Easter Sunday is less than a week away and most churches have already laid out their strategies on how to reach the unchurched and non-believers during arguably the most important Christian holiday.
But in case a little help is still needed, C. Michael Johnson, president of Breakthrough Media, suggests 18 factors that can “really” impact a church or ministry’s Easter outreach efforts in a recent “Mindstorm Idealetter” from Breakthroughchurch.com.
To start off, churches need to set real and specific goals that they are firmly committed to bringing to reality. Next, they need to measure their progress in short increments towards reaching the goals. So whether the goal is to see the church packed with 500 people or to transform congregants, the planning committee needs to first set a goal.
Friendship is another key factor. Johnson reminds church and ministry leaders that the goal of marketing, in the simplest term, is to develop conversations and create friends. The Kingdom is “all about” friends – “finding friends, being a friend, leading friends to be friends of God.” He suggests churches plan and measure how they are making progress with the friend factor.
After working on the friendship factor, churches need to be prepared to answer the relevancy question – “why should I give you the time of day?” People have spiritual needs and the church should find creative ways to promote how they can help meet these needs for non-churchgoers. The Easter program should not just focus on “us” if the church plans to use the service as an outreach opportunity, but make sure that it stays relevant to even newcomers.
Once the unchurched arrives for the service, Christians need to use the language of dreams to explain what they believe in and invite the visitor to participate in the dream of God for this world.
“The language of dreams (purpose, identity, passion, heart) defines the most relevant, responsive message you can ever use to build lasting relationships with the unchurched,” Johnson wrote, noting that God “wired us” to dream.
Jesus wants to come into their heart and Christians should work with the Holy Spirit which has already been working on them to bring them to God, he added.
“Combine the Friend Goal with the Dream Goal and you have the basis of what we call a ‘Community of Dreams,’ which is a pretty good definition of a church,” Johnson wrote, “a community of friends nurturing and releasing God’s dreams into their transforming place in the world.”
Churches are also encouraged to move away from predictability and include an unexpected factor in their program. The Breakthrough Media president noted that Jesus in his days did the unexpected and even surprised his mom.
Other helpful suggestions to improve church outreach include raising awareness about the church, using word-of-mouth church marketing, delivering a good community experience, and following-through with trying to bring people to Christ.
Easter is a rare occasion when many non-churchgoers open themselves up briefly to the Gospel and hearing about the life of Jesus Christ. Churches, as a result, should take advantage of this precious opportunity to reintroduce or introduce someone for the first time to the Gospel and the core tenets of Christianity – the cross, the resurrection, and salvation through Jesus Christ.
18 Factors to Impact Easter Outreach:
1. Goal Factor
2. Friend Factor
3. Relevancy Factor
4. Dream Factor
5. Media Factor
6. Unexpected Factor
7. Awareness Factor
8. Viral Factor
9. Experience Factor
10. Harvest Factor
11. Time Factor
12. Development Factor
13. Numbers Factor
14. Synergy Factor
15. Trust Factor
16. Withreach Factor
17. Community Factor
18. Body Factor
On the Web: http://breakthroughchurch.com
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Comments
I think you guys are missing the point.
1. This is not meant to be an exclusive list.
2. It is meant for MATURE leaders serious about reaching the unchurched and unsaved.
3. It assumes the reader understands the core principles of the faith.
4. It is meant to stimulate thinking among people are open and teachable and want to learn.
5. It is about reaching people outside the walls of the church where the stuff of life happens.
6. It advocates demonstrating the heart of God in the way you relate to them (see withreach)
7. It meets people as Jesus did, where they are, not where you might expect them to be.
I firmly believe, if practiced by Christians with honor and compassion, incarnational withreach would go much further in reaching this generation than circling the wagons, holding up in clubhouse churches, arguing over hair-splitting issues, preaching to the choir, and wondering why no one comes, while the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
my 2 cents
Where is the wrath of God factor?
Where is the exceedingly sinfulness of sin factor?
Where is God is angry with the wicked every day factor?
Where is the lake of fire factor?
Where is God hates the workers of iniquity factor?
Where is the repent or you shall likewise perish factor?
Where is the law of God which is the schoolmaster that leads to Christ factor?
Where is the warning to flee the wrath of God factor?
Where is God is a consuming fire factor?
In actual fact, where is the full-orbed, doctrinally sound, biblical gospel factor?
Those things surly will be successful in outreach wont they? It is what is in the Bible isn't i t? The preaching of the whole counsel of God, the Gospel is what God uses doesn't He? Not men's dreams and tricks and showmanship, so on and so forth, eh? It is God who adds daily to His church those who are being saved and God causes the growth doesn't he? It is God alone who gets all the glory doesn't He and none to man?
Can they make a Biblical case for this approach.
Church is about worshiping the One True God, not about bringing in people and "transforming" lives.
THE major problem in the church today is that there are a whole bunch of false converts who have "found" Jesus to help solve their earthly problem or to make them feel more spiritual.
The reality is that we all have fallen short and have sinned against the Holy God and cannot be in His presence for eternity and without repentence (which follows awareness of our own sinfulness) and recieving Christ one cannot be saved from the consequences of one's own sins.
A 'sucessful' outreach should be measured in terms of not the number attended but if the Word and Gospel were rightly spoken.
What happened to prayer?