Outreach Church Communications and Marketing

ATTRACT AND ENGAGE MORE WITH CHRISTMAS

Christmas is one of the times of year when people in your community will be more open to attending church. But it’s still vital that we are intentional about reaching out and inviting people to be a part of our holiday events.

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Law 2 of the 4 Laws of Inviting and Connection is to Attract & Invite Visitors to Your Church. This may seem like an obvious step but the methods we use, and the diligence needed to be effective, are often misunderstood. To help you improve your Christmas outreach plans, we have put together these three tips plus some additional more in depth articles you can dive into to learn more.

  1. Increase your church’s visibility in the community – It’s easy to become invisible to your neighbors and your church can be just another building people drive by.  One solution is to update the look of your building for the holidays.
    That is where easy, inexpensive outdoor banners can be a huge help. Post a large custom banner with your Christmas service information outside your building and then put up Flag banners each weekend to give your outdoor areas a more exciting look.
    In addition, add Light Pole banners in your parking lot, street signs for directing visitors and friendly greeters with handheld signs and suddenly your church looks more attractive to potential guests. 
    BONUS links:
    6 Ways to Create a Super Greeter Team
    Simple Ways to Warm Up Your Church this Christmas

  2. Create and promote “invite-able” events – Yes, Christmas is an inevitable event so that one is easy this time of year but the real key to engagement is to keep visitors coming back week after week so building upon an event is important too. Consider planning one or more of these types of events before or after Christmas and then don’t forget to promote it to your community – see number 3: 
    1. Host a guest speaker – Everyone loves to hear a compelling story or rub shoulders with someone famous so bringing in a special speaker, athlete or comedian is a powerful way to see more visitors at church. But even if you don’t have to have a huge budget you can still create a special event by inviting a Christian community leader, a first responder or a missionary with a compelling story.
    2. Plan a powerful Sermon Series – A coordinate series automatically provides you with a reason for people to come back the next week – it’s like a cliffhanger! For Advent you can download this  5-sermon kit  and then plan a second series that starts in the New Year so people can build a habit of attending church each Sunday. (Subscribe to the  annual sermon kit plan and you can choose from over 50 series!)
    3. Speak to your community’s felt-needs – If you’re in touch with what is happening in your area, you should be able to identify topics that are important to your neighbors – then you can plan special workshops, sermons or activities that target those needs. A church in an area near a Military base can host special support groups for spouses or if you are near a large population of seniors, host a health and wellness fair – whatever brings more people into your building so you can minister to them. 

  3. Use multiple inviting methods – There is no magical one-and-done effective inviting method. Different people will respond to different methods and studies show that it can take up to 7 “touches” before someone will respond to a message. If you want to increase the number of people who visit your church, you need to increase the number of times and ways you invite them. 

Ready to invite more people this Christmas? You don’t have to go it alone, give one of our representatives a call or chat with them online, they can help you get the tools you need!

Carri Gambill

Carri Gambill

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