Article from Ministry Today Magazine

by Richard L. Reising

As a church, whom are you called to reach? …to be?

Once you get past the initial fear that many churches have about marketing, the next hurdle tends to be the discussion of target marketing. It sounds insane that we would target certain people and therefore exclude anyone from our pursuit. After all, Paul, our marketing guru-of-old, shared his heart about being “all things to all men.” (1 Cor 9:22) On his missionary journeys, it was incredible to see Paul’s ability to understand the needs and habits of different people groups and adapt his message to meet them right where they lived. He serves as our role model in his pursuit of all men. On the other hand, Paul considered himself called to be “an apostle to the gentiles.” (Rom 11:13). Sounds slightly targeted doesn’t it? How do we reconcile these two pursuits—to reach all and yet to focus only a segment?

Believe it or not, it was not spiritual bigotry that Paul was guilty of in his pursuit of the gentiles. This was a pure sense of Paul understanding his strengths and his calling. Every church has strengths at reaching a “type” of people in its community. While that might strike you as unjust, its truth defines both our strengths and the areas we need to grow in. Whether you are a church that is known for young families, old money, the upper-class, the working-class or the struggling-class—whether you are known for deep followers, surface seekers, empty nesters or down-and-outers—there are tendencies to whom you draw.

Bear with me as I use a non-church example of two famous target marketers in order to paint a picture. Eminem is a mid-thirties rapper who has a number of platinum albums. In America, if you asked anyone from age fifteen to thirty if they knew who Eminem was, you would get over a 90% familiarity rate. Emimen is extremely targeted and he has almost fully saturated his young, pop-culture target. As a result, everything that he does is extremely aimed at the values of a decade’s culture and style. If you are 65 and know who he is, odds are, you do not like him. He does not care. You are not his target. He dresses young and angrily and he raps young and angrily. He appeals to the young and angry.

Now lets look at Josh Groban. He is in his mid-twenties and sings with operatic undertones. A significant amount of you knows who he is, but, despite his youth, he is just as (if not more) likely to have sixty-year-old women listening to his music than he is a sixteen year old. He wears linen suits or nice jeans with a wool turtle-neck and a sports coat. He sings songs of love and inspiration. “You Lift Me Up…” His target audience is spread wide amongst ages and styles. He will never reach a 90% familiarity rate with any one group. He does well by spreading his style thin to reach a little of a lot. This is in juxtaposition to Eminem who reaches a lot of a little. They both sell millions of records, but they both have different target audiences.

Much of what you see succeeding in churches today are those churches who have committed to specific people groups (targets) and styles by which they will pursue them. There are those that succeed with a wider range—targeted more like Josh Groban, but they must maintain to an exhaustingly extraordinary level of ministry to pull it off. After all, Groban would not be able to have such a wide appeal if he did not have one of the greatest voices of all time. Trying to serve all people at once when you are under-staffed and under-resourced is enough to put most churches under. It is harder to appeal to a wider range of people. Eminem does not have Groban’s voice—he just knows which buttons to push. Remind you of any churches?

It is often easier to reach people with common values than it is to attempt to relate to all people. Numerical growth is often the result of ministers committing to whom they are going to reach and developing an attractive style around it. That is why many ministries with less tenure and testing are often numerically successful. They are not better ministers, they just know whom they are trying to reach and are staying true to it. They are spiritual Eminems—focused target marketers. Their true talent is knowing the values of a certain group of people.

If you have been the church that tries to reach all at once, don’t be upset with the church that targets—that brings an angle of style and cultural value to their ministry. The fact is, they will reach certain people even better than you—and you…them. Working together, that makes us the Body of Christ. If you are hungry for their success, do not copy them. You will only be seen as posers. Find your own way. Chances are, in your pursuit to reach all; you’ve been more successful in reaching a certain some. You might just not recognize who they are yet. And in your quest to reach more in His name, be as Paul… becoming all things to reach all, but knowing deep-down who God has called you to reach.

