Outreach Strategies and How-To Articles

Did you know that there is a good probability that right now there are over 100 families looking for a church like yours?

It's true! Both research and proven outreach programs consistently reveal the fact: For every 20,000 homes within a 30 minute drive of your church you can expect over 200 people, in any three to four month period, who are either casually or actively looking for a church just exactly like yours.

Over the past sixteen years we've talked with thousands of pastors about the vision they have for their church. Like these pastors, you've undoubtedly invested much time and energy building a caring, Christ-centered fellowship that serves a wide range of the needs of today's families. But if the very people who could benefit from your church never hear about you, they will never receive from the ministries you have labored so hard to provide.

The question is, how will they find you?

The answer is by implementing affordable media outreach that communicates to the Unchurched in a sensitive and highly effective manner. That's exactly what we do...and that's all we do. And, over 1800 churches have proven that these strategies and outreach tools work!

I invite you to read over the articles below. Begin with some of the most proven strategies, Saturation Programs. Feel free to give us a call to "brainstorm" your own outreach strategy.... Until then, may God bless your work to reach your community for Him!

- By C. Michael

How to Plan In Advance For A Very Affordable, But Highly Effective Community Outreach

"275 visitors at our opening service."

- Pastor David Ford, Williamsburg, VA

It's rewarding to hear testimonials like the one above. But success in outreach doesn't just happen because an ad or postcard was quickly thrown together, printed, and dropped into the mail. Careful thought and preplanning always precedes results that combine the two much desired goals of affordability and results.

Here are a few important things to know in developing your own "cost-effective" strategy...

Understand Your Objectives. Toward the overall goal of accomplishing the vision for our church and its ministry in the community, we establish supporting goals. But these goals are not all equal in their value or ability to bring you to your big goals. Having worked through hundreds of outreach strategies over the last 20 years, I've learned a few things about how to judge the value of different goals. Let me suggest a prioritized list of what I believe to be the primary keys to an effective community outreach:

1. Co-labor with God. This is your foundation. There is no substitute for vision and daily direction birthed in a life of prayer. Effectiveness, insights, strategies, favor, guidance, fruitfulness, all come out of submission to the Lord of the harvest and the exciting role he has for you in his field.

2. Serve your community. Make the twin goals of understanding and serving the needs of people in your community (without strings attached) your primary goal. It is interesting that the number one reason how the unchurched now say that they would decide between joining one church as opposed to another is by seeing which church was genuinely and actively involved in serving the community. A supporting goal to this is finding creative ways to truly listen to the needs and desires of the unchurched. Real impact comes, not as a result of flash-in-the-pan programs around assumed needs, but as a result of discovering and addressing the needs and issues that really matter in the lives of the people in your community.

3. Develop a clear, memorable, and consistent image. In concert with point two above, your communication mix: words, themes, visual look, and overall church image, needs to be established early and built upon with every outreach (and inreach) you do. When you establish a memorable community image and maintain it, you enable each subsequent promotion to be that much more effective, because you're building on an image already established in the mind of your target audience. Your goal should not be to send a new message every time you go out, but only to find fresh ways to reinforce the same strong image.

4. Understand your true costs. Assuming hospitality and other front door ministry are in place, if your overall goal is to attract visitors to your Sunday worship or special event, the most accurate gauge of the cost-effectiveness of your campaign is the “cost-per-attender" or c-p-a. This measure goes to the heart of your overall goal of cost-effectiveness. Of course, there are trade-offs in this. If you sent out a million direct mail pieces your seed investment would be high, but your all important unit cost would be extremely low, and therefore everything else being equal, your cost-per-attender (c-p-a) would also be low. And even though you may not be able to drop a million pieces right now, it is still important to keep low unit-cost and c-p-a very much in the forefront of your plans.

