How Are Your Promoting Your Physical Church?
Here in Ohio, churches that I grew up battling in bible quizzes as a teenager (church vs church ) have gone under. Now my little church is being hit pretty hard. I'm not sure why people are committed to coming to church like they were when I was growing up (I'm 43). Unless its my generation wanting to be their children's friend instead of their parent.
We did start a "Cruise in" where people bring their old cars and sit and eat hamburgers on Tuesdays. Its goals was to get people in the parking lot. Get them to know we are here, and let us ever so slowly introduce them to church. It is working after 2 years and we have seen a few people start coming to church.
We've also started podcasting our sermons and have got some great feedback from people (as it reaches globally) but so far (its only been a month) we haven't had someone come to church cause they heard the podcast. (I run the school of podcasting.com )
What are you doing as an outreach to bring in new members?
We did start a "Cruise in" where people bring their old cars and sit and eat hamburgers on Tuesdays. Its goals was to get people in the parking lot. Get them to know we are here, and let us ever so slowly introduce them to church. It is working after 2 years and we have seen a few people start coming to church.
We've also started podcasting our sermons and have got some great feedback from people (as it reaches globally) but so far (its only been a month) we haven't had someone come to church cause they heard the podcast. (I run the school of podcasting.com )
What are you doing as an outreach to bring in new members?
Views: 4
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dena Brehm on -
I'm confused ... why the focus on people "coming to church", or bringing in new members, given the Simple Church focus here?
Not wanting to launch into a debate here, of IC vs. SC (there is but one Body, after all) ... but truly wanting to understand this desire to get folks "into the buildings". My understanding is that we ARE the Church (it's our identity), and the gathering sites are irrelevant.
Or, maybe I'm missing the focus of this forum...?
Shalom, Dena
"The unanswered questions aren't nearly as dangerous as the
unquestioned answers."
"We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking only to
learn that it is God shaking them." - Charles West
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Permalink Reply by John White on -
Hi David,
What I think you will find on this site is a whole lot of people who spent a whole lot of years asking the very question you pose: What are you doing as an outreach to bring in new members? I know I did. I was a Presbyterian pastor for about 25 years and that was one of our big concerns - how do we do outreach.
But, then, it dawned on me one day that it might be the wrong question. Even more, I began to realize that the way I had been trained to "do church" was significantly different from the the churches that Jesus and His disciples started. My church was a well run organization. His churches were more organic - like small spiritual families. His churches grew and spread kind of like strawberry plants.
Anyway, one place to read more about this kind of church is here: http://lk10.com/media/lk10_visionpaper_2_0.pdf
This kind of church is spreading across the US in a sort of quiet, below the radar sort of way. If you want more info about this let me know.
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Permalink Reply by Travis on -
We moved to this area a little over 3 years ago, and were looking to join a local group, especially since we didn't know anyone.
It took some doing, since no one in the area announces their meetings in any fashion.
Since we're not yet suffering persecution for our beliefs, it shouldn't be so hard to find believers that meet in a more natural setting. We ought not be isolationists.
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Permalink Reply by Carole Steinberg on -
I stopped inviting people to church. What I do now is invite people to know Jesus. Some folks are open to straight out questions and discussions about Jesus and others just get incorporated into my/his life and end up finding him. I've invited seekers to our house for our get togethers (we don't really call it "church") and that has been great. I think most people are open to discussion, they just don't want to sit in a pew and be preached at anymore.
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Permalink Reply by Jason A. Wilson on -
We are not interested in bringing people in to a building. Our focus is being the church in whatever we are doing, working, playing, going to the grocery store, wherever. We are more organic then even house church. We stopped going to the "building", over 10 years ago. We have had to detox from its addictive effect. This probably isn't the best place to ask that kind of question, as most here don't go to the "building".
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Permalink Reply by Jason A. Wilson on
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I tried clicking the link to the school of podcasting and it did not work. Is there another address you can send me to so i can check it out?
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Permalink Reply by Lisa J on -
Unfortunately, I think the OP probably won't be back. The type of post he made is somewhat of a spam post. I believe he was simply posting his links here because he thought this website fit the profile of his market (churches). It's called Social Networking & it's a marketing tool used to promote your business...
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Permalink Reply by Jason A. Wilson on
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Thanks for the info I will try and check them out.
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Permalink Reply by Jason A. Wilson on
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Cynthia,
Thanks for the info, is their web site a .com or .org?
Jason
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Permalink Reply by Jason A. Wilson on
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You are probably right I just thought I would try to see if he would talk with us any farther.
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Permalink Reply by Dena Brehm on
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It threw me a bit, since his was one of the first posts on the entire forum. I'd just returned from the H2H conference, and I was thinking, "huh?!? I thought this was about simple church, not brick and mortar!"
I tried to keep my inquiry unalarming, in case I was mistaken!
I just don't believe in us vs. them anymore, and I'm letting God renew my mind about just how far-reaching that really is...! (mind-blowing, really)
Shalom, Dena
"The unanswered questions aren't nearly as dangerous as the
unquestioned answers."
"We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking only to
learn that it is God shaking them." - Charles West
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