Home Outreach Leaders Outreach & Missions How To's Seth Godin on How to Get More People to Notice Your Church

Seth Godin on How to Get More People to Notice Your Church

One of the top concerns of most leaders is marketing—how can I get more people to notice me? How can I interrupt more strangers, impress them with the boldness and wonder of my mission, and convert them to my tribe?

After all, when you work so hard to do the work you do, it’s understandable that you want to tell others about it, even if it means interrupting them, spamming them, or getting in their faces.

Surprisingly, this actually used to work. Surprisingly, mass media was an effective way to reach the uninitiated.

No longer.

The world is realigned now. There’s a huge overlap between leadership and marketing. Since ideas spread from person to person, the ideas most likely to spread are those that touch us, those that are remarkable, those that make a difference.

When you follow a right path, then, the people following you are happy to bring others along. When you open doors for people (instead of closing them), your followers are more likely to open doors for others. When you are inclusive (instead of excluding), then others seek to include their peers.

For far too long, leadership has been about management, and management has been about control. We push those that follow us to fit in, to do as they are told. We decide who is good enough, who is obedient enough, who is acceptable. Many institutions have been built by strong-willed men who think they have the right answer and aren’t afraid to be bullies if it helps them achieve their goals.

But now, people have a choice. More options in how they spend their day, their money, and their passion. And over and over, we see people voting with their feet. Sure, there are the frightened (and angry) that are willing to act out at a rally or carry signs that they don’t actually endorse. But this is the not the behavior of a thriving movement; it’s a desperate reaction from a dying anachronism.

Once we embrace the idea that our tribe can be supportive and honest and transparent while it includes all those that might want to join it, we discover that more want to join it. At that point, big media becomes a lot less important.