Church, It Is Time to Reconnect with Your Community

Published in INSIGHT - Spring 2017

By Mark MacDonald

Knowing that 4000 American churches close every year, and a very small percentage of evangelical churches are growing, we realize we have a problem. People around us are not connecting with us because they are not aware of what we have for them. We have a connection problem.

Historically, communities used to birth houses of worship. A group of people would move to an area and want to create a place to get together spiritually. They would call a pastor who identified with the group and the community. It was entirely about the community. 
Good communications rely on a connection to a specific community.

Now, as I visit churches across the country, I usually see little connection between the congregation and the community. Our congregation’s age is getting older while our community demographics are getting younger. In fact, to demonstrate the disconnect even farther, the communities around the church are growing while our churches are shrinking.

Yes, we have a connection problem. but do you need more convincing for your church? Here are three key indicators that you need to reconnect with your community:

• The community ignores you. Often the church feels that it is communicating things well. Church leadership has discussed and planned events and services so well that they believe “everyone” knows about them. Sadly, however, most people in the congregation do not know about your events, and certainly, the people in your community are not paying attention to what you are offering. Over time, those outside your church simply ignore you as a private club that requires a membership that does not interest them at all. Scarily, studies say that about a third of a community do not have any connection to a local church.

• Your congregation has become a separate group. Over time, your services do not represent the community around you. “They” look different from the congregation. “They” are younger, more vibrant, and diverse. “You” end up having a totally separate group from the community. A subset that looks, acts, and feels differently. Look around your pews this Sunday and compare what you see to a meeting area in your town. Same? Different?

• You eventually fade away. When decline starts, it is a sure indicator of disconnection with a community. The only exception? If your community is dying, too. Most are not though. Once decline starts in the local church, it is difficult to stop the slide. You must do something drastic to help. You must reconnect to your community as effectively as possible.
So how do you do that? Here is what I would recommend. You can do this yourself or hire a company or a consultant to help. My book, Be Known For Something: Reconnect with Community by Revitalizing Your Church’s Reputation, (available at Amazon.com or BeKnownBook.com) also gives greater details for the process so you can lead a team through the steps.
Here are 6 steps to reconnecting with your community:

• Determine your reach area. Plot on a map where your congregation naturally travels from. Eliminate outliers and observe where the majority of families live. Look to see if you can reasonably expand this area outside of the cluster of family units. Draw a polygon shape around the area. Then declare that this is your reach area. More than likely, if someone attends from this polygon, someone like them in that area will want to attend too. Birds of a feather tend to flock together.

• Assess the demographics. Research the demographic makeup of your reach area using tools available to you. Sometimes the Chamber of Commerce can help you for free! When you have the numbers and understanding, you’ll be surprised at how young your community probably has become and how diverse the people look. How to fix this? Concentrate on doing things for the younger generations. Ensure your stage reflects the age and diversity of the community. And in your communications (website, advertising, etc.), depict what the people in your community look like.

• Discover your solution. Once you know the key demographic groups in your area (personas), then you need to research what their concerns and goals are. And then decide why God put you in this community. In order to connect, you can be a solution to their concerns or a path to their goals. Don’t over simplify this though. It is not simply deciding that more from the community will attend if you serve coffee, add a praise team, get better microphones, or install a cool new backdrop. Drastic measures involve scouring the highways and hedges by turning over rocks to find where the people are and then ministering to them. Delivering exactly what they need. Few will want to hear about Jesus until you provide temporal solutions to their nagging problems. That is speaking and participating in true ministry.

• Create a Thread. Once you determine the solution that you’ll provide to your community, you need to create a simple, unique tagline that you’ll include with your logo to remind your community (every time they see your brand) of the solution that they’re looking for. This communication thread expands to various keywords that are associated with your solution. Since most in your community are seeking temporal solutions, I would recommend being known for non-spiritual solutions. You know they need spiritual solutions, but you can connect them later once you engage them.

 • Unify your Ministries. Your unique thread becomes the ministry unifier in your church. Every ministry interprets your thread in their own unique way and therein supports the church and tears down ministry silos that have been created over time. Like the way the blood of Christ is a Scarlet Thread through scripture, each book shares its story differently. Together all 66 books are united by the message of the Gospel because of the blood. Similarly, your ministries rollout your thread in interesting, fresh ways.

• Become Discoverable Outside your Church. When this thread consistency happens through your communication plan, keywords that are associated with your thread will be discovered through search engines since the thread is a solution to concerns. And everyone searches for solutions on Google! This is your best opportunity to engage with your community online. They may be engaging with you on a non-spiritual level, but your church’s role is then to unite your temporal thread to the Scarlet Thread.

The key is to get your community interested in something you have. Reconnect with them by supplying their needs so you can connect them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Be known for something that will do that, and you will truly evangelize your area. Church is not only about your congregation; it is about reconnecting to the community so you can connect them to Christ.

Mark MacDonald is president of Be Known for Something. He consults with churches to help them become known for something relevant throughout their ministries, websites, and social media. He can reached at mark@beknownforsomething.com