Word Count: 351 – Est Read Time: 2 Minutes
What’s Up:
Church leaders, if your church isn’t attracting first-time visitors, you’re stunting its growth.
So What:
This matters because focusing solely on internal care leaves the community unexplored. Without fresh faces, your church’s mission to make disciples remains a pipe dream – a pipe dream that will ultimately kill the church.
The Point Is:
• Focus Outward Now: Stop centering every resource on your current members. Your budget, time, and events should target potential guests.
• Break the Cycle: Relying on members to invite everyone is a tired strategy. It’s time to adopt new methods that draw strangers through your doors.
• Revisit the Commission: The Great Commission calls for reaching beyond the known. If you’re preaching to the choir, you’re missing the harvest.
• Dismount and Rethink: As John Maxwell advises, if the horse has died, dismount! It’s time to try a different approach when old evangelism tactics fail.
And … ?
Let’s be blunt—if we don’t get first-time visitors, we can’t grow. Too many churches mistakenly believe that nurturing their existing members is the main mission. They hang fancy mission statements on the wall, yet every dollar spent, every event planned, reveals a focus on “us” rather than on the community ripe for reaching.
The harsh truth is that if your members were as effective at inviting their neighbors as they claim, your sanctuary would be packed every Sunday. Instead, what we see is a pattern of empty invitations that barely register with anyone outside the familiar circle.
The reality is that traditional word-of-mouth evangelism isn’t cutting it anymore. Members have invited everyone they know … at least once … and then stopped. That means you, as the pastor, must shift tactics. Stop relying on the old model of discipling members to eventually evangelize. Instead, adopt bold, innovative outreach strategies that directly target first-time visitors. It’s time to put aside what’s comfortable and focus on what’s critical: growing your church by welcoming strangers who have yet to experience its life-changing message.
Action!:
Download the Get More Visitors Checklist now at https://go.effectivechurch.com/gmv-bh and start implementing fresh outreach strategies today.
