Do you sincerely want to help people grow closer to God? And if that improves your parochial report numbers, will you know those improvements are a nice fringe benefit and not the goal?

First step — know a little about the people you are trying to reach. Yes, there are some lifelong church members who for some reason are looking around. All they need is an invitation. We will not ignore the couple families in your town who meet that description.

But if you want to reach the other 90%+ …. and they are willing to connect! …. look this over: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/jesus-in-america/

Most people in America, even church goers, have a bad impression of ‘church’. If you invite them to church, and they are polite, you will be told NO!

In brief, the process is: 1) intrigue them enough to glance at you, 2) provide them with a reason to like you, 3) provide them with reasons to trust you, 4) find ways to interact with them personally (probably not beginning with Sunday services), 5) help them feel comfortable and welcome in person, 6) build a long term relationship with them.

I will repeatedly stress that step 6, building a relationship, can take a long time and is the most important step. If we ‘ghost’ them or count on them reaching out to us, we have wasted everything else we did!! In many churches a major problem is leaders who think “we ran two ads, why aren’t the pews full?” It takes time!

Cost — it’s all free. If a church has the budget to help support these efforts, that gets placed in a fund to help small churches.

Church size — doesn’t matter! You create your own process by choosing items from the buffet! It might be only one thing. We have had active churches with under 20 ASA and others with over 300 ASA.

Budget — yes, some money for advertising can expand your reach. But you can do a lot without spending money. (And I may be able to get you some matching funds.)

Team — I recommend a 3–5-person team, not including the clergy. BUT some individuals have accomplished a great deal by themselves. Remember, most of what we do can be accomplished by a shut-in who knows how to post on Facebook!

Schedule — ahhhh … the big challenge. Two great opportunities to reach out that most of us miss are Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. (Feb. 21 & 22). So we need to get started soon after New Years!

First Priority … don’t waste your time if you don’t have a follow-up plan in place. By that I mean a way to keep in regular communication with guests and anyone else you obtain contact information for. We will talk about options, and I will offer you some ideas for content. The keys are: regular (weekly), never aggressive, interesting (not the weekly calendar), concise (not the multi-page newsletter) — it is easier than you think! (email me for ideas: KenKroohs700@gmail.com)

Mentoring — this is intended for a small number of churches who have already been actively seeking to reach out to new people. It is required that the church have a team assembled. Special training will be provided for new team members who have not be involved.

After an initial Zoom with all churches to discuss the overall process and assign initial tasks, each church will meet individually with me to develop their own, unique plan. After that, each church will meet with me about every two weeks to discuss progress and any challenges.

The first Zoom will be Wednesday, January 11th at 11am and 7pm, Eastern, USA, time. The same information is presented at each but, if possible, the church’s entire team should attend the same one.

The entire process will continue to at least one month after Easter so that the ‘relationship building efforts are well underway. Continued mentoring will be offered afterwards.

registration: Easter 2023 Mentoring

Introduction & re-cap — this is intended for any church which has not begun reaching out to new people in this manner, or churches who have been through the series but need to introduce new team members to the process. This is about learning and doing! Not just talking.

The plan is to have four Zoom’s, each an hour focused on a specific stage. The first will be January 10th, at 11am and 7pm USA, Eastern time. The same material is presented at 10 & 7. In addition, there will be regular emails about specific stages and assistance always available.

registration: introduction & re-cap