Sowing Seeds through Marketing - Part 2

Marketing in its base form is building a relationship with those within reach of your ministry who know nothing about your church or are disconnected from your people.  This week we will continue with another set of practical tips for sowing evangelistic seeds through effective marketing.

5. Pick the best time to do your Grand Opening or Big Sundays. In Acts 2 we see that God launched the Church on the day of Pentecost.  This was no accident!  There are theological, historical and sociological implications to this date.  Pentecost, which means “50” was the final celebration of the Feast of First Fruits which happened 50 days earlier.  At this Feast God’s people were to give a free-will offering (Deuteronomy 16:9-10) celebrating God’s provision.  Theological and historical significance was that the Feast of First Fruits started on the Resurrection Sunday and ended on the Day of Pentecost. So we see that the church was born out of the first fruits of Christ’s sacrifice. The sociological significance was that Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks was one of three annual pilgrim feasts (Deuteronomy 16:16) where God’s people from all over the world came to celebrate.  This is why we see such an array of people and languages in Acts 2:5-11.  Pentecost was no accident. It was strategic and that is one reason why three thousand were added to the church that day.

What are the implications for church planting?  1) We need to look at our communities and discover those times when people are more receptive to the Gospel or attending a church event.  2) We need to look for times when something is in a start up mode, for example; the starting of the new school year.  In our experience we have seen three seasons to do Grand Openings or Big Sundays:

• Fall: Late September-Early October
• Lenten Season: February-March (The Sunday after the Super Bowl)
• Easter: Late March-early April

The best time for launching a new church is in the fall because you have nine months before you face the summer slump.  The second best time for launching a church is four weeks before Easter.  This gives you more time before summer hits and it gives you the advantage of the “second pop” or second Big Sunday of Easter.  The third is to launch on Easter.

6. Repetition is the key.  The old adage is that it takes “six to stick.”  That means it takes six images or appeals for you to get people’s attention enough to take action.  Personally I believe it takes more than six touches in building relationships with unchurched or irreligious people, because the devil and everything else in our culture is bombarding these people with the message that they don’t need church, church is irrelevant don’t waste your time there.  Marketing programs that are ineffective are marketing programs that are short lived.  As a planter you will need to figure out how to find the funding to keep touching your community with positive messages and warm appeals.

For years we have used two to three mass mailing campaigns in the grand openings of our new churches.  Recently I have discovered a rule of thumb from Dave Ferguson that it takes three mailings to create awareness and five mailings to create action.  In the launching of their campuses and new churches they send out five mailings to their target audience within a three week period before their launch date.  The quicker you can get to six touches the bigger the impact you will make.

7. Address felt needs in your community and not programs in the church.  Those who are spiritually seeking are interested in felt needs, believers are interested in programs. What are the felt needs in your community that will grab people’s attention and cause them to re-enter church or enter church for the first time?

8. Create interest in the minds of your target audience. When creating your marketing piece use good questions with strong images, they have a way of piquing interest and sticking in peoples hearts.  Here are a few ideas:

• Are your dreams fading?
• Are you stuck in a rut?
• Do your relationships need a lift?
• Do you need a vacation?
• Are your kids getting the best of you?

Relevant message series create interest and provide optional dates for people to attend.  Anything on relationships, family, money, or current issues will grab people’s attention.   I did a series of messages on “stress” and taught through the book of Philippians because the biblical antidote for stress is joy, the theme of Paul’s letter.  The church I attend now did a series entitled “Dinner Table Taboos” and tackled the tough topics of abortion, homosexuality and social justice.  We saw the attendance rise after each message. Good message series can create and sustain buzz in your community.

Special guests are another way to create interest in your community.  I am stunned at how a ten minute testimony of a local athlete or television personality can pique the interest of a whole community.  The first time I did this was with a well-known basketball player, broadcaster and business man from our region. We decided to do a Special Sunday event in the middle of July.  At the time we were averaging about 70-80 people on Sunday mornings.  We did two newspaper ads, a newspaper insert and a press release with a follow up article.  That Sunday we had a 169 people attend our service and never went under a 100 again.  By the fall we were averaging over 170 people every Sunday.

Special guests not only create interest but also establish the one thing that every new church struggles with and that is “credibility.”  I constantly heard people saying, “If (special guest) is going to be at that church that meets in the school I better check it out, there might be something to it.”  Special guests also fire up the invitational network of your church.  It creates multiple conversations and opportunities for your people to invite those in their sphere of influence.

9. Always ask for a Specific Response.  Too much marketing by churches are general awareness announcements not specific invitations. Remember that marketing is an invitation.  Be specific in what you are inviting people to.  Use phrases such as…

• Join us for our Grand Opening.
• Will you invest 5 weeks to building a stronger family?
• Be our special guest this weekend.
• You are invited to experience a new beginning with us.

Make a simple appeal that expresses sincerity, genuine concern and pure excitement for what you are inviting people to.  Remember, you are asking people to break their routine and invest their time with you.

You may also invite them to a Big Sunday, say Easter, while also announcing a new series of messages starting the following Sunday.  This way you can get six to seven weeks of use from one marketing piece.

Excerpts from FirstSteps to Planting a Missional Church