To build a strong church, you must remember the reason for your existence and look to God to spread your message. This article provides eleven crucial ways to start growing your church by focusing on your mission and finding innovative ways to share and grow in God’s name.
Today, many churches are spreading God’s word virtually and forming small groups of Christians to pray and worship together in different ways. The benefits of growing your church include reaching more people, sharing God’s message, and making a difference in people’s lives.
As churches struggle to grow, they must remember the reason for their existence and look to God for ways to spread their message. This article helps churches focus on their mission and find innovative ways to share and grow in God’s name.
Before you dive into the strategies, look at the three crucial ways you can start growing your church today.
The first churches started out of people’s homes. Christians shared what they had learned from Jesus and spoke about his imminent return.
As churches wish to grow, they must keep in mind these first groups of believers and develop missions and goals that strengthen the church for today’s world. Churches can learn from these groups and their techniques as they plan for the future.
SMART goals rely on the idea that your organization will succeed if goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
Churches that form SMART goals to increase membership will remain fixed on their ultimate mission and goals while planning strategies and activities to reach out to new people.
Create goals that are realistic and measurable. These goals should relate to your mission and ensure that each program you develop will help your church reach its goal.
Membership programs help increase your impact, raise more money, and allow you to reach more individuals. There are several different types of membership programs, but most churches follow the Membership-as-Advocate model.
Organizations that use this model encourage membership through their passions. Individuals join these organizations because they see the chance to use their voices and skills to make a larger impact. Leverage social media and other online activities to educate members and give them a megaphone to change the world and solve problems in ways they could not do alone.
Churches can use the membership-as-advocate model to encourage attendance and greater involvement in church-related activities and programs. By forming groups, members can join forces to reach the church’s mission and spread the word of God. Using SMART goals and looking at past successes helps form a plan for increasing church membership and fulfilling your mission.
Donorbox helps you create membership campaigns with customizable tiers and a simple membership form. Embed the form on your website or host it for free on Donorbox. You can also manage the member records and payment information at the backend. Check out this membership campaign from River Church Baltimore, which is a simple but effective way to get started.
Without a great communications plan, you cannot expect to reach and retain your target audience. They are the most important aspect of the consistent growth of your church. At the same time, each audience responds differently to the same communication type.
To reach this target audience with an effective communications plan, start by asking yourself the following questions:
These questions will get you started.
Donorbox helps you collect valuable donor information through its donation form. This information is then stored in the donor management system. You can manage your supporters from the backend easily, add any offline donations to their record that they’ve made during an event, add communication notes (shown below), and more.
Plus, you’ll receive important donor moment notifications so you know just the right time to reach out. Get alerted when a recurring donor makes a change to their donation, on the anniversary of someone’s first-ever donation, and more.
The success of your goal will depend on your current membership and programs, and tracking what successes you have had in the past. Many churches forget to monitor their programs and outreach activities to see what has helped or hurt progress.
As you read more about the following growth strategies, look to your past efforts to determine whether these new ideas may help.
Remember, your mission is of utmost importance as you grow. Without it, your message will get lost, and you’ll lose members.
A church’s mission statement is the reason for its existence. Some may say your church does not need a mission statement since the obvious goal is to spread God’s word. But an excellent mission statement gives a sense of purpose and paves the road to reach a church’s goal.
By creating a mission statement that outlines a path to spread God’s word, your church will have an easier time reaching its goals.
After you construct and agree on a mission statement, ensure that all church programs and activities help fulfill that mission. If you currently have programs that do not contribute to the mission, don’t feel guilty for canceling them and finding new ways to reach similar groups of people.
Bonus resource: Use our handy Mission & Vision Statement Worksheet to craft yours.
A church that does not focus on its children and youth is destined to fail.
Younger church members are essential to building your church. Activities that speak to children on their terms and communicate with them in ways that they find comfortable will help encourage membership.
Engaging a younger audience will vary from church to church. How have you tried to reach the younger generation in the past? Did they work, or was there not as much of an impact? As you look at your past child and youth activities, we have a few suggestions:
Virtual church wasn’t just a pandemic fad. Some home-bound individuals have not been able to keep up with their church family because they cannot get to Sunday services.
Another group the church is losing is college students. These are young adults who may have been very involved in church programs and activities, but once they went to college, those relationships fizzled, and they found other groups.
Offering virtual Sunday services and small online groups for college students can help continue these relationships and students’ passion for the church.