5. Value quality and accuracy more than quantity. This is most likely the most violated rule of communication. It is more important to say the right thing in the right way than to bombard your city with off-target or poor communication. Remember that the scale of effectiveness is not 0 to 10. Its something more like -5 to +10. You can just as easily impact your image negatively as you can positively. Time and time again, the reason we find most campaigns falling below expectations is that they contained a weak or off-target message. This is doubly sad when you realize that good creative content represents only a small part of the overall cost. So while you may see minimal savings, your results can be disastrous, and your c-p-a can go through the roof!

If results are critical (as in an event or pilot launch) use creative content that has been tested in research or proven in actual use, or both. Experts all agree that the number one factor of promotional success is creative content, so it's not a good place to cut corners. But, there are ways you can save substantially more, with far less repercussions.

6. Create a simple, long-term strategic outreach plan. The above points (1-5) are foundational. Now you need to pull it together into a plan. I strongly urge you to think in terms of at least 2-3 years in scope. Image needs to be established at the outset and reinforced over the months and years. If you start with something weak or different than you are going to finish with, you are only delaying your image building, and causing subsequent outreach to be that much less effective. If your budget is small, start small, but start right. That means good image, continuity, proven content, and planning for at least some economies of scale (or quantity discounts).


From there I would plan on plowing back a portion of your increase into a special fund so that you can grow your outreach budget. Before you know it you'll be running a campaign in multiple media and compounding your results because each run builds on the already established image in the mind of the unchurched in your community.

Specific Strategies

Whether you're launching a new church or reestablishing an existing one and no matter what specific strategies you use along the way, the key basics will always be the same. Let me summarize the points above with a short list you can keep handy for all of your planning:

1. Build a strong, memorable image that will reinforce everything you do.

2. Use "cost-per-attender" as a more accurate gauge of cost-effectiveness.

3. Don't cut corners on creative content, it's too critical to your success.

4. Because money is always an issue, plan for savings on unit cost, achieved primarily through quantity discounts.

5. Set aside a portion of your increase to build your outreach budget.

Now that we've established a foundation that is basic to almost every outreach plan, let's see how it applies to creating an integrated outreach plan.

Step 1: Establish Image Direction. The first step is to determine the kind of image you want to establish in your community. Image is essentially a composite message that positions your church in the mind of those you are trying to reach. It is made up of words, visuals, themes, a certain look, and possibly a unique story that communicates who you are and how you may be different from other churches. If you wish to build a relationship with these people, it is critical that you build an image relevant to their felt needs. Felt needs are normally discovered in research...or listening to their heart in an open and honest setting.

Now, obviously I'm biased, but Breakthrough has researched and tested church image and outreach media for over 20 years through over 1800 churches. So what you receive with a license is a campaign that was born in research and has been proven in the field. This also adds greatly to your cost-effectiveness since an exclusive local license can be secured at a fraction of what it would actually cost to research, develop, and test a campaign on your own.

Step 2: Determine your initial strategy. There are dozens of ways you can begin, but below let me give you a list of some of the most common:

1. Small, low-cost direct mail campaign (good way to begin if funds are tight)

2. New Movers campaign (or newly marrieds, new baby, etc.)

3. Phone & Mail outreach (like Phone's For You)

4. Saturation Direct Mail (very cost-effective, alternative to phone campaign)

5. Community Ministry (a bridge ministry to a target need)

6. Neighborhood Outreach (door visits/invitation to gatherings)

7. Combination Media Plan (direct mail, newspaper, visits, billboard, etc)

8. Major Event Promotion (not as effective as it used to be, needs relevance)

Step 3: Integrate your strategies. Don't plan any campaign as an isolated strategy. You may think that your Easter outreach or your New Mover campaign has separate objectives and so it's easy to lose track of your key strategies. But any promotion done in a vacuum will not only be less effective, but it will not provide the needed contribution to your overall objectives.

For example, if you are planning an Easter or event promotion, think of how you might do it in such a way as to reinforce your image goals. Also consider how you might combine it with something else to achieve lower unit cost (and therefore lower c-p-a).

