Reach & Retain Strategies (Part 1)
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Frustrated by the persistent tug between pleasing your core people and reaching new guests? In this episode, Sean and I explore why reaching new people requires focus, and how lack of clarity about who you’re trying to reach leads to ineffective ministry.
In this first episode of our new series, we’re discussing how churches get stuck trying to be everything to everyone, what Scripture teaches us about having a clear mission field, and practical ways to lead your church toward greater effectiveness in reaching the unchurched in your community.
If you’re sensing tension between maintaining what’s working for your core and making changes to reach new people, this conversation will give you practical next steps for leading your congregation forward.
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Transcript
Sean:
Before we start this week’s episode, I want to thank our podcast sponsor, the Church Lawyers. The Church Lawyers client membership program was created for organizations just like yours. Their team of legal professionals are personally called to empower and protect churches, ministries, and their leaders to fulfill their mission by providing biblically informed and ministry focused legal solutions. Whether governance, employment, litigation, or other matters, let the Church Lawyers walk alongside you as you navigate legal issues facing your ministry. Sign up for the Church Lawyers Client member program today at thechurchlawyers.com. That’s the T-H-E church lawyers.com.
Well, welcome back to the Unstuck Church podcast. I’m Sean here with my teammate Amy Anderson. And Amy, I know we say this a lot on the podcast, but it is just fun to talk about honestly. We’ve been really busy helping churches. I just checked your schedule. You’re actually working with seven different churches just in the next eight weeks, and your schedule’s already filled up into June already. So, just wondering from your time on site with churches, any recent stories to share and celebrate with churches you’re working with?
Amy:
I actually I had to pivot this week because I was supposed to be at a church I served in the middle of the pandemic. So we did it virtually. So I was so excited to actually meet this team face to face. And then the snowstorm that rolled through. . .
Sean:
Most of the country.
Amy:
Most of the country. Yeah. I decided not to fly out there, so we pivoted virtually. And I just want you to know, I don’t miss virtual consultations. I’d like to be on the ground with the team, but we had a very productive couple of days regardless. It still works. It works great. It’s just, again, you, you turn into a Zoombie by four o’clock in the afternoon, but so fun to reconnect with churches that started with us years ago and get the opportunity to serve them again.
Sean:
It’s great to have that tool of Zoom strategy meetings in our tool belt. And we only need to use it when we have to use it, but it’s so good to have that there. And I know the church that you’re talking about, you know. We worked with them during the pandemic, but now they’re working on staffing and structure again, which seems to be one of those themes. Churches, they work on strategy, they work on structure, but then there’s a period of time where they need to come back and work on the structure again in the future.
Amy:
Yeah. Oh, and I’m so excited about what me and the lead pastor worked on. It’s just gonna give ’em a great roadmap to, as they grow, to know what they’re adding, what they’re holding, what they’re not replacing, so that they can work a staffing plan.
Sean:
That’s great. I love that. Well, today we’re kicking off a brand new series on strategies to reach more people and actually retain those people. And with Easter coming up this year on April 20th, we wanted to spend some time going back to the basics around preparing to reach your mission field, leveraging your biggest opportunities for connection, creating engaging kind of next steps that actually work with people. And then helping people discover their calling within your church. So we’ll spend the first two episodes of the series, talking about reach, and then we will wrap up the series hearing from Doug Dameron, who’s the lead pastor at Orchard Church in Colorado, and Noah Herrin, who’s the lead pastor of Way Church in Nashville, Tennessee, on the ways that they are engaging people in the life of their church.
Amy:
Yeah. I can’t wait to share those conversations with everyone, but like you said, today, the starting point here at the beginning, we wanna talk about how important it is to know your mission field and keep it front and center as you plan reach strategies.
Sean:
Okay. So let’s jump in. We talk about mission field a lot, but just so everybody’s on the same page, the same kind of baseline understanding of this. Can you quickly just kinda give a recap of the difference between most pastor’s mindset towards reaching people and then the way missionaries think about reaching people?
Amy:
Yeah. You know, on this topic, I think many churches, they try to be all things to all people, and it makes sense because they really do wanna reach everyone with the gospel. The challenge is when they have that mindset, they have this fear of excluding people. And so they end up with a generic approach that doesn’t really deeply connect with anyone. You know, a good example was the worship wars, right?
Sean:
Oh, yeah.
Amy:
Which many churches are way past now. But back in the nineties, I think it was inspired by churches like Willow Creek. Many churches realized the organ music and hymns didn’t sound like the music anyone was listening to outside of church. In fact, I think most church experiences back then made you feel like you were stepping back in time when you went to church.
Sean:
Right? Yep.
Amy:
Like 50 years back in time. So many churches changed their music style after all. Your music style is just a strategy. And if you want your weekend service to be a primary way you reach your community, that strategy had to change. But in this example, if, again, if you have this mindset where you wanna reach everyone, if you’re trying to be all things to everyone, those churches either just added a new service with a different style, but kept the old one too. Okay, introduced multi venue, or they started a blended service, you know, a praise team and a choir and an orchestra and an organ. And you know what, Sean, instead of pleasing everyone, no one was happy now in those blended environments.