Talk is cheap. People who live lives of generosity and work for others show what it means to be a Christian every day.
By encouraging the youth in your church to find places to volunteer and share their skills and passion, you create a walking promotion for your church.
If your sermon only speaks to adults, how do you expect to keep children and youth excited and involved?
Sure, there is a children’s church, but once you hit a certain age, that option loses its appeal. Ask your youth pastor and team to come up with ways teens can take a larger part in your sermons.
Watching younger individuals speak about Christ will not only encourage young people to stay but also excite the older church members who may fear what will happen to future generations.
Children have a hard time sitting still in church. Many parents have done their best by helping kids take notes or getting them to play quietly, but as a pastor, you can help parents keep their children quiet and reach younger people with new ways to learn about God.
Several Bible apps include games and note-taking tools that can form part of your sermon. These hands-on devices can open the world of the Bible to younger members. If your church offers public WiFi and includes how to use these tools during your sermons, many in your congregation may take advantage of this new way to learn.
Reach out to your ardent supporters and volunteers to fundraise for your church and spread the word to their own networks. This will help you acquire new supporters and raise more funds.
Peer-to-peer campaigns are ideal for this. Invite your best supporters and volunteers with a strong network and many followers to create their own fundraising campaigns and raise money for your mission. Encourage them to be an integral part of it and reward their good efforts.
With Donorbox, creating a peer-to-peer campaign is very easy – all it takes is toggling a switch. You can invite as many supporters as you want. Your invitees will receive email invites, and the tool will guide them to create and customize their individual campaign pages.
Alternatively, add a button to your campaign so supporters can opt-in to fundraising on your behalf. Once your fundraisers start raising funds and spreading the word, your parent campaign will list the top fundraisers (shown below) to encourage more people to fundraise for you.
Bonus resource: Find out how to create a Donorbox peer-to-peer fundraising campaign here.
Youth teams are not the only ones who can learn and benefit from volunteering with nonprofits. Your church can increase involvement in your church by asking members to volunteer for local nonprofits.
Offer ways to help the homeless, drop off meals to the elderly, and give childcare options to parents who cannot afford it. Involvement in these activities will help your church members share what being Christian really means. This will also introduce others in the community to a caring environment they want to join.
Another way to promote a caring environment and invite new members is by allowing already formed groups to use your facilities. Sundays and Wednesdays are generally popular days for your church activities, but that leaves five more days where other groups can meet.
Alcoholics Anonymous, parent support groups, and PADS or other homeless networks are always looking for affordable facilities to use. Don’t think of them as just renters. Instead, build relationships with them and welcome them to join your services.
Now that you’ve built new relationships with supporters and maybe even gained some new members, it’s time that you have a plan to manage them well.
Start by segmenting your supporters into different groups according to their giving abilities, location, giving frequency, event or campaign interest, etc. This will help you understand your supporters, create targeted communication and marketing pieces, and strengthen your relationships with them.
Finally, get started with moves management. It defines the goals and various stages of a donor relationship. These steps will help your fundraisers or staff members maintain relationships within the community and ask for donations when the time is just right.
Choose a donor management system that is automated and easy to use. For example, Donorbox adds your donor information automatically to its donor management system as soon as donations are made. Your donors will receive login details to access their own donor accounts and manage donation plans. You can check the details, contact them, add notes, and apply filters to segment donors (shown below).
Pro tip: Make sure you have donation options that align with what each of your segments wants. For example, letting donors use digital wallets is a great way to streamline the giving process and connect with younger donors. Donorbox UltraSwift™ Pay enables a fast donation process for your supporters. They can use digital wallets like Venmo, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc without needing to input personal information, reducing your donor drop-off rates.
Churches see themselves competing for the few members of their community who want to join God’s family. Why not be different this year? Do other churches offer different options for Bible or education classes, or seminars? Can you find ways to join them in these efforts?
By joining forces to hold public events or being part of another church’s work in the community, you are building a supportive environment for all Christians and churches.
There may even be a few people who attend an event at one church but feel a stronger connection to your church members whom they met there. Connect with other local church leaders and suggest ways to join forces. After all, you share the same goal of spreading God’s word.
Ever since the pandemic, churches have started to find new ways to reach their current population. Virtual churches are growing and allow even more people to attend your church.
Stream your services online and offer online prayer groups, Bible studies, or other activities online. People who listen to services online take time to learn more about a church. They may also join small groups and support the church financially. Plus, the rise of hybrid church means you offer something for everyone.
