existence, work, and events.

                 One avenue for disseminating info about Interfaith Grand River is word of mouth at your local congregation. During post-service coffee and tea or similar gatherings you may have the opportunity to raise awareness of IGR by chatting about your experiences, what happened at the last meeting that you attended, or asking friends about their own interfaith interactions. In fact, while the cool and confident members of IGR probably rarely experience social anxiety, perhaps there are among us some folks who find themselves unsure of what to say or whom to talk to in unstructured social gatherings. Why not use IGR as your tool to social stardom?

                 If you can work out a little elevator pitch about why you think IGR/interfaith conversations matter to you, it’ll give you something to fall back on whenever you face awkward silence. Or what about opening by mentioning that you went to an IGR meeting recently, has your conversation partner heard of them? In talking about IGR, you might gain some valuable “intel” about how people think about interfaith activities. “What might make you interested in attending IGR?” “What factors might inhibit you from going?” Valuable insights might be gleaned to report back to the group, or you might rustle up some new IGR members. Even if not, at a minimum, you got through coffee hour without having to look at your feet.

                 Attracting people to IGR meetings would work especially well if there’s some sort of special or noteworthy event coming up. For example, IGR could host a session of “Interfaith Speed Dating” (hat tip to Kristen Wilson for the name). Divide the group into two halves, with one half sitting down. Everybody has a name tag that includes their names and a denominational identifier. Then everyone in group two is paired to sit with someone in group one, and the timer starts. Each couple has five minutes to learn about the other person’s religion. Starter questions might include “Did you grow up as a [Catholic/Mormon/Reform Jew, etc]?” “What do you think is the most misunderstood thing about your religion?” or perhaps “What is the most meaningful experience you ever had at church/synagogue/etc?” After five minutes the buzzer sounds: everyone in group two stands up and rotates to sit with the next person in group one. At the end of the session you’ve talked to a bunch of people from different groups, and learned a little something about all of them. This could be a fun, low-stakes activity that non-IGR people would be interested in attending. Alternately, it’s the kind of thing we could do at the IGR booth for the Multicultural Festival: have the volunteers sit at a table with a sign about Interfaith Speed Dating, and when people walk by they can sit down for a 3-minute “date” with someone of a different faith.

                 Promotion needn’t just be about interpersonal contact. If you avoid post-service conversations altogether and just run for the door, you can still do your part. For example, many congregations publish a newsletter. That’s a natural place where you could regularly publicize the next month’s IGR meeting time and place, perhaps with the discussion theme as well and a link to the IGR website. It only takes a sentence or two, and could be done every month; special events with connections to IGR (such as the Interfaith Community Breakfast, or an Interfaith Speed Dating session) would also be natural inclusions. Beyond upcoming events, the newsletter may be a place where you can write little essays about your experiences with IGR, why multifaith community is important, interesting historical facts about IGR, and other relevant tidbits.

                 Many congregations also have an announcements portion during their regular services. Depending on your congregational culture, this could be another place to publicize upcoming IGR meetings. And any congregations have a physical bulletin board to announcements. That’s another place IGR news could go. Obviously you could also post upcoming meetings on Facebook or other shared media, as appropriate.

                 There are also ways that we as a group could be doing more in informal ways. We hold an interfaith service or two each year at local congregations. That’s great, but we could also go as an interfaith group to one another’s services. For example, in September as many members as are available could simply commit to attend a regular service at so-and-so’s church on the second weekend of the month. Then in October, members all try and attend a service and such-and-such member’s temple on the second weekend. And so on. Once a month, just going as a group to a different congregation. You might get twelve fascinating interfaith spiritual encounters out of such an activity, and showing up as a contingent means a) IGR will get attention as an intriguing contingent of new faces and b) you’re guaranteed to have someone you know to talk to at the post-service refreshments. Plus, if you’re the outgoing type, you’ll be in the perfect place to try out your shiny new IGR elevator pitch.

                 In these various ways we can each be ambassadors for IGR and interfaith understanding in the Tri-City area.