From the Wittenberg Door Campus Ministry News Desk - February 8, 2026
(It's been a very long time since the last Wittenberg Door newsletter, dated in June of 2025. We're still here. This is the start of a new format for passing around our news, long overdue.)
I've put up a few posts which, when taken together, are approximately like the newsletters produced in past years for Wittenberg Door Campus Ministry. I think some explanation is warranted.
When we first founded Wittenberg Door, email newsletters were a common thing. We communicated with a list of followers, participants, possible participants, supporters, and church congregation this way regularly. But as time went on, we found it increasingly difficult to maintain the mailing system. We also found that a lot of people, over time, were treating our updates as spam.
A few years ago, in an attempt to boost visibility more, and with the philosophy that putting a piece of paper into people's hands was more effective at creating that visibility, we started mailing a newsletter. For some time, it was monthly, or possibly 10-11 times per year. During the last few years, mailing costs have risen steeply.
Web traffic has remained relatively constant, increasing gradually over the years. So we've decided to have a hybrid type of newsletter. Please let us know if you would like to be receiving our news via postal mail. We will probably keep sending newsletters in print to local church congregations in any case. It's much easier for a local church leader to take something out of an envelope and post it on a bulletin board or distribute copies to the congregation physically than it is to get someone to remember to print out a copy and post it. However, if we are told of your preference for an electronic newsletter, you will save us over a dollar in printing and postage costs each time we send something out. Those little amounts add up significantly throughout the year.
Now, why haven't you received a Wittenberg Door newsletter since June of 2025? Since Pastor Spotts cut back in hours early in 2025, one of the cutbacks was intended to be less frequent newsletters. Now we have decided that, since web traffic has actually been increasing, we'll just put out fairly frequent blog posts that represent one or another part of a normal newsletter. They are tagged "newsletter" and can be found easily on the blog at www.wittenbergcomo.com . After a few have built up, my plan is to pull them together into one .pdf newsletter and send them out via email, social media announcement, and postal mail.
There have been some delays in implementing this flow of news. Beginning in September of 2025 and increasing since then, Pastor Spotts has been dealing with a health issue. It began with disorientation, fatigue, and pain. This increased significantly through October and November, and culminated in Pastor Spotts going onto an unpaid leave of absence from his work with the hospital ministry as of the end of December. There have been lots and lots of tests, and we think the underlying issue has been identified. We're still attempting to identify an adequate medical regimen that will bring relief from the worst of the symptoms. All that to say, from the time we would have tried to get a newsletter out until now, production of a newsletter has not been a reasonable goal.
In the last few months, many activities have been cancelled, however, we have managed to keep up with the most basic and mission-critical activities, including what is proving to be a well attended Bible discussion group at a fraternity. It seems that some recovery is on the horizon and that we'll be able to get more involved again in the kind of programs we've had in the past. Meanwhile, we're doing what we can to care for the souls entrusted to us, to spread news locally about opportunities to minister to people, and to be sure that we are above reproach in all that we do.
Please take a moment and drop an email to Pastor Spotts at [email protected] if you would like to be someone who checks for news on our blog. If you would like to be included in an email of our periodic newsletters in .pdf format, just say the word. And if you specifically want to be sure you receive a paper copy of the email, let me know that as well, along with your current postal address. And while you're at it, pray for the ongoing work of the Gospel in and around Columbia, Missouri.
(It's been a very long time since the last Wittenberg Door newsletter, dated in June of 2025. We're still here. This is the start of a new format for passing around our news, long overdue.)
I've put up a few posts which, when taken together, are approximately like the newsletters produced in past years for Wittenberg Door Campus Ministry. I think some explanation is warranted.
When we first founded Wittenberg Door, email newsletters were a common thing. We communicated with a list of followers, participants, possible participants, supporters, and church congregation this way regularly. But as time went on, we found it increasingly difficult to maintain the mailing system. We also found that a lot of people, over time, were treating our updates as spam.
A few years ago, in an attempt to boost visibility more, and with the philosophy that putting a piece of paper into people's hands was more effective at creating that visibility, we started mailing a newsletter. For some time, it was monthly, or possibly 10-11 times per year. During the last few years, mailing costs have risen steeply.
Web traffic has remained relatively constant, increasing gradually over the years. So we've decided to have a hybrid type of newsletter. Please let us know if you would like to be receiving our news via postal mail. We will probably keep sending newsletters in print to local church congregations in any case. It's much easier for a local church leader to take something out of an envelope and post it on a bulletin board or distribute copies to the congregation physically than it is to get someone to remember to print out a copy and post it. However, if we are told of your preference for an electronic newsletter, you will save us over a dollar in printing and postage costs each time we send something out. Those little amounts add up significantly throughout the year.
Now, why haven't you received a Wittenberg Door newsletter since June of 2025? Since Pastor Spotts cut back in hours early in 2025, one of the cutbacks was intended to be less frequent newsletters. Now we have decided that, since web traffic has actually been increasing, we'll just put out fairly frequent blog posts that represent one or another part of a normal newsletter. They are tagged "newsletter" and can be found easily on the blog at www.wittenbergcomo.com . After a few have built up, my plan is to pull them together into one .pdf newsletter and send them out via email, social media announcement, and postal mail.
There have been some delays in implementing this flow of news. Beginning in September of 2025 and increasing since then, Pastor Spotts has been dealing with a health issue. It began with disorientation, fatigue, and pain. This increased significantly through October and November, and culminated in Pastor Spotts going onto an unpaid leave of absence from his work with the hospital ministry as of the end of December. There have been lots and lots of tests, and we think the underlying issue has been identified. We're still attempting to identify an adequate medical regimen that will bring relief from the worst of the symptoms. All that to say, from the time we would have tried to get a newsletter out until now, production of a newsletter has not been a reasonable goal.
In the last few months, many activities have been cancelled, however, we have managed to keep up with the most basic and mission-critical activities, including what is proving to be a well attended Bible discussion group at a fraternity. It seems that some recovery is on the horizon and that we'll be able to get more involved again in the kind of programs we've had in the past. Meanwhile, we're doing what we can to care for the souls entrusted to us, to spread news locally about opportunities to minister to people, and to be sure that we are above reproach in all that we do.
Please take a moment and drop an email to Pastor Spotts at [email protected] if you would like to be someone who checks for news on our blog. If you would like to be included in an email of our periodic newsletters in .pdf format, just say the word. And if you specifically want to be sure you receive a paper copy of the email, let me know that as well, along with your current postal address. And while you're at it, pray for the ongoing work of the Gospel in and around Columbia, Missouri.
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