So many Pastors live week to week, month to month and year to year just waiting to see where they'll be in regards to church growth. In talking to many Pastor's they truly have a desire to see numerical growth in their churches but just sit back and see how it all turns out without putting together a plan.

It's time to start being proactive and not just reactive in regards to this. Here are some strategies to help you get started:

1. Take Inventory
In other words, see where you are right now. Find out how many people on average attend your church on a weekly basis. If you don't do this already, then start taking attendance each week. How many are really coming. In most cases, Pastors evangelastically increase their numbers when someone asks them how many are attending their church. Be truthful to yourself and find out where you are so you can begiin to put together your plan for increase and growth.

2. How Many Visitors Came to Your Church
Find out how many visitors attended your services this year. Then find out how many stayed.
For example: If you have 150 people currently attending on average, 100 people visited last year and 10 stayed and became consitant attendees, then you originally had 140 people starting at the beginning of the year and increased your growth by 10% of the people who visited and 7% of the people who were consistently attending.

3. Project How Many People You Want to Be Attending By The End of Next Year!
So if you had 100 visitors this past year and want to grow from 150 to 200 attendees then based off of how you increased last year you will either need 500 visitors to come in so you can retain 50 of them to grow to 200 from 150, or you need to come up with an aggressive strategy to help retain visitors at a higher percentage. You then divide the number you wan to grow to (50) by 12 months and you come up with (4), and that is the number of people you aim to grow the church by each month. If you break it down further you are aiming to growth your church by 1 person every week. This is not impossible. As a matter of fact it is very realistic, especially when you have a process in place to make it come to pass.

4. Start Putting Together Strategies & Outreaches to Attract Visitors to Your Services
Now that you know what you are aiming at and believing for, faith without works is dead! Start having staff, board and creative meetings to come up with ways to attract guests.

5. Follow Up & Follow Through
Have your Guest Services team develop a strong follow up process in order to retain those guests. Put together a detailed map of follow up from the same day they first visited till 40 days after they visited to keep your services, functions, encouragement and ministries in front of them. 

Luke 15:4 (New King James Version) 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

6. Go After the One Which is Lost Until He Finds it!
Notice it says, "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them..."
This tells us that the sheep was in our flock first before it was lost. In other words, the sheep, the visitor, came into our church. When they leave and never come back, it's not their fault. This verse doesn't blame them for getting lost. It doesn't say, "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if one of the sheep gets lost, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?"
No it says, "if he loses one of them..." Who's "HE"? The Shepherd of the sheep. If the visitor doesn't come back the blame doesn't fall on them, it falls on us. We lost them. This is why it is so improtant to do the rest of this verse. "Go after the one which is lost until he finds it!"  This is why it's so important to come up with a short and long term follow up system that can continue to guide the visitor back through our doors and into the fold.
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Patience is an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay. Patience is one of the hardest things to do.

When me and my daughter were in a line that was about a mile long, waiting to get on a slide in Sesame Place, she started to try and wal past people to get to the front. I had to stop her and tell her we had to have patience and wait until the line moves. After I said that she looked at me in all seriousness and said, "but it's hard to be patient!" 

Isn't that the truth? We in NJ and in this generation of technology and fast just got faster, want what we want and we want it now! We’re conditioned to get things done now, fast, right away. We eat fast, drive fast, shower fast, we pray fast, I mean we ask for patience and we want it now LORD! The internet is now faster than ever. Everything is high speed!!!!!

Adrenanline! Red BULL, Monster Drinks and Hurry Up Let’s Go Mentality! Drive throughs’ and instant everything has us all losing patience when we shouldn’t be. I know there are times we need to make Quick decisions and on the spot choices, but if we don’t exercise PATIENCE into our daily lives and our everyday tasks in the market place we can open the door to shortcuts, sloppy results, and missed opportunities that are set up from God!

Galatians tells us that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace and Longsuffering or Patience!

I have said this and maybe you have too but, in situations in dealing with something or someone I have said, “I’m beginning to lose my Patience!” or “I don’t have the Patience for this!” You know that statement is not true!

In John 15: Jesus tells us that He is the Vine and we are the branches, Right? If we are the branches and Jesus said we are supposed to produce fruit, then where does the fruit grow off of? The branches!Because patience is a fruit of the SPIRIT of Man. This is something that has the ability to grow in our lives.

It is there always and has to be exercised and nurtured to experience the benefits of it! We need patience to receive the promises of God. Sometimes the only reason we missed out on something from God is because we didn’t continue waiting long enough. You see God doesn’t have a NJ mentality! He doesn’t make instant pudding either. He will take time to get things done and when they are boy are they WELL DONE and DONE WELL alright! It’s worth taking the time to patiently exercise His Word into our lives both in the workplace and at home. 

Hebrews 6:12 (New Century Version)
12 We do not want you to become lazy. Be like those who through faith and patience will receive what God has promised.

Faith is now a present tense action.
And Patience is later. A future tense result. 
But it is through the combination of both in which we will receive the promises of God!

