WALKING PEOPLE THROUGH THE DOOR
by James W. Moss, Sr.
Little is understood about the hard work necessary to walk people through the door of a church for the first time. I accept Elmer Towns' thesis of stair-stepping people to Jesus. First, you win them to yourself. Second, you win them to your church. Third, you win them to Christ.
Churches of choice in a community get a people flow that other churches only dream about. They are dominant churches in a community that attract more than enough people to cover normal attrition. Less than 2% of churches in a community are churches of choice. However, pastors of churches of choice do most of the seminars and don’t understand what the average pastor faces. The other 98% of pastors and churches must expend a great deal of energy to have people walk through the door of their churches.
ATTRITION
Normal attrition is the natural losses that occur in a church every year. Conflict is not the issue. People die, become physically incapacitated, get transferred from the community, drop out, or go to other churches. These are things that can’t be avoided. A church that averages 50 will lose 5-8 people every year by normal attrition. A church averaging 100 will lose 10-15 people every single year. Normal attrition is relentless. It just keeps happening. Such a church will have to work hard to get enough people to walk through the door to cover normal attrition. Growth doesn’t occur until you get more than those lost by normal attrition. Churches of choice get enough people who walk through the door to cover normal attrition and more. The rest can’t even begin to cover those loses by walk-ins. Effort has to be expended to get people to come.
Unfortunately, little is taught about the motivation and energy required to walk people through the door. Let it suffice to say that evangelism and love for people is the motivation to reach out to those outside the church. It takes real energy and a variety of efforts to get people to walk through the door of your church. In fact, I think we have to work harder now than ever before to get such traffic.
IDENTIFY PROSPECTS
I have had numerous conversations with many different bright, articulate, intelligent pastors and lay folk who have trouble grasping this concept. Put in the simplest form, it is collecting names and addresses so that various strategies can be designed to encourage some of them to walk through the door of your church. I call this effort pre-evangelism.
I was ecstatic when I had 5 prospect families years ago when serving a local church. I have just told you two things. Frequently, I didn’t have 5 prospect families. Then I would be disappointed when none of the 5 began to attend. I had never been taught nor did I understand that 5 wasn’t enough. I should have had 105 or 205 prospect families—families that I was cultivating to bring to Christ and the church.
Building a prospect list takes a sense of holy boldness. You are talking with someone about your church. Ask a simple question: “May I send you some mail about our church?” If they say “yes,” follow up with another simple question: “May I have your name and address?” Then carefully build a list of such names. There are a variety of methods.
· Still one of the best methods is to have people in your church share the names and addresses of their unchurched friends, co-workers, neighbors, and relatives.
· One church gave bottles of water at a flea market and secured 59 names and addresses.
· One church set up a booth at a small community carnival. They offered games for children at no cost. They secured 19 names and addresses in three days.
· One church did a car wash as a servant evangelism project. They washed and cleaned the car and gave a bag of cookies. There was no charge or no offering expected. They secured 6 names and addresses.
· One pastor knocked on 7,000 doors with a questionnaire designed to lead to prospect development. He found 3-5 families for every 100 doors he knocked on who would allow him to cultivate the relationship.
· Another church secured the addresses of 400 families closest to their building. They mailed a letter once a month for a year to each of these families inviting them to something special at the church.
The name of the game is names and addresses. We have to have names and addresses to pursue prospects for the kingdom. I recommend a process that would include a mailing once a month to these folks for 18 months. It is demanding but rewarding. Each of the above examples is true. In each case some of the families became regular attenders at the church.
MORE STRATEGIES
Strategies for getting people through the door include:
· Give 10 nicely prepared invitations to each family having a child dedicated, each person being baptized, each person joining the church. Ask them to hand or mail these invitations to their friends and neighbors for these special events.
· Have a special Sunday morning. Prepare a nice invitation to give to participants so they can invite their friends and neighbors for a specific Sunday.
· Honor a secular group in the community and invite them and their families to attend your church on a specific Sunday so they might be honored and appreciated by your church. Groups could include Boy and Girl Scouts, the volunteer fire company, police, etc.
What additional strategies can you think of?
From People Spots Online, a service by New Life Ministries. Practical ideas can be found at their website www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org.