Your ministry
most likely experienced a larger than normal attendance on Easter Sunday. That
experience may cause you to think about what you can do to encourage people in
your community to visit your church during the other 51 weeks of the year.
MarketingWeek.com just published an article on Five Trends they believe will reshape media in the coming year. There was an interesting quote with implications for church communications, especially the need to reach out before inviting others in.
“Consumers will call brands out if they think they are driving them to a social platform just to transact.” ~ Darren Campbell, Dr Martens
When a
church uses social media, how does it come across to people outside the church? How much of what churches put out there
comes across as simply selling something — “Come to this event! Bring your Kids
HERE!!!” The bottom line is we want them to buy into what we are selling — we
want them to come to know Jesus as Savior, have their sins forgiven, and live a
life serving him. But what if our audience has no idea this is of benefit to
them?
Here’s an
alternative idea: what
are the needs in your community? For example, seniors who are lonely with no
one to help with basic chores? Use social media to get the word out that your
church is willing to give first, to make yourself known before you begin
inviting.
One idea might
be following the lead of what I saw in our area [where] someone recently
started advertising a “trash valet” service in a mobile home park for seniors.
Imagine if a church saw the same need: that many of the seniors living in the
park were either handicapped or not strong enough to bring trash to the
collection site, a quick task for someone younger and stronger. If a church did
that for them once a week, not only will seniors sing the praises of a church,
but I would imagine they’d tell their kids and grandkids about the church, too!
After a few months of that, the church could drop by an invitation to a service
or event and at that time it would be coming from a friend, not just a church
down the street trying to “get converts.”
There are many
ways a church can reach out before it invites people in. It seems like Jesus
did a lot of healing and feeding people before he taught them. Let’s pray for
inventiveness to do likewise.
Source: Ministry
Tech
Shelby
Systems has decades of experience working with ministries of all sizes, for
more creative ideas and suggestions contact your Shelby Sales Consultant today!