Article Published in Ministry Today

by Richard L. Reising

About twelve years ago God called my wife and I out of our comfortable, upwardly mobile lives in corporate marketing into a full-time pursuit of serving churches. At the time, to say that it was an uphill battle was an understatement. We left two executive level salaries and a new house that we had just built in Scottsdale, to sell our house and a car and move in with relatives just to make it. We saw our financial livelihood drop by 90%, while we were working hours and hours for churches that sometimes asked for everything for free. I did not blame them nor resent them, it was all they knew. We were a challenge to their status quo in every way. We were broke, passionate and completely insistent in our pursuit to help the church—who often times mistook us as an agent of hypocrisy.

So why did we do it? On a volunteer mission trip, in 1996, I received a calling. A soft, inaudible, still, small voice that I can only describe to church leaders as the voice that spoke to them the moment when they first knew—when they first knew their lives would never be the same—that they were being called out by God to do a work for Him. There I was, sitting on a smelly bus in West Mexico, receiving a life’s calling. At the same time, my girlfriend (soon to be wife) was thousands of miles away receiving similar words. We had both volunteered in church and worked in marketing for some time before the week that we began to see these worlds collide—yet we had never imagined what God was bringing together.

 Since that time, we have been honored to work with thousands of churches of every shape, size, background and denomination. We have seen struggling churches grow again, plateaued churches reach new heights and growing churches strategically manage their climb while assimilating more people into a deeper walk with Christ. To the church out there that is looking to find your way, I would like to offer you some thoughts on marketing that might just change your perspective on… well… everything.

 What every church needs to know about marketing…

 Marketing is everything. The box many have placed marketing within is generally only a slice of it—or is not even marketing at all. If you see it as door hangers, direct mailers and billboards, you are thinking about advertising—a slice of the marketing pie. I remember when I told my mother-n-law that we were starting a marketing firm, she responded by saying, “Yikes! Marketing! I hate it when those people call my house at night.” This is not marketing. It is tele-marketing—an aspect under the marketing umbrella, but marketing is so much more.

 Marketing is everything you do that creates the perception of who you are and what you value to your community. How well you maintain your campus—marketing. The name of your church—How your greeters greet—How your ushers ush—all marketing. If your message is aimed at the choir or to the lost—Even how your congregants live their lives—all marketing. All of these things affect how people see your church. The reality is, that even churches that do not believe in church marketing are currently marketing—perhaps just not doing it well.

 In the corporate world, the scope of marketing spans from market research where data studies produce insights into buyer behavior, through decisions that define the very details of the product, it’s pricing and how and where it is sold. It likewise includes the packaging, branding, advertising and client experience. Marketing drives everything. It is the ability to define whom you are trying to reach, how you will reach them and what they will do with you after they have been reached. Have you ever developed a message to connect people to Christ? Then you have marketed—you simply just called it something else. The heart of marketing is managing the connection between you and the people you are called to reach.

 Many think it is about getting people to your church. I challenge that it is equally about getting them to come back; to get in a small group; to volunteer; to lead. Marketing is everything. If you are not getting the results you desire, you have a marketing problem. Everything you do speaks. What are you telling us?

 Marketing is about people. It is about learning what makes people tick and then shaping your communication to them in such a way that you create a bridge to their hearts. Paul understood this. He told us, “To the Jew, I will become as a Jew…” He went on to say that he would become all things to all men that he might win them. Paul was a master marketer. He studied people, reflecting back to them their values in such things as idol worship, poetry and philosophy—all with a single pursuit of winning them for Christ.  Paul knew what made people tick. He used those things to lead them to Christ.

 In the corporate world, they know this. MTV has declared that the winner of the next generation is “the one who speaks their language the best”.  They spend 20% of their budget learning the teen language and connecting with it. They are successful too often. How much of your budget is committed to understanding people? Hanging with them? Learning their hopes and needs? Do you know what makes them tick?

 Jesus hung with sinners. The disciples left their comfort zone for a world of non-believers—pursuing them to believe. In the average church today, as leaders, we hardly leave the comfort of our cohorts—those who share our heart for Christ. Yet we have a marketing (advertising) mandate don’t we? To go and preach (publish and promote) the Gospel. To whom? To those who are lost.

