Media Outreach

Resurrection Sunday was great at my church. I haven’t laughed so much at church in a very long time. Amongst the gems from Pastor Tony were “Jesus is like the death star. When you get close, he pulls you in with his tractor beam”, “Mo’ money, that’s right, mo’ problems”, and “if you hate your brother, that’s right, 10 commandment fail”. It’s nice to go to a church where the pastor is ok with being a bit of a dork (and knows it)! Plus, anyone who mentions Star Wars in an Easter sermon is ok in my book.

We, as the church, put a ton of effort into our ‘big’ Sundays: Easter, Mother’s day, 4th of July, Christmas. At my church in college, on the 4th of July, they had Marines rapelling out of the ceiling in the sanctuary (interesting side note!). But, what about the other 48 Sundays of the year? What about the other 313 non-church days during the year?

If the church wants to be effective reaching their communities and the lost, we must not neglect every other opportunity to reach people. An email about this article was forwarded to me yesterday that speculated “if the American church, by its efforts in when it makes pushes into communities, have unintentionally conditioned people to perceive the church as a something to do on Easter/Mothers Day/Christmas…kind of like the shoppers who choose to shop big in the stores on the well known retail discount days, which, like churches with Easter, Christmas, and Mother’s Day, are also heavily advertised seasons”. WOW. I never thought of it that way… Are we doing that?

Take a minute to think about what your church does on the “other Sundays”. Here are some ideas that might help you get started making sure you don’t forget about them:

• Have a killer website. It’s around 24/7, so even when you’re not intentionally working on it, it is working for you.
• Have well branded, sharp print marketing materials. Invitation cards that can be used in any season are great. Put them in your lobby where people can grab some. Better yet, create a visitor center where people can get invitation cards, a brochure about the church or overviews of ministry opportunities, ask for directions…
• Build a crew of greeters to be intentional with your guests. We make a huge effort to do this on big Sundays, why not have this every Sunday?
• Put directional signs up every Sunday. People don’t just get lost on Easter Sunday in your facilities.
• Find ways to be a presence in your community when they don’t expect it. Sponsor an event, hold a car wash, show up at a Laundromat and put quarters in the machines. Be a presence in your community when other churches aren’t.

Have some more ideas? We’d love to talk about them! Or do you need help executing an idea? I would love to help you figure out how to make it work for your church! We’re all in this together!

Photo By: smaedli