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Building Bridges: The Key to Reaching People
January-February, 1998
Everyone who is associated directly or indirectly
with the church is represented by one of the circles shown here*.
An effective church learns to manage its people's spiritual development
and designs ministry strategies for building bridges that help people
move progressively toward the inner circle of commitment and increased
spiritual growth.
Look at the characteristics of the person
in the Community (C-5) group and what the church can do to build
bridges that will help this person move into the Crowd (C-4) group.
Bridge the Community into the Crowd.
The Community (C-5) group are those within
the church's ministry area geographically or relationally. They
are unchurched or occasional attendees. If they go to church, it
is likely only for special occasions such as Christmas, Easter,
weddings, and funerals. This group includes all those in the relational
networks of members (friends, relatives, associates, neighbors)
and are really prospects since the church has not yet identified
them individually as prospects.
To build bridges to those in the community
the church must attract people's attention, develop a positive reputation,
and demonstrate friendliness and compassion. The goal is to provide
a natural yet sensitive way for individuals to give the church their
names and addresses willingly, thus extending permission to continue
building a bridge to them.
A C-5 person is uninformed, passive, or even
antagonistic about Christ and the church. A person who moves into
the C-4 group has become positive toward the church and demonstrates
this by his attendance. Often this is the first step a person takes
on his journey toward a personal relationship with Christ.
People's spiritual journey toward God is
a process. The effective church understands this and seeks to build
bridges to help them come to active and responsible membership in
the kingdom of God.
Identify Prospects
The first bridge is to identify those within
the C-5 group who are prospects. A person becomes a prospect only
after the church has his name and address. Identifying prospects
can be done through the following means:
Special events (Christmas, Easter,
etc.): Send a mass mailing for special events, which will create
awareness of the church and its ministries. You will be able to
identify those who are prospects for active follow-up. At each special
event find a creative way to get the names and addresses of those
who have attended.
Contact new residents and new home owners:
Get the list of all newcomers in the community. Send them information
about the church or provide a welcome basket with coupons and valuable
information about the community and its services.
Business cards: Make folding business
cards with the church name, address, and schedule of services. Encourage
members to take them and give them to friends and acquaintances.
Door hangers: Make door hangers that
include information about the church and special ministries. The
outreach edition of the Pentecostal Evangel and Friendship magazine
(from the Assemblies of God Office of Public Relations) are excellent
tools for this purpose.
Pastoral care ministries (funerals,
weddings, hospital calls, counseling): Responding to the crisis
needs of the unchurched is an excellent opportunity to build a bridge
and identify prospects.
Outreach Bible studies: These are
again becoming effective, for they deal with real-life issues and
topics such as "Christianity----Reality or Irrelevant?"
Recovery support groups (divorce,
grief, addictions): Minister to the unchurched by dealing with life's
struggles and thus identify those who are prospects.
Telemarketing: Use a short telephone
survey to identify those who are not regularly attending a church
but are searching for spiritual direction (Tele-Touch Manual #714-899,
available from Sunday School Promotion and Training Department).
Community activities: Getting involved
in fairs, festivals, and exhibits are great ways to identify prospects.
Special programs: Programs that provide
service in the community (food, clothes, homes for unwed mothers,
battered women's shelters, etc.) as well as honoring war vets or
others for accomplishments provide a positive presence in the community
that helps bring prospects.
Outreach training: Train members to
share their faith effectively and look for opportunities to do so.
Felt needs seminars: Provide seminars
that address the felt needs in the unchurched person's life. "Managing
Life's Stress," "How To Talk so Teens Will Listen," and "Positive
Parenting" are particularly attractive. They speak to the unchurched
in language they understand and provide a great way to build a bridge
to them. (For more information, contact SSPT and ask for Sequence
Evangelism Seminars catalog.)
Develop Follow-Up Strategy
Another important bridge in moving the C-5
prospect into the C-4 circle is through follow-up. Identifying prospects
is useless if the church does not have and work a follow-up strategy.
This includes training workers and making appropriate contacts with
the prospects. There is no single right plan, but here is one church's
follow-up strategy:
- Guest Follow-Up for Worship Attendee (Prospect):
- Sunday p.m.----make phone call.
- Monday----cookie brigade (nonthreatening
doorstep visit only).
- Monday----mail pastor's welcome letter.
- Wednesday----contact by a group/class
leader or outreach person.
- Thursday----all visitors from 13 weeks
ago are contacted to discover their status in church, other
church, not attending church, prayer need. (Purge list of
those who are attending another church regularly.)
- Saturday----pastor and staff contact
guests by phone.
- Placed on church mailing list.
- Added to Tele-call for 13 weeks.
- Contacts forwarded to Sunday school teachers:
- Invite people to Sunday school.
- If they visit Sunday school, care
group leader follows up.
- Invite to monthly fellowship.
- Quarter:
- Invite all newcomers to pastor's dessert
fellowship.
- Get people involved in appropriate
role or task as soon as possible.
If people want care ministry, hospital visitation,
and personal needs met, they are encouraged to become involved in
a Sunday school class or group, which is where the church is designed
to care for them.
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Few people ever come to Christ the first time they are
confronted with the gospel message. One study discovered
that of 1,000 people who came to Christ the first time they
heard the gospel, not one of them was still active in the
church 1 year later. Yet, of 1,000 converts who heard and
rejected the gospel at least three times, 950 were still
active in church 1 year later. Interestingly, the majority
of those in the latter group heard the gospel in a Sunday
School class or other small group they actively participated
in.
-- Elmer Towns
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Build Meaningful Relationships
A third bridge to help move the C-5 prospect
into the C-4 group is to provide a variety of opportunities to become
better acquainted with the church's members and ministries and build
meaningful relationships. This can be done by:
- Providing multiple opportunities for the
prospect to build relationships with church members in and out
of the church----dinners, socials, activities.
- Offering a pastor's welcome class or seminar
that communicates the vision, values, and ministries of the church.
- Providing multiple opportunities for involvement
in meaningful, appropriate places of service.
- Providing care and support particularly
in times of crisis and transition. Stay close enough to care but
don't smother. Most of all, be patient and sensitive to each individual.
You know a person has moved into the C-4
circle when his church attendance and involvement become more regular.
Whether a believer or a non-believer, he is more likely to attend
at least one service weekly. Although he may not attend every time
the church doors are open, he is interested and positive toward
the church and spiritual issues.
As people move in their spiritual journey,
points of resistance are normal and to be expected. Resistance tends
to come as people are confronted with moving from one circle to
another, for transitions force individuals to reprioritize their
lives.
Think about your own spiritual journey. What
were the issues and events that moved you from the C-5 circle to
C-4? What caused you to increase your commitment and involvement?
Realize that the people with whom you are working face the same
kinds of questions and issues. Be sensitive to their progress in
spiritual development. The church is responsible for causing people
to want to become disciples. Jesus did not force people to follow
Him. Through His life and mission, commitment, and character, He
caused them to want to move forward and accept the challenge to
grow spiritually. We do this by building bridges.
* Adapted from The Purpose Driven
Church----Growth Without Compromising Your Message and Mission by
Rick Warren; used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. |