Sean:
Yeah, I remember that.
Amy:
But that’s an example of creating something that doesn’t deeply connect with anyone. So let’s shift to how missionaries think missionaries focus on a specific group of people. Right? They learn the language, they learn the customs, they look at the problems out in the community, and then they show up to meet specific needs and share the gospel in a particular context. And, you know, we see this modeled in scripture too. Jesus had a specific mission field. He came first for the lost sheep of Israel. And then he gave his disciples, many of them the rest of the world. The Apostle Paul had many different mission fields, and he tailored his approach and his language to each, and I think it’s in first Corinthians nine, where he said, when I was with the Jews, I live like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ, and I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. And he continued when I’m with the Gentiles who don’t follow the Jewish law, I live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. And when I was with those who are weak, I shared their weakness for I want to bring the weak to Christ. So yeah, it’s not about being exclusive in this conversation, but it’s about being focused and, and it’s been proven, and we have seen this time and time again that you actually reach more people by being focused than trying to reach everyone.
Sean:
Yeah. So being clear on your mission field is really critical to determining how you’re gonna reach people in it. And we help pastors define it really clearly for their teams in the work that we do. But even when it’s really clear, there’s always going to be an ongoing kind of tension to manage within that. So what are some of the ways that you see that playing out in churches? How do church leaders get sucked back into that kind of first mindset.
Amy:
Well, we have to remember that the people you’re trying to reach are often not the people giving the most money, volunteering the most time. In fact, their voices aren’t as loud as the people who have already been reached. Well, maybe they don’t, and sometimes they don’t have any representation at all. Their voice is just not in any discussion. So because of this, I think pastors can feel an obligation to provide certain things that have always been provided and default to looking at things, you know, like on the ministry calendar, budget items as these things are just set, we have to do them. It’s easy to talk about reaching a clear mission field, I think, until people start to feel like they’re not a part of it. Or maybe I’ll say it this way. It’s easy until you start changing things in order to reach your mission field.
Those worship wars were a huge thing, right for over a decade. And it was all about we’re gonna lose people if we change this. In fact, I was working with the church recently and they’re actually in the scenario I referenced earlier. They have a significant contingency of older attenders who have been at the church for decades. They’re givers; they’re the volunteers, but this church is in the maintenance stage of the church lifecycle. So they’re declining. They’re not growing. And this pastor man, he is passionate about reaching the lost in his community. And they’re gonna have to change from a blended service style to one that his community, the people he’s trying to reach, will actually connect with. And he and I talked through, you know, what it’s gonna take, what the bottom line, his big work, you know, is really gonna be to help his congregation get on board with being part of the mission to reach these young families. He’ll have to envision them to be like Paul and sacrifice their preferences for the sake of the gospel. In other words, his big task right now is to cast vision, to lead, to help the already reached start to see themselves as a missionary instead of part of the mission field.
Sean:
Let’s get really practical. What are some of the keys to becoming a church that’s just laser focused on reaching new people in its mission field?
Amy:
Yeah. Well, first make sure the mission field is actually clear to both you and your team. Maybe you’ve already done some work in this, and I think you could just inspect, do we know our mission field by asking three questions, you know, with your team about your church’s mission field. First, geographically, what specific area or region are you called to reach? Second, would be demographically what age groups life stages or culture groups are you best positioned to serve? And then psychographically what mindsets, values, and felt needs characterize the people you’re trying to reach? So if you ask those questions, it would be interesting, right, to hear different people’s perspectives on that. In fact, when I was in ministry, we never talked about this. Luckily, we just all had the same kind of assumption about who we were trying to reach. But I think getting this out on the table with your team would be super helpful.
And then if it’s not clear to you or your team, then do this work. Start by studying your community’s demographics and psychographics. And again, not your church’s demographics and psychographics, but the people who live around where God has placed your church. Get to know your community outside the walls of your church. The second thing, take a look at who you’re currently reaching effectively. Who are the new people that have come to your church? Who, who have you been reaching? And then lastly, consider your church’s unique DNA and gifting.
So, that’s the first step. Do that research. Second, take a look at the ministry calendar spaces, design communication channels, and your budget with fresh eyes. Look everywhere and see if what you’re doing is to reach new people. Is it focused on the same mission field? Is it really working? Again, that’s sometimes hard ’cause we habituate to our rhythms what we do, where we do it. But really take a look at it through the eye of that mission field you just defined.