We need to teach ourselves to hang in there and wait upon the Lord!Isaiah 40:29-31 (King James Version)
29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 
30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 
31But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

To wait upon the Lord is an act of patience that will strengthen our character and attract the promises of God into our Lives!

As we go through today allow the fruit of Patience to grow in all your circumstances you face!
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So what in the world does Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS) have to do with Visitor Follow-Up Systems (VFS)?

The Feature (What it is) - An anti-lock braking system, or ABS is a safety system which prevents the wheels on a motor vehicle from locking up (or ceasing to rotate) while braking.

The Advantage (The value it adds to the product) - What is the advantage in having this on your vehicle? The anti-lock braking system was designed to allow the driver the ability to steer around an object while braking. So the primary advantage is the ability to steer the vehicle out of an accident, instead of locking the wheel and skidding into an accident. 

The Benefit (The value it adds to you) - How does this benefit you? You are safer, receive reduced insurance rates for safety features and lessen your chances of accidents caused by your brakes locking up and skidding.

The Bottom Line (What it all means) - No matter who the manufacturer of the vehicle is, Anti-Lock Brakes provide the consumer with the peace of mind and knowledge that if they have ABS on their vehicle they will ultimately be safer in an emergency stopping situation.

 

So what does all this have to do with Visitor Follow-Up? The answer is simple. If I was to tell you that basically every new vehicle that is sold today has ABS brakes and kept going without pointing out the FAB, (Feature, Advantage, Benefit), you probably wouldn’t care whether your car had it or not. However, if I properly tell you and clearly explain the FAB, the Feature (What it is), the Advantage, (The value it adds to the product) and the Benefit, (The value it adds to you), you can now see not only that the vehicle has the feature of ABS but you can also see the importance and value of why you need to have ABS on your vehicle, and why you need to have a vehicle with ABS.

The same is true with Visitor Follow-Up Systems (VFS). 

The Feature (What it is) - A Visitor Follow-Up System is used to help churches retain and connect visitors and potential members into lifetime members.

The Advantage (The value it adds to the product – the church) - What is the advantage in having this in your church? The Visitor Follow-Up System is designed to empower the church with the tools necessary to organize the right People, maximize the proper Products, and utilize a prepared Process so that the visitor can escalate into a lifetime member of the church. 

The Benefit (The value it adds to you) - How does this benefit you? You as the Pastor receive another person given by God to help fund His mandates, invest their abilities, gifts and talents into your local body and get actively involved in building His church with you.

The Bottom Line (What it all means) - No matter what denominational, inter-denominational or non-denominational church the visitor visits, Visitor Follow-Up Systems provide the pastor and internal leadership with the products, processes and knowledge that are needed to empower them to more effectively escalate visitors into lifetime active members of their church which will ultimately help advance the Kingdom of God and build the local house of God in the area in which it is located.

All Visitor Follow-Up Systems are NOT Created Equal

You see, not all (VFS) Visitor Follow-Up Systems are created equal. When I ask Pastors what they do to follow up with their visitors, the response is very familiar. For the most part I’ll hear pastor’s tell me that their Follow-Up System to the visitor consists of, “A phone call”, “a letter” and maybe if they’re really aggressive, “a visit to the house to pray with them.”  At that point I ask, “now after that week is over and they didn’t come back, now what do you do?”

Most churches today don’t do much after one week. Some go into two weeks with follow-up. Very little go beyond three to four weeks with any kind of Follow-Up. Less than one percent digs into the pile of visitor cards from over a year ago to resend a letter, an email or even make a phone call to re-invite them back to another service again. We have a gold mine of opportunities inside the drawers of past visitors waiting for us to reach back out to them. What if we just sent one email or letter to every visitor who came within the last two years to re-invite them back out to a special service. What if one percent showed up? It’s still one percent more than we had. We can’t lose something we don’t have, so let’s come up with a plan to go back after the ones who didn’t stay and retain these visitors! What does this scripture say to you? Luke 15:4-5 (New King James Version) 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

The First Time Visitor

It’s time we start realizing that the First-Time Visitor is more than just a part of the announcements. How welcomed and valuable do you think the First Time Visitor will feel if we say, “Sorry, I almost forgot, if this is your first time here please raise your hands, we’d like to welcome you to our service!” The Visitor is your opportunity to grow the church. In the business world you need opportunities to do business in order to do business. In the church world you need visitors to grow the church. The First Time Visitor is a valuable and important part of ministry.

Most so called Follow-Up Systems that I mentioned above have been used and are still being used producing little to no results. From what I’ve seen and researched, there aren’t many Follow-Up Systems that vary in the “How to” aspects of retention. These practices are what most churches that are in existence today have built there growth on. But with these previous follow-up practices the average church has failed to retain 83-90% of the people God sent to visit. In other words, only 10-17% of the visitors that are coming through the church doors are being retained. In simpler terms, for every 100 people that visit the church, only 10-17 are staying. These numbers are not good. They produce some results, but just because we have produced some results doesn’t mean we have produced the best results possible, right??? Even a broken clock is right two times a day, but that doesn’t mean we should never consider fixing it. An effective Visitor Follow-Up System should arm you with the proper Products, prepared Processes, organization of People and suggestions of Promotions to help you maximize every opportunity to retain your visitors.

