Are there ads on the back of your program?

I went to a new church this morning, because it's across the street and my church is an hour away. Anyway, I was looking through the program, and when I got to the back, there are business ads on the back, and a solicitation for more. Does this bother anyone else?
Duckie

for local businesses that support our church. I can't say it really bothers me. Printing costs are expensive.

And you're right. Now it doesn't bother me so much.
Thanks,
Duckie

...even though we call them bulletins. ;-)

So costs can be diverted from our collections.

A Church is the house of God, but it is also a small business.

Tons of adds in the same format every Sunday on our Parish Bulletin. However, most people don't consider it as a promotion for those services.

I don't consider our Parish and School any type of small business. The religious orders of Priests and Nuns assigned are from orders that require their members to take a "vow of poverty." The financial contributions are fully published and open for scrutiny.

We are also truly blessed that most our religious leaders in the local area are seemingly apolitical. We have mostly conservative Parishioners, but they are *usually* thoughtful enough to leave the politics to the local government.

It's far from perfection, but I feel useful and valued with the other active members within my local Parish and Catholic School.

No, the Ads on the back of the Parish Bulletin are IMO kind of "tacky" looking, but don't trouble me as a true bias, just a thoughtful donation by these businesses.

What I meant by small business, at least in my parish, is that the "parish office" runs like a small business. It has a secretaries, runs finances, etc, etc. I never realized that it was that entailed and detailed until I started helping out in there.

That's good news. Thanks for the clarification.

Yes, good point, we have secretaries also, but mostly Priests and Nuns are "in charge" so it doesn't have that wall street ambiance. LOL :spray:

Trust me, I worked on Wall Street. The main man-in-charge is our pastor's brother, and he's kind of the guy running around doing everything from church-school-secretary, etc, while the head is the pastor. We also have a directory of liturgy, kind of like the pastor's brother, but more only focused on church.

Because I came from a small Protestant church that did not do that...but we did have fans that prominently displayed the name of the donating funeral home!

It helps by covering the costs of the bulletins and it allows parishoners to advertize their businesses (if I go to one of them and I have a problem, you'd better believe I'll use that ad as a point in any complaints!), so basically I have no problem anymore with the practice.

I had to smile at the mention of the funeral home advertising, because I've often gotten free church calendars that prominently displayed the name of a funeral home. So along with the artwork and holy days of obligation, you got a monthly reminder of your mortality.

My own church bulletin has an ad from a local restaurant, which claims to have Washington's best burgers, so that makes me hungry during mass. :-)

I think church calendars are a cottage industry for funeral homes! I think church calendars are cool, though, because of all the saints and feast days, plus the vestment colors, etc.

I've always liked church calendars, even before I became Catholic.

But I understand most of the ads that are for funeral homes and/or local businesses. The church is a part of the community and can do well to support local small businesses, but I have yet to see a McDonalds ad, thanks be to God, in any of the churches I have visited.

...no. Those things cost money to put out, money that often the church barely has. Advertising helps offset some of the costs. Also, most of the ads (where I'm at, anyway) are from parishioners who own businesses, so it's a nice way to know who does what in case I need to throw some work someone's way. (These ads are reproductions of business cards, so they're not showy or flashy.)

I do have a problem, however, with the size of some of the bulletins I've seen. My church has just recently gone from a trifold to a mini-magazine type of format. Sometimes I wonder if that is worth the expense, especially since our weekly collections have been down a lot lately -- more, I think, than can be chalked up to the usual summer doldrums.

But no, ads serve a purpose so they don't bother me that much.

Years ago, when we didn't have ads in our parish bulletin, we got one page, usually just one side of one page. That wasn't too bad for a 400-family parish but now that we're over 1000 registered families, I'm glad we have 2-6 pages, text on backs and fronts, with a color photo of the main altar on the front page.

A lot of times you hear from people, "I don't know how to get involved in the parish." When the bulletin is large, it gives every group a chance to publicize themselves and their events.

It also gives commissions a chance to explain their mission, especially if collections are taken up for them. For instance, I'm part of the Social Outreach commission that distributes money collected to various organizations, here and abroad. When we disperse our funds, we have a fairly lengthy article in the bulletin explaining where the fiscal year's money went, as well as brief descriptions of the organizations. We collect money monthly for SO, and we've noticed that we're getting a little more each month, since people apparently are aware of where their money is going. That's important these days.

As long as it's not too big of a drain on the parish budget, large bulletins are indeed useful.

The weekly bullitens have ads. Most are from parishioners for their business as a lawyer or accountant or real estate agent. Some are just "Remember St. Vincent De Paul Poor Box" or things like that. And some are still blank.

Knowing a bit about the finances at the parish -- I think that all the support we can get to publish it is great.