Church Marketing (2 of 4)

Church planting has been a hot topic the past few years. The fastest way to grow a church is to branch out and plant a new one. People like to be a part of something new. Something different. And church plants often have success… at first.

Marketing correctly is essential for church plants, just as it is for long-standing churches. If you have a cool idea and vision, that alone will not sell people on buying into your church plant. Just because you have a postcard with your Web site, doesn’t mean people will take action to visit. You need to have a clearly defined message.

This is where churches often fail. They think ‘As long as I preach the Word, the people will come.’ While it is true, people want to know what separates you from any other church. Why are you different. Why should they be a part? These questions should burden you enough to market effectively to the people you want to reach.

And don’t say you want to reach everybody. You can’t do this. You need to find the type of people you want to reach, and do your best to reach them. Are they traditional, career types? Are they young, artist types? Are you wanting to reach people familiar with church? Or are you wanting to reach people simply passionate about life? Defining your scope of reach is not saying no one else can enter the doors, but it is saying This is who we are. This is what we believe. This is why we exist.

Now of course, these thoughts are all over the place. There is really not a whole lot of defining answers going on here. But, as we put our ideas out in the open and share with each other I think slowly but surely we’ll compile a collection of solid advice that can be useful on many levels.