Your outreach does not have to wait for you to complete a 100-page outreach plan, but you should begin to think strategically with the very first thing you do, planning for both image building and cost saving, two very critical elements to your overall success.

Step 4. Track Your Results. Create a system to track your results. This will help you know what worked and how much. It will help you discover which approach is a better investment and give you a feel for making adjustments along the way. Also, explore ways to engage your new visitors in some kind of informal post-visit interview. You can get invaluable feedback this way into many areas.

Step 5: Grow Your Budget Out of Your Growth. Good records (from Step 4) will enable you to see growth that is coming from your outreach strategies. In addition to an annual percentage increase for outreach, you can grow your budget even faster by designating a certain percent of new growth to go back into your outreach fund. This will help you quickly enlarge both the reach and scope of your outreach into your community.

This is the foundation of a plan that is both affordable and...very, very effective.

Pastor Has Back-To-Back Outreach Success!

Two Churches, Two Different Environments, Two Great Success Stories.

Case Study Report Rev. David Freshour Senior Pastor Chevy Chase Baptist Church Suburban Washington, DC Exciting Results In A Suburban Church. As Executive Minister at North Parkersburg Baptist Church, my portfolio included church growth. Our worship attendance had been plateaued at 950 for well over a year. After a great deal of research and brainstorming we decided upon a two-fold outreach approach.

1. Broaden our target group from our town (population 30,000) to our region (population 65,000).

2. Make it easier for our current members to invite people to church.

Breakthrough provided us with several advertising campaigns that helped us accomplish both of these goals.

We used the A Place For You campaign to do a regional direct mailing, newspaper ads and placed 2 billboards in high traffic area. This gave us exposure to a market of individuals who may have never considered attending our church because it was not in their local community.

Next, we ordered 10,000 copies of the OurTown campaign. This is a high quality 'magazine style' piece that is filled with great articles from nationally recognized Christian writers. Throughout the short magazine, there are several places for the local church to insert articles, stories and program schedules pertaining to their church. Our members loved this! We encouraged them to personally take bundles of OurTown and distribute them to friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. They were so excited about this piece that they took them to restaurants, waiting rooms, office lounges, libraries and just about anywhere else people might be sitting around and reading. We continued to use these approaches of outreach during my 8 years at this church. We alternated campaigns such as Discover A Whole New World, At The Heart Of Things, and Time To Become Neighbors. The results were phenomenal. Our attendance rose to an average of 1500, we went to a second service and built a 2.2 million dollars Training Center for Christian Living. During my ministry at this church we strived to always present Christ with integrity and honesty. The outreach tools Mike designed for us were a great asset in helping us accomplish this task.


A Masterpiece Experience
In Suburban Washington D.C.

Since coming to Washington, we have begun using the newest campaign, Masterpiece Destiny. In my opinion, this is one of the best advertising packages yet. Not only is it the excellent quality work I've come to expect from Mike, this is actually a turnkey advertising campaign that includes: print ads, direct mailers, doorhangers, note cards, invitations, etc.

On May 2, 1998 we had a big event designed to attract visitors from our community to learn more about the ministries of our church. Our primary tool for advertising this event was Masterpiece Destiny. Our members were proud to put in the hands of those they invited, and the mailers and doorhangers we distributed were as attractive as any piece our community would receive.

The results were fabulous! We had over 180 first time visitors attend the event!

We continue to use this material in different ways to reach out to our community. And we get positive results every time.

With nearly 20 years in the ministry, I can honestly say I have never seen or used more effective outreach tools than these.

I have personally witnessed the results of this advertising campaigns in a suburban mega-church, as well as in the new church start in the city where I now serve. Since each campaign is custom designed to meet your individual needs, they have a positive impact in churches of all sizes, in all kinds of geographic and cultural locations.