Facts to Consider from Dr. Dean Ratke, founder of Ministry Management & Leadership
-The average church fails to meet the needs, disciple and therefore fails to retain 83-90% of the people that God sends to their doors for ministry.

-God’s provision for leaders & finances to accomplish His Great Commission are lost in the 83–90% of people not retained. He sent them. He provided. He funds His mandates. We lost them — many for years before they attend somewhere again. Some never do.

-Most pastors do not know how poor their retention/assimilation rate is & how pathetic their response to the Great Commission.

-Your church is a spiritual hospital. There is a crisis in your emergency room. 83-90% of the people who come to you hurting & searching for help — go home without their needs met.

-The average church in the United States retains 17% of those people God sends them.

-The average pastor has no idea where he stands and what to do about it.

The Importance of Follow-Up
As you consistently follow-up with your visitors, you are keeping yourself, the church and your services in front of them at all times. Follow-up is vital. Businesses constantly follow-up with their first time and existing clientele to maximize every opportunity they can in order to adopt them as their own. As a church we should be that much more diligent to attend to and Follow-Up with God’s people.

As a church we provide a service to the community which we are located in. When a visitor comes into our church they will not be able to see everything the church has for them and their families in only one visit. Their first visit may be their last. This is the reason follow-up is so vitally important. It is our responsibility to do everything in our power to show them our church has everything they need for themselves, their families and their friends. It is so much more than just praying and believing they will come back. Those days are long gone. With the world competing and diligently working on retaining them to its agenda for their lives, we need to equally and even more so work on retaining them to the Lord’s agenda for their lives.

James 2:17 (New International Version) 17 in the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 

If we do not put any corresponding actions to our believing that they will come back than our believing is powerless. If we really believe they will come back than let’s follow-up with them through contacting them by email, letter, phone calls, text and in person. 

Through these follow-up processes we will be providing to our visitors and potential members our service times, staff member information, contacts, ministry opportunities, outreaches, testimonials, uplifting & encouraging messages, feedback questionnaires, updates on events, video emails, community involvement and importance of membership to our local church. 

From Visitor to Lifetime Member

Referring back into the business world, I have sat in meetings where we would look at ways to recapture clients who have not been in the store for over a year. A business will not think it to be strange to spend thousands of dollars a month to go back after these clients. They want you to become their client, buy their products and utilize their services for a lifetime and not only one time. They see the value of every person to their company and will invest whatever it takes to win them over again. How much more should we be focusing our efforts towards Gods kingdom and His people? 

Proverbs 27:23 (New International Version) 23 be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.

We may not be in the business world but we are in the Family Business! Church is the Fathers Business that we are apart of and have been called into. What about us? What are we doing to recapture a church member who has been missing in action for over a year? Is there a plan to go after them, or are we comfortable with the numbers and people we have? Do we really care about these people as God does? Are we doing everything in our power and resources to influence their lives for Jesus? If we do not have any plan than how can we expect any results? We need not be complacent any longer. God wants us to use the resources we have to reach His people for Christ. Time is short and God is a God of order who expects us to have a plan in place to retain and account for the people He sends to us. 
 
We hope that they’ll see enough to convince them to stay and hear the Word and realize that this is where God has called them. Some may be in tune enough to know that this is where they need to go to church, but mostly others will walk out the church doors and have the weight of the world and the craziness of life distract them and overwhelm them so much to make them not remember to come back and forget how good they felt and how powerful the message was when they were there. 

So it’s so important that we do what we can to seek and save those who are lost, floating around and not connected to a local body. The visitor is the reason the doors are opened. We want visitors to come but once they come we want to make sure we do everything possible to help them see that they should come back and stay.

Here’s a question for you to consider. If I were a visitor why should I come to your church? Write down 5 reasons. Are they good enough? Do they speak to meeting the needs of the people visiting?

Here’s another question I’m going to ask. If I were a visitor why wouldn’t I want to come to your church? Write down 5 possibilities you can think of. What would hold me back from ever visiting your church?

A first time visitor only has one visit to determine whether they want to come back for a second time. If you only have one chance to let them see the full impact of your ministry than what are you showing them? Are you showing them that your church has an atmosphere of love and acceptance? Are you showing them that they can fit in here?

Are they seeing that they can be included? Or do they feel that they were never really welcomed at all?

Pray for clear direction and the right People to put in place to manage and run a prepared Process, utilizing every Product possible to help retain every visitor the Lord sends to your church in 2010!  
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“Regardless of the changes in technology, the market for well-crafted messages will always have an audience.”
— Steve Burnett
The Burnett Group

E-Trade, GEICO Insurance, Verizon Wireless, and many other companies are making huge impacts in their markets because they have mastered marketing themselves to America throug