 I am an advocate for the lost. I once was lost. I work hard to remember what that felt like in spite of my current knowledge that I need God and His presence every minute of every day. My wife has had five strokes in the last seven years. I cannot imagine going through things like that without Him—yet most people do.  If I were lost would you reach me? Would you understand where I was and reach me where I lived? Would you make clear to me the profound simplicity of the Gospel and tell me what the next step in my walk towards Christ is?

 I sat as a consultant in a service of a strong preacher, who had crafted a message so complex that I, myself, felt discouraged in my Christianity. He coupled it with a charge of those who did not like it: “If you do not like it, there’s the door.” Several visitors took him up on that. In our debrief, we asked him how he had come to know Christ. He began to weep—remembering back to his childhood, when he had been so confused by people talking to him about God, until one VBS where a gracious volunteer explained the simplicity of God’s love and He accepted Christ. He wept for how complex he had made it. The Gospel is profoundly simple. Our labor of love is to learn how to connect others with it. Our ultimate charge is to be simple enough to be understood and powerful enough to change lives.

 If you do not pass the people test, nothing else matters.

Promotion without connectivity is destructive. I often share with church leaders that most of the churches in the United States should not promote themselves. Why? Simple. If your current membership is not actively inviting people or visitors are not staying, there are reasons why. If you do an advertising campaign, you are asking people to come in your doors only to realize why no one wants to invite anyone to your church. They never come back and leave to tell all their friends what they did not like about your church. This is not good marketing.

 If you are connecting with people well, your membership will validate this by bringing their friends. If you are not, they won’t. The problem with your church-goers not inviting people is not their problem—as church leaders, it is our problem. It is not time to craft a message to get people to invite their friends. That is the equivalent of preaching a message on not falling asleep in church. It is our responsibility to want to make them want to bring their friends just as it is to keep people awake.

 It is a sure truth that any person who has had a life-changing experience with Christ wants everyone they know to experience Christ. The problem? Most people are not ashamed of Christ, they are ashamed of their church. Having said all this, I am convinced of one thing. If members walk out of your service saying, "I wish my unchurched friend had been here," they will start to think about inviting their friend. If a member walks out of your service three weeks in a row and says every time, "I wish my unchurched friend would have heard that," nothing will stop that member from dragging that friend through your doors.

 The heart of marketing is people. Don’t start with mailers. Start with people. Ask yourself, “What am I doing this week to learn how to reach people more effectively? It's time to evaluate. Are we creating an atmosphere that fosters growth or are we ministering unto ourselves?

 Our love for the lost is found in how much we value them—in the time we devote to them in our sermons, in the signage on our campuses, in the red carpet we roll out to them on our websites, in the way we communicate and maximize the one opportunity they generally give us. Great marketing is founded on a heart that desires to connect to people right where they live, and loves them too much to leave them there. Ask yourself, “How can we enhance our reach this month without advertising? How can we be more about connecting with people right where they live, in everything we do?” That is where smart marketing begins.

Taken from Ministry Today Magazine, September 2008
by Richard L. Reising

As church leaders, we are not necessarily taught to study and understand the variances between different people, different cultures and different mindsets. Perhaps it is seminary oversight, but I am amazed at how this inherent part of Paul’s ministry is not pounded into us. Not only was he able to “become as a Jew to win a Jew”, his letters to the Galatians showed us he had a handle on their struggles, lifestyle bents and mindsets—yet, they were clearly different than what he was able to see in Corinth or Ephesus. Paul was able to distinguish lifestyle patterns in people that they did not see in themselves. This is a developable gift that made Paul much more than a preacher—he was a reacher. He reached people below the surface, right where they lived. And as a result of his tremendous passion and traveling exposure, he was able to understand the variances between people types and use it to help them see Christ.