A personal note: at the heart of Breakthrough is C Michael, a gifted communicator and a godly man. His innovative, professional quality work will help you reach a market you may have thought was unreachable! --Dave Freshour

Successful Church Marketing

Christian Communications 101: Filters, Boxes, and Barriers

One way to gain insights into effective communication is to look at the things that inhibit your message from getting through. Here are three of the most common:

Filters. Filters, have been greatly perfected in modern times and are a necessary piece of mental armor in an age of media clutter. These represent the natural filters our mind erects to deflect unwanted and irrelevant information. To get through Filters the message must be made personally relevant. And it doesn't make any difference if it is relevant to a person's spouse or close friend, it must be relevant to him. Whether someone is flipping through a newspaper, caught off guard by a radio spot, sorting their mail over the wastebasket , or listening to a friend trying to explain the Gospel, it's all the same- if it's not felt to be relevant to their life they're going to tune it out. This is where we get the term felt-need. Jesus was the master at this. Communicating through felt-needs does not mean we water down the Gospel, on the contrary, it means as Christian communicators we have skillfully made it real to life.

Boxes. If you have read the classic, by Al Reis and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle For The Mind (McGraw Hill), you probably recognize the term boxes as referring to those little cubby-holes in our mind in which we sort everything. It's another necessary piece of mental armor to survive in an overloaded information society. Without getting into all the rather fascinating communication strategies they advise (read the book), let me summarize the most important points: You never get a second chance to make a first impression, therefore it had better be clear and accurate. Knowing that it's very hard to displace that first image-impression, you need to do some strategic thinking before you create and place media.

Barriers. These obstacles to effective communication are not natural and necessary as are the two previous ones. These are paradigms of thinking and feeling that have been haphazardly erected into rather complex structures in people's minds. They come by direct influence of either the world, the flesh, or the devil (or all three), but always in opposition to the Word of God. The main point here is that it will take the right Spirit-directed strategy to pierce each barrier. Using the wrong strategy is like using a bulldozer, which is very effective on brick walls, to eliminate the barrier of distance. It's going to be so slow going, it borders on being completely ineffective. (More on barriers in Targeting, Categorizing Audiences, below)

The Masterpiece Paradigm: The Repersonalization of Personal Salvation

One way to pierce all three barriers is the incorporation of the Master-piece factor. On a media evangelism level these concepts are creatively interwoven into the Masterpiece Destiny campaign. But to be truly effective as Christian communicators, we need to learn this as a possible new paradigm of how we view life. It can fundamentally impact every area of ministry as well as our approach to parenting, education, and personal development. It can also equip you with a completely natural and personal approach to witnessing. Here are the main points to remember:

1. The God who breathes spiritual life into each soul at conception places a call on our life, represented here as the masterpiece seed.

2. This seed is a relentless messenger throughout our life, giving us no rest until we find rest in His purpose for our life, our unique predestined life in Christ.

3. Knowing that consciously or unconsciously, this is an ever-present, driving force in every individual, we can, as Jesus did with the Samaritan woman, water that seed. The more proficient we become, cooperating with the Holy Spirit, the more fruit we will see. Within this paradigm it's not hard to think of conversation starters that spark intense interest and path very quickly into deeply personal dialog. (This is visualized in the "You saw a me in me I didn't know existed" Ad)

Target Audiences

The most common objection to targeting is that leaders feel they should be, as Paul states, "all things to all men". On closer look, Paul, in the context of defending his apostleship to the Corinthians, is specifically making a point about how he was willing to be a bridge to a culture, becoming a servant in a sense to that culture. He was willing to become what he was not in order to win them. Though he was free, to the slave he became a slave, though he was strong, to the weak he became weak. Furthermore, he goes on to say that he did not do this aimlessly, it was part of a Spirit-directed strategic plan (more on that in the next section). Within a single cultural context, his focus was obviously single-focussed. Now, as a church, it is possible to be multi-focussed, which is more a result of your support of individual callings and vision. But in terms of your overall image strategy it makes more sense to channel limited resources to a few specific targets over a specified period of time in the context of a well-developed strategic plan. This does not mean your church will become entirely composed of people of this target group, but if you are effective there sure will be a lot of them.