Tons of apps and websites are available to help churches stream services and reach a larger audience. Church Streaming TV is one of the apps out there that streams services from churches worldwide. Some of these are mega-churches, but others are small churches looking to increase their outreach.
Another way a virtual church is particularly helpful is for raising funds online. Directing people to your website – the welcome mat of your church! – where your donation button is clear will help boost your fundraising. People keep their mobiles handy at all times, so when they visit your church, let them know about your online presence.
Along with other benefits you provide online, mention the option to give. You never know who might end up giving to your church online and even opt for recurring donations.
Pro tip: Use QR codes and place a giving kiosk in your church lobby to share more information about your church and collect cashless donations swiftly from your congregation. This is a great way to collect in-person donations in an increasingly cashless world, too!
While the virtual church is a newer trend, social media has been around for longer and has shown no signs of losing its popularity. There are a few ways churches can use social media to promote their mission and reach a larger audience.
Churches can share public events on Facebook and encourage church members to take a picture at the event and share it online. Ask Sunday morning attendees to share a Bible verse or quote from the sermon on Twitter. Encourage them to speak about what the verse means to them.
There are various ways social media can help grow your church. Learn more about how to develop a social media plan and keep your mission in mind when creating ways your church and members can share information, invite new members, and raise more funds.
Events like community gatherings and fairs can attract new people and provide a platform to share your mission with the public.
Parents and children in the community look forward to these events every year, and in addition to introducing people to your church, you are also raising money to keep your church thriving.
Pro tip: Offer potential attendees a convenient and positive experience by promoting and selling tickets online with Donorbox Events. Create unlimited ticket levels as per your pricing strategy, keep track of sold tickets, gather the attendees’ preferences with custom questions, and check in guests with ease. Donorbox also lets you accept donations right from the event ticketing form.
Learn how to promote your church event on this blog post.
As fewer people keep cash and checks on hand, weekly offering plates are not collecting the money they used to. This lack of funds can make growing and promoting your church difficult.
Churches can use a donation kiosk to give attendees a cashless way to donate using secure credit/debit cards and digital wallet payment options. This also encourages larger gifts to your church. By including a giving kiosk in your church lobby, you can subtly nudge congregants to donate swiftly when they feel most moved to give – whether they are entering or leaving a service or church event.
Set up a brand-aligned kiosk with Donorbox Live™ Kiosk and instantly send personalized receipts once attendees have donated while capturing their details on the backend for future outreach – crucial for growing your church community and connecting with members.
Another option is to use text-to-give. Your church can include a texting number and campaign ID in your program. Pastors can then ask people to give with their phones right there and then.
Since more people have smartphones, they can easily text the campaign ID to the number and receive a link to an online donation form. Donors can repeat the donation anytime on the go with just a simple text – no need to open the donation form again.
Need inspiration? Check out our ultimate guide to text-to-give for churches.
Sunday services are what people think of when they hear “church.” But membership in God’s family does not require a large building and hundreds of followers.
New Christians – after Jesus’ death and rebirth – visited together in their homes. They shared their own memories and stories of how Jesus’ teachings impacted their lives.
Simple Church Europe has used these church groups as an inspiration to spread Christianity around Europe and build up the faith again.
All churches can grow their congregation and inspire new members through smaller groups. For instance, prayer meetings, parent support, and children and youth classes give individuals a place to share their enthusiasm for God and build strong relationships with fellow believers.
Donorbox MinistryMomentum has helped thousands of churches worldwide through its simple and affordable fundraising features. Watch this short video to learn more about how easy it is to boost your tithes and offerings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv6Dryjl_Ow&pp=ygUPZG9ub3Jib3ggY2h1cmNo
Churches are always looking for ways to reach more people and strengthen their membership. They can feel desperate to raise more funds to grow their church, but they must not lose sight of their mission and goals when coming up with ideas.
Donorbox has several articles to help churches raise more funds and continue to reach more people. Visit our Nonprofit Blog for tips and resources!
If you need an affordable and simple-to-use online fundraising tool, learn more about our features like recurring donations, memberships, event ticketing, the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app for in-person giving, and more here.
Do you think expert coaching from fundraising experts can help your church grow more? Donorbox Premium is here to help! Get a fundraising coach, a dedicated account manager, high-performance tools, and priority tech support.
Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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Kristine Ensor