There is a life being lived by church-goers and outsiders alike that is often below the surface to us as leaders. This is not about token “church relevance” where we feel hip by naming a sermon series after the latest movie. This is about understanding what makes different people tick. Even more, as the average church leader is more strapped with preparing messages, holding onto people through life’s struggles, and keeping the ship afloat, the ability to devote time to truly understanding who is and who is not in our churches is lost. This cycle of struggle eats away at one of our strongest assets in understanding people—exposure. Like Paul, when your exposure to different patterns increases, you are able to see more clearly what you yourself are dealing with. And be assured, every church has definable patterns of culture affecting its health and growth whether they recognize it or not.

Know your strengths: Whom do you reach naturally?
Part of the challenge is that we rarely understand our congregants in their day-to-day context. We do not know them as “socially passive”, “upper-middle-class”,  “distinctively un-pretentious”, “good-ol-boys” or as “yuppies”. We know that Bob (an arbitrary member) is a kind and supportive, outgoing volunteer at church—but we do not know that he is really an introvert and challenged to feel confident in social settings in his day-to-day life. Does this matter? You betcha! It explains why Bob, while being such a great helper and worker, has never invited anyone from work to church—ever. And if you have a church full of Bobs, you will probably never lack for volunteers, but you will also never see substantial growth. Bobs are reliable; they just are not necessarily influential outside of church.

Do you reach Bobs? Why do they feel most comfortable at your church? Not sure whom you reach? Maybe to understand the types of people you have in your church, you should start by looking into your surrounding community and defining who is not coming to your church. What are they like? When you think of the big church down the road, what kind of people go there? How are they different? Now, look at the people in your church. What are some of their common attributes—socially, economically, in their personality and predisposition—what about their age? Industry? Heritage? Knowing whom you resonate with is a key to understanding your strengths and weaknesses.

Even more, a high concentration of Bobs might make it hard for non-Bobs to feel comfortable. This might have nothing to do with the minister, it might be that you have a Bob-driven culture—a church where Bobs feel comfortable and flock together, and that those with a different social disposition never really feel at home.

Know your calling: Whom do you long to reach?
You can always be stretching to reach more kinds of people, but you must be truly honest about whom you are good at reaching (of note: “good at” might be an insight into your calling—it might also be an insight into whom we have gotten “comfortable with”). Knowing who you are good at reaching is not enough. Paul was a mega-Jew—certainly good at reaching them, but deep down he considered himself an apostle called unto the Gentiles.

God is trying to put people on your heart. If you can find an intersection between your strengths (whom you reach naturally) and your calling (those your heart draws you towards), you have a sense of your target. If you decide that you are not willing to consider the target question, what remains is to water down your pursuit of all with those whom you have little ability and little heart to reach. Doesn’t sound very productive, does it? This is why the targeting question is so important—it causes us to analyze who we are and build to our strengths and calling. Following God’s unique calling for your church might ultimately require that you accept that God can use other churches to help reach those you might not be able to.

Knowing your target strengthens your resolve and clarifies your methods.
We are fishers of men. Like good fishermen, we must start by understanding the type of fish we are going after. Then we determine if you need a net, a rubber worm or a fly lure. The target is found from being open to understand people and hear God’s voice. He is crying out for all of them. He has equipped you for reaching certain ones with a unique gifting. Who are they? Is your church equipped to serve them? The method (how you actually “do church”) follows the target. Get this. This is the most important thing. The method follows the target. What color should the carpet be? How long should we worship? What should we preach on? What should the logo look like? It all becomes easier. Who you are trying to reach? Once you know who you are pursuing, how to pursue them becomes much more clear.

Richard L. Reising is the author of ChurchMarketing 101: Preparing Your Church for Greater Growth (Baker Books). Reising is a speaker and recognized authority on church marketing and branding. Learn more at ChurchMarketing101.com and ArtistryMarketing.com.

