- 1). Organize a church cookbook planning committee. The group usually consists of the pastor, a lead organizer, the treasurer and several assistant organizers. Circulate a sign-up sheet during worship or choose committee members based on experience and their level of involvement with the faith community.
- 2). Decide on a theme for your church's cookbook. A general cookbook includes appetizers, main dishes, sides, desserts and drinks. Other cookbooks have themes such as Christmas, Easter, picnic foods, children's recipes or barbecue recipes.
- 3). Select the best format for your church cookbook. Traditionally, church cookbooks are sent to a printer where they are printed and bound in spiral-notebook fashion. Your church could save expenses by creating an e-cookbook or printing the cookbook on printer paper yourselves, punching holes in the pages and placing them in a three-ring binder. The most economically and socially appropriate option will be influenced by your budget and the culture of your congregation.
- 4). Agree on a time line for publishing your church cookbook. You should decide on recipe submission deadlines, as well as deadlines for editorial changes and printing or electronic publishing.
- 5). Decide which recipe submissions should be published. Many church communities simply publish all submitted recipes, while others narrow it down. Your church might create a recipe "lottery" where a certain number of randomly drawn recipes for each category are published. You could also test all of the recipes and choose the recipes most enjoyed by a panel of judges. If you go this route, you will need to consider how to ease the hurt feelings of those whose recipes were not included. Perhaps you could include all recipes in an e-book and only selected recipes in a printed version to cut down on publishing costs.
- 6). Schedule meetings with the cookbook committee throughout the planning process. You should make all decisions together, including deciding on pricing and major editorial changes.
- 7). Advertise the cookbook in the church bulletin, newsletter and during Sunday morning worship services. Congregants should be informed of the expected publication date and be given the opportunity to purchase advance copies.
- 8). Provide evaluation forms for feedback on the church cookbook to each person who purchases a copy. The evaluations will help the committee to think about any changes that might be needed in a second edition, as well as evaluate pricing and how well the cookbook is serving the community.
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