"Working Together to Make Church Better"
Increase Your Attendance Instantly
ChurchSync Aims to Hit Your Target Goals
How Many More People Do You Want to Be Attending Your Church By the End of Next Year?
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 want 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 grow 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.
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 want 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 grow 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.