So how would you determine your target audiences? With so much available to answer this, George Barna's books to name a few (Gospel Light), I will make just a few general suggestions:

1. Make doubly sure of a cross-cultural calling. Reaching out to a culture that's much different than your own is difficult to say the least. I'm not suggesting in any way that this kind of outreach is not a worthwhile pursuit; on the contrary, I believe it represents a high calling. It's just that you must recognize from the outset that it will be problematic at every turn. It's like the difference between a crossing a rope bridge over a great canyon or hopping over a few stepping stones in a small brook. The point here is that the first place to look for a target audience are to people like yourself, among whom understanding and acceptance will come easy and natural.

2. Categorize groups by their position to the Church. Salvation, by definition, brings a person into the Body of Christ. Our goal is not necessarily church membership, it is mature "Body membership". So it makes sense to strategically categorize groups by the barriers between them and the church. These are the walls you must break through in order to win them and it will take different insights and resources to break through different walls. Since you can only effectively bring your knowledge and resources to bear on a few barriers at a time, it makes sense to target. One of the best approaches I've found to categorizing the unchurched, is in the study, Who Are The Unchurched? An Exploratory Study, conducted by J. Russell Hale, and detailed in his book, The Unchurched: Who They Are And Why They Stay Away (Harper & Row). He classifies ten groups, (some with subgroups). These are not all non-attenders. Some categories would include infrequent attenders. But, what they all have in common is that they are not participating members in the life of the Body of Christ.

The types are:

Type 1: The Anti-institutionalist

Type 2: The Boxed In

a. The Constrained

b. The Thwarted

c. The Independent

Type 3: The Burned Out

a. The Used

b. The Light Travelers

c. The Independent

Type 4: The Floaters

a. The Apathetic

b. The Marginal

Type 5: The Happy Hedonist

a. The Apathetic

b. The Marginal

Type 6: The Locked Out

a. The Rejected

b. The Neglected

c. The Discriminated

Type 7: The Nomads

Type 8: The Pilgrims

Type 9: The Publicans

Type 10: The True Unbelievers

a. The Atheist-Agnostic

b. The Deist-Rationalist

c. The Humanist-Secularist

Get the book for a detailed description of these categories along with the approaches the author feels are needed to reach them. However, you need not wait for the book to think about defining your targets. From the above list you get a general idea about the approach to categorizing them, which is vastly different from demographic, socio-economic, or other psychographic segmentation.

What do you do if geographic restrictions, media access, or available resources, compel you to cast the net wide? Or, what if you have a group of volunteers that sense a call to a broadly-defined group, such as a college campus? You integrate some resources and target others, all within one strategic plan to reach that campus. Mass media would necessitate broad-casting while programs and lesser media would facilitate narrow-casting. For example, reaching the campus pilgrims would suggest different creative program strategies than reaching campus hedonists, and to be sure, reaching inactive young Christians would be a different strategy than reaching campus satanists (which are being successfully reached by some churches).

Strategic Planning

Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war. Prov. 20:18

A wicked man puts up a bold front, but a righteous man gives thoughts to his ways. Prov. 21:29

I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air. I Corinthians 9:26

Once you've selected target audiences you will need to do some strategic planning. It's only natural that the amount of planning and preparation you do will be proportionate to your view of it. But if you desire to be radically effective, there is no substitute for Spirit-directed strategic planning (free from personal agendas and sacred cows, I might add).

