Following this change in approach, our attendance grew significantly. Of course, many factors affect growth, but we did notice a direct correlation between changing our approach and seeing steady, consistent attendance growth. Whether it’s an outpouring of the personal development people experience when they are in church more frequently, or a matter of being physically present more often, we believe the frequency of attendance affects a person’s outreach to friends and family.
Here’s How We Do It
These days, we promote every weekend on all fronts to people who are connected to LifeChurch.tv. Our Senior Pastor, Craig Groeschel, shoots videos about the upcoming series to share with our church. We send direct mail pieces to the addresses of people who have already attended LifeChurch.tv. We target Facebook advertising to people who have liked our Facebook page and are living within a certain geographic range of our campus. We continue to send our email communication to people who have already attended our church.
We’ve found there’s a greater sense of anticipation as people see in multiple places what’s coming up at church. As we give them a reason to show up this weekend, we’re not only seeing an increase in the frequency of their attendance, but we’re also seeing many new families visit. The more excited people get, the more they bring others along. And we provide plenty of tools and encouragement to make it easy for attendees to invite people to church.
This approach is also a more efficient use of resources because you’re communicating to a narrower group of people that is proportional to the size of your church. For example, it’s more affordable for a smaller church to communicate with the people in their database than to do a mailer to everyone in several ZIP codes.
And finally, when you’re communicating to people who’ve already visited, you don’t have to jump the hurdle of introducing yourself in every piece of communication. Since your readers have a general sense of who you are, communication can be more concise and effective.
I understand outreach is more than a basic formula. It’s a multifaceted effort encompassing many touch points of interaction. But whether or not you try an approach like this, I encourage you to challenge your assumptions about reaching new people, and to not be afraid to try something different. When we take risks to make simple changes and measure the results, we’re often surprised by what God reveals.
FREE RESOURCES FOR GROWING CHURCHES
YouVersion’s Bible App and Bible.com: Hundreds of versions and languages for smartphones, tablets and computers, with Bible Plans to encourage daily engagement (Bible.com/app).
YouVersion’s Bible App for Kids: Interactive Bible stories to help kids fall in love with God’s Word (Bible.com/kids).
Church Online Platform: Free tool to help churches launch an online ministry (ChurchOnlinePlatform.com).
Open: Download LifeChurch.tv resources at no cost—videos, artwork, leadership tools, children’s and youth curriculum and more (Open.LifeChurch.tv).
Church Metrics: Web-based application that helps churches track attendance, giving, salvations and baptisms (ChurchMetrics.com).