Tabernacle Baptist Church
Tabernacle Baptist Church, the church on the hill, was founded in 1874. Originally located in downtown Raleigh for over 127 years, the church moved to its new home Leesville Road in 2001. As you may imagine, this was a big but necessary move. Considering the rich history and tradition of the church and its member, Tabernacle was in need of a solution that would both serve as an archive for history and communicate church business to its members.
The Problem
2020 was definitely a year for the books. With the implementation of state-mandates for social distancing, religious organizations were faced with many obstacles, including finding new technologies for virtual worship services and maintaining momentum for initiatives such as mission work and spreading the gospel.
Tabernacle Baptist Church certainly faced and overcame many of these similar issues. Fortunately, the church was equipped with technology to allow them to televise services. However, with a large senior adult population, many members rode the rollercoaster of a Zoom learning curve in order to continue studies and stay up-to-date with church business.
So the question is: How does a church with longstanding traditions, an aging congregation, and the need to communicate organizational business share this information with its members? Easy, an annual report.
The Solution
Although annual reports are typically used for large corporations, non-profit organizations like churches can greatly benefit from a publication like an annual report. For starters, it gives stakeholders an idea of yearly ongoings and the vision for where the organization is headed. What’s more is that annual reports, in a way, can also serve as an organization’s yearbook, so to speak.
In this scenario, the stakeholders for Tabernacle Baptist Church are its members or those who might have been part of the congregation. An annual report gives the members a sense of the church’s operational budget, how many members joined the church over the past year, shares news from various committees, and gives updates on church news.
The Design
As far as design choices, traditional, simple, and clean were the key for this particular publication. For starters, Tabernacle is a very traditional church—think Times New Roman traditional. Considering this, typefaces such as Georgia, Baskerville, and the ever so popular Open Sans were used throughout the annual report. The overall layout of the publication used white space when needed and followed a comfortable grid. Colors that were used were also pulled from church spaces and the church logo such as the colonial blue, green, and golden yellow. Selected photography was also commercial, clean, and polished—no Instagram filters here!
The Final Result
The end result of the annual report was a well-received publication that captured both interesting and concise information in a sharable format for its end-user: the congregation member. Not only did the annual report showcase how the church overcame obstacles presented with the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, but it also proved that hope was indeed found.
