Why You're Not Getting Prospects

Now more than ever it’s important to be practical. Take a deep breath. Then tick through your church calendar, plan and implement more point-of-entry outreach events that target a particular slice of the population in your church and community.

Spend your time gearing up, not freaking out. The post-advertising age is scary, yes, but many of the tenets of outreach___connection to communities of adults and children, co-journey and agenda-less friendships and engage others through community service projects with no strings attached__are objectives at the top of any pastor’s To-Do-list.

Here’s The Reality Check, checklist:

1. Think about your church’s reach.Do you have an established marketing effort in place so that your church keeps in touch with its attenders through e-mail, a Web site, events, newsletters, conferences, etc.

2. What do you know about your church demographics?Have you collected recent information on who participates and why? Where they live? How far they drive to participate? Whether they are repeat attenders? Whether they are young families, empty-nesters, seniors, or teens? Your demographics dictate the categories on which you should focus your efforts and the ones you shouldn’t waste time and energy on.

3. What is the competitive environment like? Look around. Are other churches of your church’s type and in its region getting prospects?

4. Do you know your prospect base?To guage the effort in reaching prospects, tighten and tweak your assimilation systems. In other words, close the back door. Before every church committee meeting conducts business, ask participants to take five minutes and write down three names of individuals, friends, associates, to invite and engage life conversations.