Hello, I'm
Kristen
Hanna
Pastor / Writer / Helpless Nerd
About
I'm an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church (North Carolina Annual Conference), and for more than ten years I've had the privilege of leading discipleship, worship, and leadership development in local church and denominational settings. I've also spent a good portion of the last several years leading communications for our congregation on an interim basis.
I've come to see these as more connected than they might first appear. Whether I'm shaping curriculum for a new member class, planning worship for a multi-day conference, or figuring out what content is actually worth a congregation's attention, the work comes down to the same things: listening well, knowing your audience, and being clear.
Outside of ministry work, I'm an avid crafter with a serious coffee addiction, and am owned by two corgis named Olive and Rory.
Communications
Below is a sampling of some of communications deliverables that I have created from start to finish, as well as a sample planning document I put together for our 30th Anniversary "Bash on the Green." Much of my work in ministry has been collaborating with our communications lead and our various ministry groups so that the church can be the best it can be and better reach our community.
The below samples are all from my time running communications on an interim basis.
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Fiscal Year 2025
End of Year Giving Statement
Church members recieve a financial statement every quarter which includes a letter from our finance char along with a visual representation of our giving. I worked closely with our finance chair to create this document, taking his original letter and making minor adjustments for clarity (with his blessing) and used the figures provided to populate the charts.
Names, emails, and exact dollar amounts have been redacted for privacy purposes.
"This Week"
Newletter
A sample of one of our "This Week" Newsletters that is sent out weekly to the congregation, keeping them up to date on worship, events, and missional initiatives.
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Worship
Bulletin
This weekly bulletin format was a collaborative project between our former communications lead and me back in May of 2025. We worked together to design a weekly bulletin that would not only provide everything our congregation needed for worship, but would also serve as a mini newsletter of sorts that they could take home and use to keep track of upcoming events.
This particular bulletin is from my time serving as the interim communications lead, during which time I was responsible for formatting and populating the weekly bulletins from start to finish.
Some names and contact information have been redacted for privacy purposes.
Published Writing Samples
Below is a sampling of some of my written work. Three are taken from Thinking Through Christianity (no longer active). TTC was comprised of ecumenical pastors, lay people, musicians, professors, and poets from a wide swath of the Christian tradition. Topics included Christian doctrine, discipleship, book reviews, Christian and church history, world events, politics, pop culture, spirituality- essentially anything the light of Christ can touch, we probably wrote on it!
The fourth article is one of two that I have written for NC COSROW'S "Encouragements" newsletter.
Curriculum & Training Samples
Below are some examples of curriculum, devotional materials, and training that I have organized for the local church. The New Members Curriculum and Lay Leader Training was aimed at adults ages 25+ and the Advent @ Home Devotionals were intended to be used either by adults or families with children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Please note: for the sake of brevity, these are snippets and not the entirety of each work.
Vision & Strategy
Below is an example of strategic visioning and planning from a congregation where I served. This was a collaborative effort among the pastoral staff and ministry leaders in 2015, translating broad discipleship goals into a clear, communicable roadmap. It yielded strong fruit: increased small group participation, clarity of "where we're going," and a deeper understanding of church membership among the congregation.
While I might design it a bit differently now (graphically, it's a lot!), it reflects the visioning processes I've participated in and helped implement.
Graphic Design by Patty Anthony Mercer
