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Church Growth - The Power of Word of Mouth
Romans 10:14 tells us: "How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
and how shall they believe in him of whom they have
not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?"
One of God's great purposes for Christians
and the Church is to reach the lost - it is the Great
Commission and it is true that people need a preacher
to hear the word but also often there is also a further
step which is to get them in the door to hear the preacher.
Often there may be many churches within
an area but few of the residences have any idea what
the church stands for or what style of worship it has
- in fact very little about the church at all. This
article will look at what we can learn from the science
of viral marketing and "word of mouth" and
how they can be applied to church growth.
Traditionalists may argue that marketing
is not required within churches and sometimes you get
the impression that there is the impression that if
you build it they shall come. The Bible says that "I
will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not
prevail against it" but I believe that God uses
God's people and their skills to build the church.
It has been said that the early disciples
were fairly slow witted and they didn't require marketing
to build the church and look at the size of it now.
Consider for a moment though that momentous
day described in Acts where there were thousands of
people gathered for the Festival of Pentacost from all
over the Roman Empire - Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia,
Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia and many more.
From heaven comes a sound like violent
wind rushing and a group of people speaking in other
languages. People were amazed, astonished and bewildered
as Jews from every nation heard them speaking in their
native language. This was the start of an international,
multinational church and it gives us an important lesson.
What is one of the most powerful forms
of marketing? It is word of mouth marketing. What are
you most likely to be influenced by - a recommendation
in a magazine or a recommendation from a trusted friend?
We can see how powerful this concept
is by taking a look at a fairly modern technology called
Skype which allows you to speak to people on other computers
or call people on a home phone from your computer. At
present the website shows the number of downloads for
this application as 221,303,752. Much of this growth
has been due to word of mouth.
One very telling question that can be
asked of a congregation is this. "Would you be
happy to invite friends and acquaintances to this church?".
If there are reasons why they wouldn't then those are
very likely to be elements of the church that are stopping
the church from growing. Also get people to put themselves
in the shoes of somebody who has not attended a church
before visiting the church before.
I think a good analogy for marketing
and the church is like that of a car salesman. The purpose
of marketing is to get the person looking for a car
into the showroom then it is up to the salesman to do
the job of selling the car. So consideration of member
retention is another important aspect.
So coming back to Word of Mouth and
Viral Marketing here are some questions to consider:
* What has your church done that is
buzzworthy (generates buzz) or newsworthy?
* If your church is doing things of
significance then are people finding out about it?
* Are members inviting other people to the church?
* When people visit the church do they go away with
a positive impression and tell other people?
* Do you gather feedback from members and visitors to
improve your church?
* How are people finding out about your church? Are
they receiving a consistent positive message or is most
of the information gleaned from gossip and hearsay?
To do something buzzworthy often means
to go against tradition and do something unexpected
- something that can tap into the psyche of the everyday
populace and stir up positive emotions. Do some brainstorming
and be creative.
The motto "If you always do what
you've always done you'll always get what you've always
got" is a good one.
1howto.com
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