Maximize Your Best Resource

Bobby Gruenewald: "Ninety percent of the people who visit a church for the first time go because a friend invited them."

Have you heard a stat like this before? Ninety percent of the people who visit a church for the first time go because a friend invited them. The number varies depending on who you’re talking to, but the implication is always the same: Personal invitations are the most effective way to get new people to try your church.

If invitations from a friend do the job best, why do so many of us send mailers or direct social media advertising to people who’ve never been to our church? When we want to reach new people, it seems like we should direct our outreach to new people, doesn’t it? But there’s not much evidence to suggest that really works.

Let’s add another layer of information to the question: the frequency of church attendance. In our experience and that of the churches we’ve talked to, average church attendance for many people is about once every three to four weeks.

In a September 2013 Pew Research report about church attendance, 37 percent of people surveyed said they attend weekly, and 33 percent answered that they attend monthly or yearly. The 33 percent who attend monthly or yearly likely still consider themselves regular churchgoers.

So, we’ve got two ideas working in tandem:

1. The most effective way to get people to try a new church is to be invited by someone they know.

2. People who do go to church attend infrequently.

If our most effective resource to get new people connected to our church is there only every few weeks, how will that affect their frequency of inviting others to church. Keep reading