A change in your outreach that might help your church grow.

When it comes to door-to-door visitation or cold calling we are hearing two voices.  One voice says: “Going door to door is ineffective and a waste of time.”  These voices often sight the change in culture and the growing resistance to the church as reasons that going door-to-door is not very effective.  I once served as a transitional minister and went to every home in the three neighborhoods nearest the church building with no positive effect. For churches that have such a strong commitment to reach their community but don’t want to do door-to-door calling there must be an effective, strategic plan to connect with those outside of the church’s sphere of influence.  Sometimes that takes the form of mass mailings, social or mass media advertising.

But there are other voices that say, “Going door-to-door will not reach everyone, but it will reach some people.”  This link will take you to an interesting article from about 10 years ago about the statistics associated with door-to-door calling programs.  https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2008/november/going-door-to-door-look-at-numbers.html Before any door-to-door campaign can be successful there needs to be strong support by the congregation for such a program.

For both those who think door-to-door calling is ineffective and use another means and those who think it can be useful and faithfully visit there is one narrative presented. The general message for most churches is, “Here we are and we think you will like us.  So, why not give us a try.”

But what if we tweak that just a little?  No, let’s turn it on its head.  What if instead of saying, “This is us, you ought to try us, we think you will like us,” we begin by saying, “Tell us about your community, your world and your life.”   I have never met someone who was not at least a little willing to tell you about what they care about.  In fact, most good relationships begin with, “Tell me about yourself,” and not, “I’m pretty special let me tell you about me.”  Which is exactly what we generally do when we reach out to our community.

This relationship-building thing is a much slower process than either a mass media campaign or even door knocking.  It is possible to fake caring in a mass media campaign and even in a door-to-door canvasing. But wanting to learn about the people in your community cannot be faked.  It will demand that we actually get to know them and care about them.  

We can do this by asking, “What are the pressing needs in your neighborhood, community, and world?”

We certainly will not change the message of the gospel.  We may not change the functional ministries of the church, but if we did, it might not be all bad.  But we, if we take to heart what we learn, will have a better understanding of where our community needs the gospel applied.  It will inform both our short-term mindset and our long-term strategy.  But best of all, we will become known to the people in our community as the folks who care.  Asking for help in understanding has not been something that the church has done very gracefully.

One of the long-standing weaknesses of the church is that we have been very good at answering question that no one is asking.  Giving things that people may not need or even want and all the while never getting to know them.  I am reminded of a church that collected and filled 150 (or so) backpacks for children at a local elementary school.  Ironically, most of the kids had no need for what the church wanted to give them.  The backpacks the kids’ parents bought them were of better quality and filled with better school supplies.  When we have a great plan, but never ask good questions we may get poor results. 

How is this different from the seeker driven model of the church growth movement?  In short, the difference lies in the conversation the seeker driven church has about “felt needs” and the individual’s interests.  This other strategy hopes to ask the question, in somewhat discreet terms, where is sin ruining this community?

This will also require meaningful follow up.  This can’t be one and done calling.  This needs to be a planned system of relationship building.  The first contact is really about beginning a friendship that will naturally lead to additional conversations. 

There is one thing about this that is challenging.  It requires a lot of work.  It is clearly impossible for this to be planned and executed by a single staff member or even a team of staff members.  A project like this will absolutely require a church body that is committed to being the incarnation of Christ in our communities.