How will people who live nearby know we exist?

When you're first starting as a church plant, you might think about mailers, online marketing, etc. But the best possible way for people to find out about you has not changed in 2,000 years - word of mouth. There is simply no replacement for the affirming words of other people about what your church is doing. If this seems daunting, you’re not wrong… it is daunting. A church planter and Core Team should expect to spend a lot of time in the first few years meeting with people one-on-one. The coffee shop, the brewery, the park bench, other people’s places of work, other people’s back porches - these are your office for the first few years of planting. If you are the lead planter on the team, plan on working 50-60 hrs/week and setting aside at least half of those hours for relationally pursuing new people.

Note : There is a place for non-word-of-mouth stuff. The most important of these are, (in order):

1. Location: Are you meeting in a visible, welcoming, desirable place?
   
2. Website: Don’t skimp on this. 100% of people who visit in person will scope you out online first.
   
3. Branding: For-the-love, don’t do this yourself. Hire someone talented.
   
4. Social Media: Don’t love it, but you gotta have it. Keep it fresh and updated regularly.
   

What will draw them into our fellowship?

There’s a reason why the old adage, "what you win them with is what you win them to” has stuck around. If you seek to dazzle with music, preaching, or programs - be prepared for a lifetime of constantly striving to exceed people’s ever-rising expectations. Churches, and especially new church plants, are chronically guilty of over-promising and under-delivering. Our websites often contain astoundingly grand vision statements with phrases like “ Transforming the World,” “Reaching the Nations,” “Unleashing the Power of __.” Most of our neighbors are over-saturated with the hyperbolic claims of businesses clamoring for their patronage. They don’t need to hear the same thing from the church.

Now, let’s be clear: the Church (Catholic, Universal) does transform the world, reach the nations, and unleash the power of the Holy Spirit upon all who put their faith in Christ. I am not advocating a diminished ecclesiology! Rather, local congregations should simply offer to their lost neighbors what they can reasonably offer: the good news of the Gospel, friendship, prayer, mercy, hospitality, a renewed identity, purpose and fulfillment that is deeper than anything a job or romantic partner could ever offer.

How will you offer these? Again, people. Outsiders will be drawn into the fellowship of believers through the embodied love (love-in-action) of Christians. The work is slow (oh-so-slow!) but it is deep.

If they visited, what would their experience be like?

Answering this question requires a degree of emotional intelligence that not everyone possesses. Having an answer is not the same thing as seeing reality. What is it like to be someone else? What is it like to walk into this place with fresh eyes?

• Greeting: Are they greeting warmly (but not accosted or made to feel awkward). New people would like to be noticed, but do not want a spotlight shone on them.
• Intelligibility: Is the service intelligible for someone engaging it for the first time? Are the movements explained in a clear and compelling manner?
• Music: Is the music excellent? I don’t care what style you’ve chosen; but whatever you do, do it well. If you can’t do it well, then don’t do music at all. I’m serious. No music is much better than bad music.
• Preaching: Does the sermon have on-ramps for a new person that are not condescending? In other words, does the sermon dignify the very real hang-ups that someone might have with the Gospel, the Church, and your congregation in particular? As counter-intuitive as it might sound, the preacher must help the visitor feel “heard.” As the new person listens, the hope is that, at some point, they think to themselves, “This place understands me.”
• Invitation: Are there clear paths to move deeper into the community? If I interviewed a first-time visitor walking out of your worship service and asked them, “If you wanted to get more involved here, what would be the next step?” Would know the answer?
  

If they visited, what would happen next?

Your answer to this question will reveal whether you are a church that seeks to make disciples or that seeks to draw disciples from other churches. Let’s say someone visits your church. Let’s say that they have a good experience and are interested in taking one more step. Furthermore, let’s say that person is a 24 year-old single woman, who works 2 part-time gigs for marketing firms, lives with her boyfriend (but they are currently taking a break, it’s complicated), and her spiritual background is limited to occasional neo-buddhist meditation and healing crystals. What happens next? While there is no one-size fits all answer, it would be wise to begin thinking in the following four categories:

• Welcome: How will this young woman be welcomed into the church family? Where is the entry point? Where will she be invited to a dinner table, a living room, or (during Covid) a firepit or back porch?
• Education & Formation: Where will this young woman begin to learn about the beliefs and practices of following Jesus? Where will she learn? Who will teach her? Who will model a mature Christian life for her?
• Belonging: How will she make friends? Where can she consistently go to deepen her new church relationships?
• Serving: This doesn’t need to wait for later. Not only do new people need to feel that they are contributing to this new community, but also service is part of the discipleship and spiritual formation process.
  Last question: who will hold this new person’s hand as they move into each of these new spaces? Who is responsible for this new person until they are baptized and have grown to have the habits and resources to engage spiritual growth without hand-holding?

If they stayed, how would they contribute to the mission of the church re. reaching new people?

Every human being has a built in need-to-be-needed. While passive consumption of spiritual goods and services may be a quick-n-dirty way to fill a room, it is also a recipe for almost-as-quickly emptying a room. Is the message to the new person who decides to stay, “You are valuable and necessary to Gospel ministry here?" If so, how?
This question gets at the nature of ownership - who owns the mission of the church? Is it only the pastor? Only the staff? We would probably all say that, ideally, the people own the mission. But how is this ownership fostered? While there are no easy answers to be had here, it might be helpful to think of people moving through three stages:

• The Curious: Folks in this stage are exploring faith and your church community. They might have one foot in and one foot out.
  
• The Cautious: People in this stage have placed both feet in, but in their minds it is temporary. They are trying this on for size.
  
• The Committed: People in this stage have stopped asking the question, “What do I think of this place?”
  
  Now you might be tempted to think that you should wait until someone is committed to begin inviting them to begin taking ownership of the mission, but that would be a mistake. Invitation to ownership actually happens at all three stages:
  
  
• The Curious: Help them wonder, “Who else might be curious? Who else struggles with the same things I struggle with? Who else might benefit from what this place is offering?
  
• The Cautious: Help them remember, “How did I feel when I was first here?” “How do I wish I had been welcomed?”
  
• The Committed: Help them think, “What made the difference for me? How did I decide that it was healthy and safe for me to settle down here?”
  
  You’ll find your new people are the best equipped to help welcome other new people. Not only are most of their relationships outside (and not inside) the church, but they also have the freshest eyes, the greatest flexibility, and the most gratitude for what your church has to offer to a new person.