As I read through my RSS reader this morning, I came across an interesting post titled Gee, I Should Go To Church Today. It provides an interesting perspective on reaching out to those outside the church.
I don’t know any non-Christian who wakes up and thinks, “Gee, I should go to church today.” Churches need to find ways to make people think that very thought—whether it’s through billboards or outreach events or the incredible example of their members (or all three and more—my point, don’t get hung up on the method). If churches aren’t getting people to think that, then what are they doing?I think we can all learn and grow from each others experiences, good or bad. So, How does your church attempt to reach beyond its walls?
Loading ...
June 5, 2007 at 07:01
I don’t know how to best “market” the church. The church (which is a local gathering of people – not a building) shouldn’t focus entirely on being attractive to the world. I believe that the church should befriend the community it is a part of on an individual one on one basis and work to make a difference by meeting individual needs within the community. If Christians would befriend and love their neighbors they would have a lot more success when inviting them to attend a church service. Every person tries to discover what their “purpose” in life is. The church can reveal that purpose to them by introducing people to Jesus. But I don’t think a billboard, a dynamic band, a charismatic preacher, or a catchy slogan on a church sign will bring the people. Relationships built from a sincere, heartfelt desire to love your community and your neighbor – build it, and they will come.
June 5, 2007 at 09:28
I agree that we as individuals have to build relationships and bring people first to Christ then to the church. However, we do also have to “market” the church effectively. People are engaged by visual stimulation. With that said, I have seen some awful and pretty disappointing marketing of the church. In fact there is a good website (churchmarketingsucks.com) that goes more into detail at some of the horrific marketing strategies of some churches.
June 5, 2007 at 11:30
I think, as you hinted, the best advertising is the same for church as it is for anything else – word of mouth. Good old-fashioned witnessing. Making our neighbors and friends and coworkers and strangers thirsty for Jesus and the taste of Him that church can provide.
June 5, 2007 at 11:31
IMHO, the focus needs to be on bringing people to faith, not to church. I know this is the intent when brining people to church, but if the person has no background/context to make sense of what is going on at the church, they will probably need some pre-evangelism (or pre-churching?) before even going to the church.
Before I was Christian I would have flatly refused if someone asked me to come to their church, but probably would have been willing to talk about faith issues. In fact, I only visited a church after accepting Christ, and even then with trepidation!
I can tell you one method that didn’t work for my old church. The paid a bunch of money to run a campaign called “I go to church!” Basically they printed up glossy postcards featuring pictures and info about a variety of different people who go to the church … ex, “My name’s Phil. I am a chartered accountant. I play hockey. I enjoy Pink Floyd. And I go to church!” They sent out a lot of these things, one per week for several weeks in a row to many houses in the area, and AFAIK we got no new visitors. I can see people reading that and saying “Hmmm, that’s nice … you go to church, and I don’t, who cares chucks in trash” ... I know they were aiming to say “See? Normal people go to church, we’re not crazy, it’s okay!” but unfortunately this (probably expensive) campaign didn’t really work.
June 6, 2007 at 06:55
...if we show them Christ in us as we live our daily lives then people will come to the point of asking you about the faith you exhibit…this sounds picturesque…but it can and has led people to the Church..and in turn to Christ