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Attracting Newcomers——Idea #1 If you have a "big name speakers program" or bring in experts to conduct seminars, you might want to consider "tithing" some of your seats to the community. It’s great public relations, increases your attendance for the event, gets people into your church who might not come on a Sunday and often gets you some free publicity as well—especially if what you are giving away is really perceived as something of value. (We have trained our congregation to realize that the "tithing" of these tickets is a means of outreach for the church. And that their purchase of a ticket helps to make this outreach possible. Even though they are not "getting in free," they seem to take great pride in knowing they are doing something that is serving the community and getting the word out about their church.)
Attracting Newcomers——Idea #2 Look for ways to have your facility used by others--not just 12 step groups--as often as possible. You might decorate your walls with artwork from local artists and host an art exhibit. Perhaps you can let your facility be used by your local chamber of commerce. If you have a lovely sanctuary, consider letting it be used for large community events. When strangers attend an event taking place at your church, they can’t help but "get a feel" for you and if they like that feel, and don’t already have a church home, they might very well decide to pay you a visit some Sunday. We’ve had countless people who had no intention of ever visiting the Church of Today for a Sunday service do just that after they had attended a community event at our facility and liked what they felt and saw—even though it had nothing to do with church!
Attracting Newcomers——Idea #3 Consider creating an eye-catching postcard to promote your Easter and Christmas services to your entire mailing list. But don’t stop there. Have plenty of extra postcards run and insert them in your bulletin for 3 or 4 Sundays before Easter/Christmas and encourage your members to take that postcard and give it to a friend or coworker of theirs.
Attracting Newcomers—Idea #4 Explore direct mail brochures. Direct mail can be very effective; but it is always quite expensive and is certainly not for everyone. We have, however, had quite a bit of success with a somewhat unusual form of direct mailing. (At least in the church world it seems to be unusual). We have a very nicely done—very informative—direct mail piece that goes into a "coupon packet" that is mailed to people’s homes. We do this about six times a year; mailing to approximately 40,000 homes each time at a cost of about $1,000 for each mailing. We have had very good response to this form of direct mail because it seems that people will take time to look through a stack of coupons that can save them money. Attracting Newcomers—Idea #5 Use the backside of your Summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter letters to promote your special events. Let the back page serve as a calendar of events. Even though you probably give this information in your bulletin and newsletter, it never hurts to have yet another way/place for your members to get the message. The larger your church becomes and the more events you have, the more important it is to find redundant ways to get the word out. You can’t rely on just one avenue of promotion.
Attracting Newcomers—Idea #6 Put copies of flyers in your bookstore bags. Again, any way that you can keep providing your people with information about events, activities you think they ought to know about, will be helpful to you.
Keeping Newcomers
Identify your first-timers and build your mailing list by offering them a free gift. Give them some sort of information packet during the service. But also consider offering them a gift that they can pick up after the service. Whatever the gift may be (we give them a tape with a Sunday morning message on one side and a sampling of our radio spots on the other side) be sure to ask them to fill out a Guest Information card at that time.
Keeping Newcomers—Idea #2 Keep track of your second and third time visitors (the most important folks in growing your church) by offering them a free gift. During the welcome time, after acknowledging first time guests and asking them to raise their hand so we can present them with a guest packet, I take a moment to say something like this: "And if you’re visiting Church of Today for the second or third time this morning, we want you to know that we have another gift for you today. It’s waiting for you in our bookstore." When they get their gift, they are also asked to fill out a Guest card (which has a place for them to check off if it is their second or third visit).
Keeping Newcomers—Idea #3 Create a specific letter you can send to second timers, another for third timers and another for those who’ve started coming regularly. (If you adopt a similar tracking system as we have, it will be easy to know who to send these letters to).
Keeping Newcomers—Idea #4 Include flyers of your upcoming events with your thank you letters as one more way to keep your members informed of what’s going on at your church. Or, to keep costs down, make it a point to always include a "P.S." on every thank you letter that reminds people of your most important current activity—maybe a new class that’s starting, a guest speaker, etc.
Keeping Newcomers—Idea #5 Consider offering a "Welcome to Unity of _____" class on Sundays once a month. Class should be brief, light-hearted, interesting and informative. It’s a prelude to your membership class. Offer refreshments. (Specail thanks to Reverend Richard Rogers at Unity of Phoenix, Arizona where we first heard about this idea).
Keeping Newcomers—Idea #6 In addition to sending a letter to first time guests, personally call them. No, not your secretary, you! No matter how friendly your secretary is or how great your board member is, they are not you. When you call (even if all you wind up doing is leaving a message on an answering machine) it speaks volumes. This is how I do it at Church of Today, San Diego. On Monday morning I have a stack of visitor cards on my desk (they include first, second and third time visitors). I call each person (most of the time I’m talking to an answering machine) and say something like this: "This message is for _________. This is Wendy Craig-Purcell calling from Church of Today where you visited yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t catch you in … I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for visiting us; I know there are lots of places you could have chosen to be yesterday, and I’m sure glad you chose to visit Church of Today and I hope you felt your time was well spent. If you have any questions about our programs, or if you have a special prayer request, please give us a call. Our staff and prayer partners are available Monday through Friday from 8 to 5 and are happy to assist you. Again, thank you for visiting and God bless you!"
Keeping Newcomers—Idea #7 Find out how your church appeals to newcomers. Create a first impression card and have them in your bulletin, pew pockets, at your bookstore or free literature table and make reference to them regularly. Encourage them to be filled out. (You’ll get more returned, if you allow people to fill them out anonymously).
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