Not everyone owns a horse. Most of us don’t have the luxury of galloping through town shouting Paul-Revere-esque announcements to declare the latest children’s events, updates, and ministry ideas. Of course, even those of us who do own horses don’t have the luxury of picking just one form of communication. If we want to make sure our families hear us, we need to diversify.

1. Social media. Create a Facebook group. Take a picture of that event flyer and post it to Instagram. Create recurring video announcements using Facebook Live. Tweet. Tweet. Tweet. Love it or hate it, social media isn’t leaving any time soon. It’s free, and it’s a fast and easy way to reach a lot of people. You don’t have to use every single site available. Do some light digging to figure out what what site or sites are most likely to be used by the people you’re trying to reach, and create a presence there. After all, what’s the point of having the coolest children’s ministry Snaps ever—if nobody in your ministry uses Snapchat?

2. Snail Mail. A children’s ministry parent who also happened to be a very busy surgeon once told me he stayed on top of the latest children’s ministry news from his church by reading the monthly newsletter in the bathroom. Not only is the written word still a great way to communicate longer messages; it still has a knack for finding a captive audience.

3. Email and Text. Services like MailChimp provide low-cost (and often free) bulk-email services. Even better, you’ll know exactly how many people are reading your emails. If you already create a print newsletter, just copy and paste it into a service like MailChimp to also create an e-newsletter. Apps like Remind provide similar services for texting.

4. Church. No matter how many ways we think of to send out information, there will still be those who only pay attention when they’re inside the church building. Create a low-maintenance information table or bulletin board to serve as the HQ for children’s ministry information and forms. If parents are onsite and looking for info they may have missed, they’ll always know where to go.

5. Website. Web technology is making it easier for anyone to maintain basic websites. Your church website is the go-to place for people checking out your church as a whole. In addition to communicating vision and basic information, be sure that your church’s site directs people to where they can get more detailed information about your ministry.