How do I attract new members to my church?

It's no secret that every church has to steward time and resources. Many churches find it challenging to balance caring for people in your church while keeping them actively involved in ministry AND making an intentional effort to bring in new people from your community to meet Jesus, and eventually become regular members of your church.

One of the best ways to balance both of these is to empower your current members with tools to do the inviting and promoting. You'll see a boost in attendance at services not only from new people but from your current members. Many attendees may be silently asking "What Can I Do For My Church?"

Consider this: If a friend invites you to try a new restaurant, you're much more likely to go than if you hear a radio ad or see a billboard. Personal invites win. The next most likely option is if a friend visits the restaurant and recommends it to you. Word-of-Mouth also wins.

Here are some free ways church marketing ideas to equip your members to make personal invites to bring new people to and promote your church.

Post Shareable Content on Social Media

This may seem obvious but look through your church's social media feed. How much of that content is promotional (like come to this event or volunteer in the nursery) compared to the portion that is shareable - an encouraging clip from your sermon, an invitation to visit on Sunday morning or watch online, or a touching story of someone from your community that has been impacted by your church.

There are many marketing strategies for your upcoming church events or to get new nursery volunteers, for instance, but understand the difference between internal communication methods (like an email to your members, or your service announcements) and external communication methods (like a radio spot, or a newspaper feature, or public social media post on your Facebook page, or the home page of your church website) and customize your message for each of those methods.

Nobody in your church wants to share a post about needing nursery workers with their friends from work on Facebook. Plenty may share that funny story Pastor told on Sunday about his dog, introducing their friends to your Pastor (so to speak).

Creating shareable content on Social Media will allow your church members to share that content with their friends - like word-of-mouth.

Create Outreach Events That Match Your Target Audience

If your neighborhood is mostly business people, create an outreach event for a business breakfast. If your church is next to a school, create outreach events for families. If your church serves underprivileged communities, then an evening outreach where you serve dinner and talk about budgeting or meal planning might be a fit. If your local community often experiences winter storms, create digital services or small groups to connect with friends online during a storm.

Once you've determined the event, empower your members to invite their family and friends. Instead of printing a bulletin this week, print an invitation to your business breakfast, and ask everyone to find one person to invite or one place to hang it as a poster in a public area.

Promote Your Church With Stories

Don't underestimate the power of a story. This drives hours of entertainment from Netflix, to the evening news, to fictional or interview podcasts. As people, we are drawn to stories. What are people in your community looking for?

Are they looking for a study on Exodus about how the children of Israel escaped slavery, or would they better relate to the story of Susan that they know from work who escaped the slavery of massive debt?

Would they relate to an explanation of church ministry in New Testament context, or they would relate to Damien and Latisha who were about to give up on their marriage, then met a couple from your church who have become best friends and helped them heal their relationship?

To be clear, don't water down the word or what you believe. Instead, put that same principle into the context of a real-life story that people in your community will relate to.

You may not have a video production team to edit together a mini-movie each week with someone's story, some inspirational background music, and some slow-motion footage, however, just about everyone in your church has a cell phone that they could use to make a video or send a selfie picture of their family and their story written out in 5 or 6 sentences.

Use this format for posting on social media, whether creating a video script or simply text: What was life like before? What was the tipping point in resolving the problem? How has life been different since then?

Share your story at church on Sunday, and then announce that it will be on all social media platforms on Monday so everyone can share it with friends and family.

Promoting your church doesn't have to be time-consuming or cost a pile of money. Simply being strategic with your church marketing ideas will empower your members to promote your church with word-of-mouth advertising!

Top Photo by Cam Fattahi on Unsplash