Taken from Religious Product News Magazine, May 2008
by Richard L. Reising

Take with me, if you will, a walk through your church using the eyes of a f irst-time visitor. Let’s make him (Steve, for example) a first-time visitor that was e specially courageous and made his way to church one Sunday morning completely by himself. He makes his way into the parking lot by his best-guessed method then stares for just a second at the myriad of entry points that face him. Steve, of course, does not stare long as he does not wish anyone to recognize him as “an outsider”.  Of course, at “our” church, he does not need to worry about that, but unfortunately Steve does not know that.

Signage sets the foundation

Steve might be wealthy—he might be struggling—he might be getting along just fine, but a door in his heart has opened and he is willing to step within our doors to see if what we claim is true. What is his single greatest need in life at this moment? Direction. As Christians, we know that direction comes from God (through us) and leads to God (through Christ). But there is an even more practical direction that he needs. He needs to know where to enter—where to take his children—where to visit the restroom.

Sorry for being so direct, but as institutions that have been given a mandate for providing direction to a lost world, our churches lag dramatically behind when it comes to providing direction within our four walls.

Visitors are not supposed to feel like an imposition. They are our guests. They deserve our forethought, our care and direction. Greeters are important but can never replace a sign that gives direction to the restroom from someone exiting the service. Signage is a part of your fundamental infrastructure for acclimating people—helping them feel comfortable and at home.

Ask yourself this, “Is my church built to make visitors, like Steve, feel as if you thought of everything for them, or does it make them feel as if they are an afterthought—uninvited to the party?”

Signage can be so much more

When you walk in Starbucks and see their latest graphic on the iron stand, or when you see the light-post banners lining the entry at Disney World, two things are happening that you are likely to miss. One, your expectation level for what is being offered goes up, and two, subconsciously, you are ascribed value by them and you begin to feel all the more welcomed. Just like the “happy birthday” sign strung across your living room doorframe, or the “welcome home” signs at the airport for the soldiers returning from war. Signage tells people they are valuable. It is a deep thing that you rarely recognize, but once you notice it, is it any wonder you are polarized to be a part of it and want to make it a part of you? Great signage simply does that.

Steve also notices something we forgot about: style. The style and quality of your signage also gives him a window into the mind of your church. The decade it was designed in tells him a quick anecdote—the timeframe the church was at its high-water mark. Subconsciously, to the visitor it says, “This style reflects the year the church was most outwardly-focused and financially sound.” To harness this reality for our benefit, we need smart signage solutions that are able to adapt to changes in style. Furthermore, smart churches will use their signage to reinforce the growing spirit of their brands—the essence of who they are as a church. It ultimately becomes part of your intangible asset list that makes visitors respect you all the more and regulars inherently more proud to belong to your church.

Ask yourself this, “Does our signage attract and tell the story that we are a church for “today”—or does it indicate that we are the church from a time gone by?”

My friends, signage welcomes, it enhances a sense of belonging and it indicates the standards of your vision. It is an intangible with great effect. It is the starting point to providing Steve with the direction he needs. If done well, it might even lead him and your whole church towards your vision. “Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.” Habakkuk 2:2 (Amplified)

Article by Richard L Reising

Richard Reising is the author of ChurchMarketing 101: Preparing Your Church for Greater Growth (Baker Books). Reising is a recognized authority on church marketing and branding and the founder and president of the Dallas-based Artistry Marketing, an organization that helps churches and ministries make wise use of marketing, design, and technology.

For more information on signage solutions offered by Richard Reising and his team, visit www.ArtistryMarketing.com or call 888.320.5278 x250.

by Richard L. Reising

As a church, whom are you called to reach? …to be?

Once you get past the initial fear that many churches have about marketing, the next hurdle tends to be the discussion of target marketing. It sounds insane that we would target certain people and therefore exclude anyone from our pursuit. After all, Paul, our marketing guru-of-old, shared his heart about being “all things to all men.” (1 Cor 9:22) On his missionary journeys, it was incredible to see Paul’s ability to understand the needs and habits of different people groups and adapt his message to meet them right where they lived. He serves as our role model in his pursuit of all men. On the other hand, Paul considered himself called to be “an apostle to the gentiles.” (Rom 11:13). Sounds slightly targeted doesn’t it? How do we reconcile these two pursuits—to reach all and yet to focus only a segment?

