Your church faces an ongoing challenge: how do you continually encourage guests to visit, particularly those with no prior exposure to church? Without guests, your church will not grow. Between the workplace and children’s activities, families are busier, and it seems harder to get people’s attention. A few churches can generate guests with little effort (mostly due to location or size), but for most of us, it takes a more strategic approach. That approach usually includes advertising. Here are ten guiding principles for outreach strategy, adapted from a manual co-authored with Eric Ramsey, to consider as you get started.
Outreach Strategy for Advertising: 10 Helps
1. Advertising does not replace evangelism
But it can enhance the effectiveness of evangelism. Many churches have deferred to marketing as their outreach strategy. This transfers the responsibility of the Great Commission from your people’s mouths to your church’s mailers. Instead, marketing should energize both corporate and personal evangelism.
2. Evangelism is about relationships
The best evangelism takes place when people are on a journey with Christians in a local church. Outreach advertising helps bring more people into relationship with the church so they can hear the claims of Christ in the context of believers living out their faith.
3. The interested unchurched are not offended by outreach through marketing
That is, if it is honest, authentic, and excellent. It is those who are interested that are the most fruitful for outreach – not those who are hostile.
4. Outreach advertising does take into account the felt needs of people.
However, it must lead them to their real and deepest needs if it is to be biblically appropriate.
5. Outreach advertising itself does not need to present the plan of salvation
in order to assist in bringing people to faith in Christ. However, the your outreach strategy must ultimately include a presentation of the gospel and incorporation into a local church.
