Planting Space

We’ve reached round 2 of the Exponential Blogging Tournament. This week’s question is sure to be practical and beneficial for all church planters. Bloggers were asked, “What is your best marketing and/or outreach idea for under $500?” As you are planning your Summer and Fall calendars, hopefully you’ll find some great ideas to try. If you like what you read, click on the bloggers name to go to their blog.

Rules:
1. 300 words or less
2. Top 4 Vote Getters Move on to Round 3
3. Voting Ends Sunday at 11:59 pm

Ron Klabunde -Restore Christian Church - Planting in Northern Virginia

I find it interesting that marketing and outreach are used in the same question as if they are synonymous. People should know who we are and God’s work among us (marketing) because of our revolutionary love for others as we live Jesus’ mission (outreach).

Imagine a church that is … more interested in giving Jesus a good name than giving themselves a good name … more concerned with meeting people’s real needs than in self-promotion.

This imagery is possible!

But it takes more than … passing out water bottles printed with our church logo … having a launch team wear our church t-shirt … putting fliers on pizza boxes … or buying bill boards….

It requires seeking to understand the specific needs of people in our community. It means extending ourselves to meet these needs. It necessitates developing personal relationships.

Here’s how:
1. Do a needs assessment. Meet with people of influence in your city to identify the greatest needs within the community; review the last year of newspapers looking for themes of community issues and needs; run a survey within the community specifically to identify peoples real needs; and prioritize the identified needs. This process has the potential of building a relational network of over a thousand people while communicating true care, concern, and love for others.
2. Be a good neighbor. Empower your launch team to partner with already existing organizations that meet the highest priority needs of people in the community and/or start a community-based organization to meet needs that are presently unmet.
3. Invite to participation. Birth a new church from the relationships developed in meeting people’s real needs in tangible ways.

For more information on designing a needs assessment, identifying the people of influence in your community, and starting a community-based organization go to http://www.compassionbydesign.org/ .

Vince Antonucci - Forefront Christian Church - Virginia Beach, VA

Okay, not to sound pompous, but how about rather than an outreach “idea,” rather than having to do some event that we’ll need to top next year, what if we who lead the church started to burn with passion for lost people? What if we set the example of building relationships with people who are far from God? What if we hung out where sinful people hang out? What if we went to sleep at night and woke up in the morning praying for our lost neighbors? What if our church people met our non-Christians friends on Sunday mornings, because we invited them to church? What if we taught our people that church is not a country club for its members but a search and rescue mission for those who do not belong? What if we really believed in Hell, and cared enough about people to not want them to go there? What if we became obsessed with the heart of our Father, who has children who are separated from Him - and He doesn’t know if He’ll ever get to hold them again?
 
And, if that doesn’t work … here are two more ideas:
 
(1) Go into the center of your town. Set yourself on fire. Have a big sign that says, “This is hell. Any questions?”
(2) Or: Have dancing girls in cages hanging from the ceilings at your services. (Well, maybe not, the cages might cost more than $500.)

My name is Vince Antonucci, my blog is www.vinceantonucci.com , and I really don’t care if you vote for me.

Mark Doebler - The Grove - Peoria, Illinois

Got Excuses?
Five Hundred dollars. It seems like such a large amount to us as individuals, but almost meaningless if you’re limited to it for an outreach/marketing idea. I’m not sure, but I think that’s the combined price of a gallon of gas and a cup of coffee at Starbucks. So how far can $500 take you? About 30 miles or 30 minutes, depending on your personal limits. Which doesn’t give us much wiggle room here.

However, I think I heard Craig Groeschel say that:

“Limited resources + increasing passion = exponential innovation.”

Which means that $500 isn’t the limiting factor, it’s our vision, our creativity. For $500 we have to stretch ourselves and get out of the box of easy and be willing to be “a little different”. But aren’t we anyway?

The suggestion from The Grove (via my blog) is titled “Got Excuses?”
1. Setup a website or use existing church website.
2. Have a section where people can post entries or provide an email address where people can send excuses/questions on why they don’t attend church.
3. Have your car detailed with the website/church/email address with some basic information directing them to said site. Nothing like mobile advertisement. (Will you look a little strange? Yes…but see previous paragraph)
4. Respond to people’s excuses/questions in video format, utilizing YouTube, in 5 minutes or less.
Will it fill the church? Probably not. Will it create awareness and buzz? Most definitely. Will someone become a guest as a result? Absolutely.
Website cost - $195
Car Graphics - $300
Gas - $1000 (but we’re not really counting that, disregard)
Starbucks (While cruising) - $500 (hmmm, let’s not count that either)

Someone walking into your church because you’re willing to be different and meeting Jesus as a result – Priceless!!

Matt Mehaffey - Pursuit Christian Church - Miami, FL

Even if we had a million dollars for marketing and could only do one event, The Pursuit would still have done this project, which cost $200.

Like every other church planter on earth, we keep up with Troy McMahon and loved the Replenish project their team did throughout Kansas City. It worked for those guys, so we’re smart, we’ll do it too, but with a few twists of our own.

In honor of NKOTB’s reunion tour, I’ll walk you through it “Step by Step.”

