July 14, 2014
By Phil Maynard
I’ve rarely met a church where there wasn’t a desire to introduce more people to Jesus.
Yet, the number one issue as I work with churches (new church plants and existing congregations) is how to reach more people for Jesus.
Basically there are three options.
First, is what most of us think about when we think of marketing. In the marketing world it is termed “top-of-mind awareness”. This approach is about having a sustained level of awareness about your church so that when people begin to think about going to church (if they in fact do) they will think of your church first. This generally works well for already popular ministries. It requires substantial investment of financial resources and expertise in developing creative marketing tools.
The second option is what the marketing community calls “frame-of-mind awareness”. It is about reaching people who are looking for a church. This option doesn’t create a desire for church but fulfills a desire that already exists. This approach probably includes most of our ‘attractional’ ministries where we offer opportunities for people to discover our church and what we have to offer.
The success of both of these approaches is based on the ability of the church t