As our church went out today with door hangers to invite people to church on Easter (and for our campus, inviting them to see Courageous for free at the hotel on Friday night), I was wondering what kind of outreach you guys have done and what kind of advertising/getting the word out about your church you've done that you've found effective. What have you done that has reached into the community and impacted others for the Lord? I think it could be interesting to see what has worked in our different churches and maybe we can each get ideas of something that we may not have thought of!
-
Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!
Outreach ideas that work??
- Thread starter annsni
- Start date
plain_n_simple
Active Member
If you can preach the gospel, and heal the sick, you will not need any ads or flyers. Word gets out when God confirms His workers. Do what Jesus did.
And can you heal the sick?
Do you have "healing meetings"?
preacher4truth
Active Member
So why are you sitting here on BB? Get out there, video tape it, and show us how it's done. :wavey:
plain_n_simple
Active Member
plain_n_simple
Active Member
Look up healings on youtube, a few are authentic. Have you ever attempted it? Or do you sit here on BB?
SolaSaint
Well-Known Member
I'm sure you didn't mean you heal the sick, but I find it worrisome that some in here seem to be against preaching the word and are in favor of using marketing to attract people. I have found if you use man made gimmicks to attract people then you have to continue using man made gimmicks to keep them instead of preaching the word.
I have a question for those who are constantly touting numbers and church growth, where in the bible is it taught to do Church Growth Methods or Programs that don't include preachinand teaching the word?
See, the issue is that we meet in a hotel so it's hard to have a presence in the community right now with only a small sandwich sign on one road. We did the door hangars today (put out about 400) but we need to figure out more ways to let it be known that we are there. I also would love to see how other churches do outreach - not just bringing people into the building but actually going out and touching lives outside the building.
As for what is preached, the Gospel is absolutely preached at our church. There is no gimmick to keep anyone who comes and we are what we are unappologetically. But the question is how to get them to even know we are there....
When we have special events like revivals, Easter/Christmas services, VBS, or any other out-of-the-ordinary evangelistic emphasis, we use a variety of methods to get the word out.
Door to door in local neighborhoods, flyers in local schools, and sometimes ads on the radio or newspaper. The door-to-door and flyers work best as that is a personal and face-to-face invitation. But of course, everyone we invite doesn't come, but a few do.
For the week-to-week ordinary evangelistic emphasis, we rely on word of mouth and our sign in front. I enjoy our electronic sign out front (like the banks). It gives the time and temperature and gives several short messages that repeat throughout the day that last about 30 seconds each.
SolaSaint
Well-Known Member
Ann, that is good to hear and I pray you will reach your community with the gospel, it is just that so may today use gimmicks instead of preaching truth. I know you all are not in that camp.
Yep - We just want to get them there!! We're hoping that the door hangars with the invite to the movie on Friday night (at a hotel so maybe it will be less intimidating) brings in a few people to at least see who we are. If we can meet them, then we maybe have a chance but if they don't even know we are there, there's not much we can do!
Ugh - our Easter offering is going to try to raise $35,000 for an electronic sign. Not that the staff hasn't had raises in years, our campus still meet in a hotel instead of our own place and there is SO much we can do in the community with that money. To tell you the truth, my family will not be giving to the Easter offering because I don't think we need the electronic sign. A good wooden sign would be good enough - and using the money for outreach/missions might be a better use for it.
Last Saturday we had a free oil change for any single moms and widows. It was held at one of our member's (he's a mechanic by trade) garages. It was actually more of a kindness outreach than strictly a way to invite people to our church.
Not sure how many came to receive a free oil change, but some of the stories we heard were heart rending. One single mom suffered the loss of her house to fire. While she and her children survived, she had no insurance and all of their belongings were lost. We're now in the process of taking up an offering to help her through this time.
Another one simply ran out of money to have repairs done on her car. One of the main things was having her oil changed. We did it for her for free, and the mechanic member said he'd see what he could do to help her with the other repairs.
Why did we do this? Because we care about people. Will any of them come to our services? We hope so, but more than that, we want to see them saved. Being "the hands and feet of Jesus" is one way we can reach out to them and show them what real Biblical Christianity is all about.
Not sure how many came to receive a free oil change, but some of the stories we heard were heart rending. One single mom suffered the loss of her house to fire. While she and her children survived, she had no insurance and all of their belongings were lost. We're now in the process of taking up an offering to help her through this time.
Another one simply ran out of money to have repairs done on her car. One of the main things was having her oil changed. We did it for her for free, and the mechanic member said he'd see what he could do to help her with the other repairs.
Why did we do this? Because we care about people. Will any of them come to our services? We hope so, but more than that, we want to see them saved. Being "the hands and feet of Jesus" is one way we can reach out to them and show them what real Biblical Christianity is all about.
That's an awesome idea!! We have a single mom who doesn't have a car that is driveable so we had a few guys go over and service it to get it ready for inspection. Unfortunately her ex messed with the title and won't give it to her so the car that would run fine sits in her driveway waiting to be registered.
But what you wrote made me think of working on Joanne's car.preacher4truth
Active Member
Of course I've seen false healings on youtube. Do you have a video of yours there as well?
Bottom line is, this is only something for you to crow about, but something you won't practice because you know as well as I it's all a fake or you'd be out there doing it. In other words, you can't do it, you just throw it out there while trawling hoping to make a catch. :wavey:
I'll await your video.
We would have never bought it for ourselves - but an elderly member's very wealthy son who lives in another state wanted to show his appreciation for our tending to his mother and now deceased father. He asked if we thought we could make good use of it and the pastor said yes.
I really like the short messages and I really like the simple, but moving messages in the wee hours of the night for those traveling alone or in need of a good word.
In addition to announces, service times, and the time/temp, it primarily flashes things like:
- Jesus saves
- Read God's Word
- Stay married
- Love your wife
- Respect your husband
- God loves you
- Pray now
- Bring your family to church
- Jesus died for you
- Respect your parents
- Love each other
- Pray with us
- Worship with us
preacher4truth
Active Member
Now this is what I call a real miracle! That is a great idea. Thanks for sharing.
saturneptune
New Member
I think anything in good taste that reaches others with the Good News is a good idea, and think your idea is wonderful. Basically, we go door to door and follow up on the promising ones. We also visit the parents of our Wedenesday night children ministry. We follow up on those we help with benevolence. One thing that works really well is make people feel at home that come visit your church whether they blend in or not.
saturneptune
New Member
No, he does not sit here on BB. Neither do I. I go door to door spreading the Gospel. I also go on mission trips. What I do not do is watch parlor tricks on utube. Seems like you spend lots of time here. So what is your technique, shouting in an ear and saying "Come out evil spirit?" Speaking of healing, if that avatar is a picture of you, you do not look too well. You should heal thyself, or go see a doctor.
saturneptune
New Member
Our church gives a free beer to each visitor, and if they have perfect attendance for one month, we give them five lottery tickets. Our attendance has increased five fold since the year started. Once they join and are baptized, we award them ten weeks of dance lessons.