Believe it or not, it was not spiritual bigotry that Paul was guilty of in his pursuit of the gentiles. This was a pure sense of Paul understanding his strengths and his calling. Every church has strengths at reaching a “type” of people in its community. While that might strike you as unjust, its truth defines both our strengths and the areas we need to grow in. Whether you are a church that is known for young families, old money, the upper-class, the working-class or the struggling-class—whether you are known for deep followers, surface seekers, empty nesters or down-and-outers—there are tendencies to whom you draw.

Bear with me as I use a non-church example of two famous target marketers in order to paint a picture. Eminem is a mid-thirties rapper who has a number of platinum albums. In America, if you asked anyone from age fifteen to thirty if they knew who Eminem was, you would get over a 90% familiarity rate. Emimen is extremely targeted and he has almost fully saturated his young, pop-culture target. As a result, everything that he does is extremely aimed at the values of a decade’s culture and style. If you are 65 and know who he is, odds are, you do not like him. He does not care. You are not his target. He dresses young and angrily and he raps young and angrily. He appeals to the young and angry.

Now lets look at Josh Groban. He is in his mid-twenties and sings with operatic undertones. A significant amount of you knows who he is, but, despite his youth, he is just as (if not more) likely to have sixty-year-old women listening to his music than he is a sixteen year old. He wears linen suits or nice jeans with a wool turtle-neck and a sports coat. He sings songs of love and inspiration. “You Lift Me Up…” His target audience is spread wide amongst ages and styles. He will never reach a 90% familiarity rate with any one group. He does well by spreading his style thin to reach a little of a lot. This is in juxtaposition to Eminem who reaches a lot of a little. They both sell millions of records, but they both have different target audiences.

Much of what you see succeeding in churches today are those churches who have committed to specific people groups (targets) and styles by which they will pursue them. There are those that succeed with a wider range—targeted more like Josh Groban, but they must maintain to an exhaustingly extraordinary level of ministry to pull it off. After all, Groban would not be able to have such a wide appeal if he did not have one of the greatest voices of all time. Trying to serve all people at once when you are under-staffed and under-resourced is enough to put most churches under. It is harder to appeal to a wider range of people. Eminem does not have Groban’s voice—he just knows which buttons to push. Remind you of any churches?

It is often easier to reach people with common values than it is to attempt to relate to all people. Numerical growth is often the result of ministers committing to whom they are going to reach and developing an attractive style around it. That is why many ministries with less tenure and testing are often numerically successful. They are not better ministers, they just know whom they are trying to reach and are staying true to it. They are spiritual Eminems—focused target marketers. Their true talent is knowing the values of a certain group of people.

If you have been the church that tries to reach all at once, don’t be upset with the church that targets—that brings an angle of style and cultural value to their ministry. The fact is, they will reach certain people even better than you—and you…them. Working together, that makes us the Body of Christ. If you are hungry for their success, do not copy them. You will only be seen as posers. Find your own way. Chances are, in your pursuit to reach all; you’ve been more successful in reaching a certain some. You might just not recognize who they are yet. And in your quest to reach more in His name, be as Paul… becoming all things to reach all, but knowing deep-down who God has called you to reach. 

Richard L. Reising is the author of ChurchMarketing 101: Preparing Your Church for Greater Growth (Baker Books). Reising is a speaker and recognized authority on church marketing and branding. Learn more at ChurchMarketing101.com and ArtistryMarketing.com. 

Taken from Pastors.com Article, May 2006
by Richard L. Reising

Here's a truism: people that have had a life-changing experience with God want others to find God in a life-changing way. This is surely true. It is also true that most people that sat in church pews last year never invited one single person to their church. So what is the disconnection?