We partnered with a non-profit already doing great things in the community. Family Central helps underprivileged kids, and they needed baby food, formula and other baby items. We designed and copied a simple flyer explaining, “We’re a new church in the area, and we want to help Family Central do what they do best. We need your help.” We purchased cheap grocery bags at Costco.

We distributed the flyers & grocery bags in two ways: a. Our launch team took them door to door. The flyer told people to buy the needed items and leave them on their front porch for a designated collection date a week later. b. Wal-mart and Winn-Dixie allowed us to set up tables outside their stores on high traffic weekend times. Our team handed flyers to shoppers as they entered the store. Shoppers loved this because they could buy the stuff and give it right then. The stores loved this because they made a lot of money. GREAT community relations.

The next week we collected all the bags and filled a couple SUV’s full of items. When we dropped them off at Family Central, the director said, “You’re a church that hasn’t even started yet and you’re already helping? We could sure learn a few things from you.”

Jeremy Myers - Planting in Montana

What is the best way for a church to spend $500? Give Presence. (No, not
Presents. though that might be part of giving presence.)

People today are tired of commercials (TV and radio), door hangers, junk
mail, email spam, surveys, and telemarketers. Most people only get annoyed
by such things, and this is especially true when they come from the church.
They think, “If that church has nothing better to do with its money then
send me junk mail, I’m sure not going to attend there and give them my
money!”

The best thing we can do with our “Marketing/Outreach” budget is to give
presence. Just join the people in your town and city where they already are,
and do what they are already doing. Typically, with such a strategy, a
church planter doesn’t need to worry about how to gather a crowd or get the
word out about a big event, because the city (or whoever is organizing the
event) is already doing such things.

So go to your local Chamber of Commerce or city website and get a community
calendar, as well as a list of civic organizations and community service
events. Then be present at as many of these events and projects as possible.
Be the most active, joyful, service-minded citizens your city has ever seen.

For the Fourth of July Festival, join whatever the city is doing.
Serve free hot chocolate at the New Year’s Parade.
Build homes with Habitat for Humanity.
Volunteer at the homeless shelter.
Give out free beads at Mardi Gras. (Ok, maybe not that one.)

To effectively reach our culture, we need to stop trying to do our own
thing. Instead, go to where the crowds are already gathering. It’s easier,
cheaper, and frequently, a lot more fun.

Dave Milam - Kinetic Christian Church - Charlotte, NC

I’m not one of those Donald Miller wannabes who believes that marketing is from Satan himself. But if you’re only willing to spend $500 on a marketing campaign, then your church is clearly in one of three places:

Prelaunch and Invincible
When you’re in prelaunch you’ll spend $500 multiple times to try and gain traction.

So, relax and spend the money! (We all know you will anyway.) Go ahead and drop 50,000 pennies on your elementary school sidewalk and make the news. Dream about handing out child ID kits and drop your Easter eggs.

Post-launch and Broke
Listen, I know you’re looking for the silver bullet. It’s a scary time. You have secret dreams of $500 launching your church into the stratosphere; that Sunday morning chaos will ensue the moment you hand out a zillion Frisbees with your church logo.

But right now, your church is struggling to just stay viable. If you’re honest with yourself, any marketing you do at this point is driven by fear. After all, if you don’t get more people in the door, your church could die!

Hear me now, Mr. Broke Church Planter: whenever marketing is driven by panic, it fails!

Save your money and pay your flipp’n bills. Instead, work to make your church the best place it can be. As novel as it may sound, let your people become the evangelists for the church, not the postcards.

Planted and Progressing
If your church has reached the level where you can say that everything is going well, and you’re only willing to spend $500, then you need to lay off the weed for a while.

You guys didn’t get to this place by playing it safe, right? After all, you are a church planter, so make it huge and up the ante.

Doug Foltz - Passion 4 Planting - Chantilly, Viriginia

We had a couple of no show bloggers, so I’m moving from moderator to blogger. Call it cheating, call it swiftboating, I call it call another idea. To those who say you can’t do marketing on $500 – shame on you. What makes great church planters great is their ability to innovate and be creative with limited budgets. The point is to use the money to create opportunities to build relationships and start conversations.

Idea #1 - 5000 pencils
On the back to school Sunday, send volunteers to Wal-Mart to pass out pencils and balloons. Have informational brochures and invites to upcoming kids events. Wal-Mart will be packed with back-to-school shoppers and if they’re there Sunday morning, chances are they are not going to church.

Idea #2 - Neighborhood Pool Party
Get permission from your HOA and throw a big pool party on a Friday night. On Friday morning, put up signs at the entrance/exit that say Free Food: Cookout at Pool tonight 6-8pm. Have volunteers cook and serve hot dogs, drinks, and chips and homemade deserts. Don’t be preachy. Use the environment to allow your team to build relationships

Idea #3 - Bounce House / Sno-Cone Machine
$500 can buy a used bounce house from an inflatable rental business or a used sno-cone machine on Ebay. Set either up at every community event you can think of. Before long people will be calling you to invite you to participate in their event. Just take it to the park on a Saturday and watch the kids come running. Conversations are sure to happen.

If you still think you need more than $500 you probably think you need more than $25 to have a romantic evening with your wife. Just ask her, she’ll say it’s not true.

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