10 Ideas to Get More People Connected to Your Church
No matter what your church strategy or mission is every church wants to get people more connected and moving along in their spiritual journey. People are at different stages in their walk with God, but we can all agree that beginning to serve and joining groups are great ways to help people get connected to the body of Christ and join community with other believers.
Romans 12:5 teaches us that Christ makes us one body and that we all belong to each other and need each other.
The next verse goes on to say that the body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of His body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe, we wouldn’t amount to much. (Romans 12:4-6, 9-10 MSG)
Our spiritual lives won’t grow if we’re disconnected from the body of Christ.
Christianity is not a solo sport. God made us for community. We NEED each other.
That’s why getting people connected to your church is vital to their growth and the churches growth.
Here are 10 ideas to get more people connected to your church:
Recruit new people rather than long time attenders
It’s easier to get people willing to volunteer by recruiting new people to the church than trying to convince people who have been there for a while. New people are excited about the vision and want to get involved.
People who have been there a while and still aren’t serving probably won’t start now.
This doesn’t mean you ignore the long term attenders, but keep in mind the time and energy you are spending trying to convince them to do something they don’t want to do and you could be spending that time with someone new who is open and willing to get on board with your churches vision and mission.
Ask questions every time you talk to people in the lobby
Each Sunday, prayerfully you are going to have maybe hundreds of conversations with people in your church lobby or online. The two best questions you can ask people are-
How long have you been around our church?
What brought you here ?
These questions work because if you’re talking to someone who has been there a while you won’t offend them by asking is it your first time. Instead you’re asking how long they’ve been around.
And the what brought you here question is great because you get an insight to where they are spiritually and you get insight in to how you can help them best.
3. Don’t wait!
Since COVID many churches are seeing tons of new people come to the church which is awesome. These people are fresh and ready to get involved.
Make the barrier of entry low enough that they can get involved right away.
Don’t make them wait until next semester to join a small group.
Don’t make them wait until next month when your new Growth Track class starts to join a serve team.
Get them connected to someone on a team that day and get them serving. Even if it is just shadowing a current team member for a while. Just get them to connected to someone! Don’t wait!
4. Every single staff member is on the connections team
Every staff member should know the process to get people involved. And every staff member should be doing that each week.
Don’t regulate connections to a particular pastor or team. Connecting people to groups and teams should be ingrained in the culture so much that everyone including your volunteers are a part of that mission.
If you meet a new family on a Sunday and they have a middle school child every staff member should know how to connect that student to student ministry immediately. If you meet someone on a Sunday who is interested in joining the worship team every staff member should know how to connect them to that immediately.
Connecting people at your church to serving and ministry is not something you delegate.
It’s something that everyone participates in.
5. Make the process simple
Have a quick way to get people’s info. It could be a text in number or a simple card. But the initial contact should be short and sweet. Simply ask for their name and email address or phone number.
Then you can pass that info to the appropriate ministry leader and now the pressure is on the follow up.
You’re not asking people to sign a life time commitment card when they show interest in serving. You’re just asking to let you know that they’re interested and then someone can follow up.
6. Emphasize teams and groups to meet new people
The majority of people who begin coming to your church want to meet new people. Research shows that.
According to the CDC, loneliness has been increasing rapidly over the last decade. Throw in COVID-19 and the isolation that came with that and now we have a world that is lonely and desperately seeking connection. As the church we have the solution.
Remind them that by serving on a team or joining a small group that’s the best way to meet people and begin to form community. Also, when people begin attending your church they don’t need connections to a place, they need connections to people. Serving and groups is the best way to do that.
Remind them of the WHY behind serving and these groups. Remind them the value of community and that God made us to be in relationship with Him and others.
7. Separate strategies for men and women
Research shows men want to do stuff together and women want to connect together.
For example men want to go to a game or a bbq etc. That means men would join a serve team before a small group.
That means if you meet a new guy in the lobby on a Sunday your best bet to get him connected is to introduce him to another guy on a serve team and get him involved there.
There’s a much better chance he will stick with that than if you ask him to join your small group on Wednesday mornings to do a Bible study.
However, women are are looking for more of a connection with people. So if you are trying to connect a woman who is new to your church, push them to a group with other women, and they are more likely to stick than pushing them to join a serve team that does stuff together.
Research shows that people move from serving to a group more than going from a group to serving.
So the men will eventually get connected in a group, but the first step is normally serving.
8. Make the ask face to face
In today’s world we do so many things online or through Zoom and even text messaging. But, when you are asking someone to become a servant leader at your church that should happen face to face.
You’re asking them to commit to something bigger than themselves. You’re asking them to be held to a higher standard. You’re asking them to step into the purpose that God has for their life. That should be done face to face.
After they’ve been on the team for a while and you need to ask them to switch a time slot of to serve another day a text or email is fine, but when making the initial ask and inviting them to your team that should be done face to face.
9. Find leaders and give them problems to solve
Leaders want to solve problems, not fill a position.
High level leaders are not looking for more work or things to do.
So if you are just asking them to be there and hand out bulletins each week they’re probably not interested. High capacity leaders want to solve problems more than fill roles.
High capacity leaders want to be a part of solutions.
Most of the time people with the spiritual gift of leadership are not looking for titles or positions they just want to help. People without leadership giftings want the power so they want that position.
Know the difference and discern who is looking for power and who is looking to make a difference.
10. Practice making the ask
For some people asking others to get involved and join their team comes naturally. For others that’s more difficult.
Create cards with well thought out “ask” written out and then have your staff and volunteers practice on each other, and then give each other feedback.
It’s a great thing to do at a staff meeting or a volunteer night. Set people up for the win and you’ll be amazed at the results.
This is also a great way to create common language around getting people connected to your church.
You want to make the vision of getting involved so compelling that not only does everyone want to be a part of it, but they want to tell others as well.