I think one of the biggest disconnects we have in the church is that, as leaders, we often forget what it was like to go to church for the very first time. The intimidation factor for a lone visitor in a new church is simply huge. But it is nowhere close to the stress and vulnerability that is put on a churchgoer who invites a visitor. All inviters put their reputations on the line every time they invite someone to church. You can rest assured that your church members will not invite someone if they do not expect a positive outcome. And most of the time, that's why one church isn't growing and the church around the corner is. It has led us to say that "People are not ashamed of Christ, they are ashamed of their church." Ouch!

I asked a young friend how he was enjoying his church; he admitted that he loved it but was bothered by the fact that the church wasn't growing. I asked him why it wasn't growing; he acted bewildered and said, "I have no idea."

"Yes, you do," I challenged him. "You know why it's not growing."

After a silence, I asked, "When was the last time you invited someone?"

"Well, it's been a long time," he said ashamedly.
"Why don't you invite people?"

He shuffled his feet and said, "I don't know."

"Yes, you do," I said. "The reason you don't invite people is the same reason why your church is not growing."

I could tell that bells went off on the inside. He responded, "Yeah, I know why." He had known it all along. He just had never connected the dots between the challenges of inviting people and overall church growth.

It might be simple. A congregant might be embarrassed about the church decorations, the woman who shouts from the back of the church, the inexplicably deep or dry sermons or the pastor telling jokes about his wife. The harder it is to invite people, the more challenging church growth is.

You see, I knew my friend loved God and wanted others to experience Christ's love. Unfortunately, most people are not intimidated about being Christians; they are intimidated about inviting people to their church.

The simple truth is that if an invitation is hard to make, for whatever reason, fewer people will be invited. The battle for growth is first fought in the hearts of churchgoers who want to better the lives of those around them. This is actually the desire of the vast majority of churchgoers.

I cannot say this emphatically enough-all true Christians want other people to become Christians. It is planted in them when Christ is planted in them. This means if your church has to beg, push, cajole, offer incentives, or even just remind people to invite others, it is a telltale sign that, for whatever reason, they do not believe the ministry that takes place will make a successful connection with the people they would invite.

This is where the rubber hits the road. Is your church connecting with your community? The main link is through your congregation, and if they think you're not connecting, you won't.

It is no wonder Paul challenged us in advance to "become as one to win one." The ability to relate to our communities and church growth go hand in hand. When a ministry can successfully relate to the people in its congregation in a way that reassures them that their guests will be connected with, the churchgoers will be willing to invite others because they know it will relate to those they invite.

By analyzing the temptations and challenges associated with inviting people to church, we found the following to be true. If a churchgoer can answer these questions positively, then inviting friends and family will not only be easy, it will become a lifestyle. The church will explode with growth! As a side note, my guess is that none of these topics would ever show up on a visitor survey. They require us to look closely in the mirror, as even our closest allies would have a hard time advising us of some of these issues.

1. Will my friend feel welcomed?
   Principle: Hospitality-The atmosphere, nomenclature, and style of service should be inviting and not intimidating to the unchurched.
2. Will my friend fit in?
   Principle: Comfort and Compatibility-Like it or not, invitations and visitor comfort decrease when social or cultural gaps exist.
3. Can I feel confident that I know how the service will turn out?
   Principle: Consistency-People need to know what to expect, because they will invite accordingly.
4. Will my friend get something out of it?
   Principle: Relevance-The message should be relevant and powerful for people at all spiritual levels.
5. Will my friend understand it?
   Principle: Understanding-Jesus taught through practical illustrations. The songs and message should be understandable for people at all spiritual levels.
6. Will anything that could seem strange to the unchurched be explained through Scripture?
   Principle: Sensitivity-Scriptural actions should be carried out with clarity and considerate explanation.

Having said all this, I am convinced of one thing. If members walk out of your service saying, "I wish my unchurched friend had been here," they will start to think about inviting their friend. If a member walks out of your service three weeks in a row and says every time, "I wish my unchurched friend would have heard that," nothing will stop that member from dragging that friend through your doors. The challenging thing is that often, when members walk out of churches, the only thing they can say is, "I wish my other church friends would have heard that."
It's time to evaluate. Are we creating an atmosphere that fosters growth or are we just ministering unto ourselves?