Strategic planning may include but not be limited to:

1. Overall mission statement: What do we do?

2. Vision statement: What future do we want?

3. Philosophy of ministry (includes common approaches, procedures, policies, etc.)

4. General community profile
(includes applicable issues and general cultural differences)

5. Primary target audiences

a. Plan for gaining understanding of each target group
b. Specific, measurable goals for reaching each group
c. Creative communication development plan
d. Plan for media access to each group
e. Special audience-specific programs
f. Prayer strategy

6. Integrated media strategy

7. Promotional calendar

8. Event calendar

9. Budget, resource development, property use, and material management

10. Team ministry development, volunteer training, fellowship

11. Management, job descriptions, operational scope of delegated authorities, required reports, communication channels

12. Ministry evaluation, procedure, tools


Focus Group Outreach: The Two-Fold Strategy (Focus Group Guide available free here)

1. Know Your Target Audience:
Use focus groups to...

a. Understand target audience needs
b. Brainstorm different concepts, strategies, approaches
c. Give your workers first-hand exposure to the unchurched mind

2. Impact the unchurched audience
Use focus groups to...

a. Communicate a positive image of the church to and through the unchurched audience present

b. Reach individuals. (many times actual participants become Christians and new members.

Introduction to the Masterpiece Destiny Campaign

The Masterpiece Destiny Campaign was created to touch people at the very core of their being--that place where the call of the Spirit cannot be silenced. These communication materials were designed to be used in cooperation with the Holy Spirit who reaches into the depth of our spirit to call us to our high calling in Christ, referred to here as our masterpiece destiny.

These media tools are used best in a church-wide thematic approach and with the addition of complimentary programs and events. Some strategies you may want to consider incorporating into this campaign could include:

Discovery Sessions. Since the theme of this campaign is centered around the fact that God has a purpose for our lives, anything that supports the discovery and pursuit of that call would be an excellent follow-through enhancement to the campaign. A discovery session is any activity which assists a person in discovering things about their God-given design and corresponding purpose. This can be the beginning of an intimate journey into the heart of God. People today need the affirmation of God's love and the hope of His calling. And even rough sketches of Go d's marvelous design of their life can affirm and strengthen their faith. Design is always a direct clue to purpose, as His handiwork, our gifts and talents, our dreams and aspirations, even our personality and temperament, were given for His purpose. The Apostle Paul said he wanted to "apprehend that for which he was apprehended". He also says in Galatians 6:4 to "Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given.." Combined with prayer, the witness of mature believers who know us and love us, and the personal confirmation of the Holy Spirit within us, discovery sessions can be a dynamic compliment to an equipping ministry.

One of the best places to do discovery sessions are in your home meetings or cell groups. The corollary benefit of discovery sessions is that they not only help us discover the way God designed us, but also how he designed those around us. It helps us see how each person is a uniquely different, vital, and complimentary member of the Body of Christ. The small-group size and relaxed atmosphere found in home meetings makes it perfect for discovery-type activities.

You could first present a foundation of teaching to the whole church then provide more indepth teaching in the form of 10-15 minute bite-size presentations for group leaders. Many spiritual gift, aptitude, learning-working style, personality, and temperament assessment materials are available (ask your local Christian bookstore or call Breakthrough Media for recommendations). One caveat: choose materials that emphasize the importance of a spirit-controlled life (all personalities have both strong and weak potentials). You could suggest personal reading material for home study, especially for parents.

Another idea for expanding the Masterpiece Destiny campaign could be doing a "Kids Discovery-Fest". Promoted to parents in the community at large and held at the church or local park, you could combine parent-child discovery sessions with Kid's activities (you could even add some free food and light entertainment). An informal interview of this kind can provide a sensitive children's worker a wealth of opportunity to build bridges with a parent and their child.

You could also conduct a Masterpiece Discovery Weekend for youth, a Masterpiece Evangelism Workshop, or a Masterpiece Parenting class. You get the idea. Some of these events would be for your members and other Christians, some for the unchurched, and some for everyone. The Masterpiece concept has a way of meeting us all at our basic human level, but quickly and clearly pointing us to the Creator.

See the Masterpiece Campaign here.