Let me give you a quick example. It doesn’t happen often, Sean, but I had a chance to work with a Minnesota church this past year: Cambridge Lutheran Church. Shout out to Pastor Andy and the team; they’re just a wonderful team of staff and lay leaders. They’re amazing. And this exercise on determining their mission field, I think was probably the highlight of our two planning days for all of us. So we went through those questions, okay, of what area to reach. They said Isanti County. And then we studied the demographics of that area. We talked through the mindsets of those people who live there. We looked at who they were currently reaching. And then we looked at their unique DNA and for them, I hope this is all right to share being Lutheran, they talked about people who grew up Lutheran, which are many, many in their county. We’re in Minnesota, you know, you betcha.
Sean:
Right, right.
Amy:
And how those people with a Lutheran background eventually feel this responsibility and they want church for their kids. So that was a unique DNA piece we pulled out. They also highlighted that these people are super busy with kids, kids sports, the lake cabins, you know, outdoor Minnesota. And that many of the people who live there have long commutes to work. They’re driving into the cities or to one of the suburbs. So out of that discussion, they acknowledge, you know, everything we do needs to take into account that the people we’re trying to reach, they want successful kids. Their time outside of work is very valuable and limited, and their worth is rooted in looking successful. Now, those were the conclusions after we spent a lot of time.
But then their next step was assessing their approach to ministry with all that in mind. And they held it all so loosely. This was the beauty of it. They really had this mindset, how we do things is just a strategy to accomplish what we wanna accomplish.
Sean:
That’s good.
Amy:
So, I mean, as we brainstormed, they were willing to change their name, move their church building, redesign their weekend service, like whatever it was gonna take. And they didn’t do all those things, but they were willing to do all of those things. And when they all aligned around this mission field, honestly, they were a force to be reckoned with. And now taking action and moving forward, of course, requires envisioning their core, the core of the church to have this missionary mindset as well. But I know I’m gonna have a really fun story to share about what God did through their church in the years to come, because of their passion around holding strategies loosely and really getting back to their core of the ministry.
Sean:
That’s a great example. You said something earlier I wanted to come back to. The pastor’s task is to lead. And you’ve gotta be kind of the lead missionary. You have to equip the already reach to see themselves as missionaries too, instead of, instead of being part of the mission field. So what are some of the ways that you’ve seen pastors do that really well?
Amy:
Yeah. The lead pastor and his vision is so key to this. You know, we are sheep listening to these messages on the weekend. So they have to clarify it and repeat it again and again. Talk about it often to help your congregation see themselves as the apostles handing out the fish and loaves not the crowd receiving it. I’m sure the apostles still got fed, right? But their primary thing was handing out that fish and loaves to the crowd. And we don’t want our congregations to see themselves as the crowd. The second thing I would say is just model it. Model it in your life and also in the way you prepare messages for people in the mission field. Model it by inviting someone to church and telling that story. Challenge your staff and congregation to invite and see their church through the lens of someone new. That’s what really makes it real. And then of course, celebrate stories, stories of people finding faith, experiencing God’s grace. Tell stories of the one that was so pivotal for us at our church, helping the older folks in our congregation really see themselves as missionaries. And of course, they had skin in the game because they wanted their kids to get back to church. They wanted their grandkids in church. And they wanted them to hear the gospel, so. I can’t say, I mean, you don’t have to talk about it every weekend, but it should be intentionally brought up many times throughout the year. And you should have lots of seasoning along the way, telling stories.
Sean:
Yeah. That’s very good. So the question that comes to mind for me, Amy, that we talk a lot about when we’re on site with churches is based on where God has placed your church, who is it that you should be reaching? And that’s really what we’re talking about answering here today. This is a great kickoff to this reach side of the conversation that we’re gonna be talking about over the next couple of weeks. So, as we wrap up today’s episode, any final thoughts from you?
Amy:
Yeah, you know, I think at the very beginning, Sean, you mentioned that Easter’s coming up soon. And while it may not be the biggest day for reaching people outside the church anymore, I think I think Christmas has the crown for that now.
Sean:
I think you’re right. Yeah.
Amy:
You can still use it as a good opportunity to take a fresh look at the ways you’re approaching reach and retention strategies, maybe as a practice run really before Christmas later this year.
Sean:
That’s good. And listeners, if you’d like to learn some more of those proven strategies to reach new people and get them engaged in the life of your church, we have a free webinar that’s coming up on Thursday, March 13th at 1:00 PM Eastern. We wanna help you kind of learn what’s working in some churches right now who are seeing really outstanding results. And we’ll share some of that with you. Amy and I are gonna host a conversation. We’ve got some special guests, Sean Walker, who’s the lead pastor to a great church called The Bayou in Louisiana. And Shelly Dameron, who’s the executive director of Ministries at Orchard Church in the Denver area. You’re gonna get some fresh perspective on how to maximize the weekend’s potential to reach new people and then retain new people with next steps that actually work. As always, it’s gonna be a very practical hour with tips on kind of just removing barriers that keep new people from connecting with your church. So you can register for that webinar. Again, it’s a free webinar: theunstuckgroup.com/webinar. Space is limited, so make sure that you register for that. That’s it for this week’s episode. Thanks for joining us. We’re back next week with part two of this series. Until then, have a great week.
