First I drew a box at the right side of a whiteboard. This was the enterprise (church, synagogue, institution) that my students at Kenyon Institute’s writing seminar were serving.

Second I drew a small rectangle to the left of the box. This was labeled “You.” In the short distance between the You and the Enterprise, I drew a both-ways arrow, to represent the communications that flow back and forth between, say, a church and its pastor or key leaders.

These are the communications that most leaders do and most constituents want them to do. Topics tend to be their common life, from announcements to ideas being discussed in-house to personalities to teachings intended for members. Thus the parish newsletter, the pastor’s blog, and maybe the church’s Facebook page.

Problem is: these communications don’t reach very far. They don’t generate new constituents; they don’t lead to growth or fresh activities. If communicating remains inside the box, as it were, the church will know itself better and better, and it will die.

Any enterprise needs fresh people. Without 20% new members every year, a church won’t keep up with attrition. Ideas will go stale. Even regulars will lose interest.

To the left of this closed system, I used the vast remaining space on the whiteboard to draw triangles, squares, pluses, and other symbols to represent the wide, wide world outside. This is where the church must reach if it is to have a future. And that world is different.

It is much more diverse than the church itself. It is younger (average age 25 vs. 65 in the church), less white, less prosperous, more anxious about finances, underemployed, more eager for change, just as spiritually hungry but not at all interested in Sunday morning church, more angry, busier, among other identifiers.

You can’t send the church newsletter to these people. You don’t have their email addresses, for one thing, and you can’t assume they will be remotely interested in what your church is doing. Instead, you need to imagine them and address their concerns and interests. If they are worried about finances, for example, you can offer a blogpost with links for resolving that worry.

Use social media, especially Facebook, to call your “friends’” attention to the blogpost. If the post is well done and the blog is pertinent, your friends will like, comment and/or share, and it will reach their friends. You can also pay Facebook to promote your post. The outcome: hundreds, maybe thousands of people will see what you post.

Just be sure the post is useful to them – is focused on them – and isn’t just trying to sell them on coming to Sunday church. There’s a time for that sell later. For now, you need to cast lines into that vast sea outside your familiar pond.

Do this often, do it creatively, measure the response you get, and keep at it.

Your goal is to draw people into the space where you can “touch” them, that is, get their email address and start sending them pertinent emails. Your blogpost, therefore, should have a “call to action” link that invites them to read more, download a paper on this topic, subscribe to your blog – not attend your church, for that is way premature.

To get that promised benefit — subscription, paper — they need to give you their email address. Do this effectively and often enough, and you will develop a “touch” list of several thousands.
 

About the Author

 
Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the publisher of Fresh Day online magazine, author of On a Journey and two national newspaper columns. His website is Church Wellness – Morning Walk Media