One of the biggest challenges we have faced as a church plant is finding effective methods to not only get our name out there but to connect with people who do not have a church yet. We tried the newspaper, but it was very expensive and we saw very few, if any, guests come from it. The phone book was the same way – expensive and ineffective.
With most of our volunteer man power going towards pulling trailers, set up / tear down and serving in numerous ministry areas on Sundays, the thought of asking them to do even more on a regular basis is seemed unhealthy.
Then God gave us the coolest idea for an outreach! We created a weekly outreach that is consistent, user friendly, inexpensive and very effective! In fact, every visitor that has come as a result of this outreach has stayed. 100% retention! I bet I have your attention now.
We call it our New Resident Outreach. Every Sunday we provide house warming gifts for new residents in our city. These gifts consist of fresh baked goods that have been donated by a local restaurant. The baked goods are packaged and placed in gift bags with our church information, info from the donating restaurant and a card welcoming them to the neighborhood and inviting them to visit. After the service, attendees simply pick up a gift bag and a map to one of the new resident homes – there are easy instructions on the back of the map, and deliver it on their way home from church. Anyone can participate – adults, students, even first time guests. Our total cost per bag averages about $1.50 and , right now, we deliver an average of 12-15 bags a week depending on the amount of baked goods donated.
Good points:
➢ Recipients say its classy and that they are put at ease by the fact that its not “home made” but from a local bakery/restaurant. This makes the product legitimate.
➢ Church attendees like the fact that its easy to do and does not require an additional time commitment. Therefore, we have more participation.
➢ We are targeting people who most likely have not found a church home yet.
➢ Its more personal than a mailout.
➢ It does not require the resident to be home in order to deliver the gift.
➢ Restaurants enjoy the free advertising to new residents.
➢ Holidays like Labor Day, July 4, Memorial Day, etc. give your people a week off from handing out the bags.
Draw backs:
➢ You usually have to be a member of your local chamber of commerce and the monthly new resident lists usually cost a small fee. We are charged only $20/mo.
➢ Preparing the maps can take some time, especially if you have 200+ families moving in each month like McKinney, TX.
➢ To do it right, you have to put some money out up front to purchase gift bags & tissue paper, but this is a minimal expense. You also might have to invest in a display of some sort.
➢ You can’t deliver gifts on holiday weekends like Memorial Day, Labor Day, or 4th of July because people are usually out of town. No one appreciates moldy bread hanging on their door. However, when you skip a weekend, its hard to get people back in the groove of delivering gifts again.
Challenges:
➢ Getting people to overcome their hang-ups about going to people’s doors. This is where the instructions and transcript on the back of the maps comes in. It tells them exactly what to say if someone answers the door.
➢ Constantly casting the vision and keeping people motivated to continue to reach out on a regular basis.
Email me if you would like information on where we purchased our bags, how to set up zones, produce maps, transcripts & instructions for those delivering bags, guidelines for what types of baked goods work best, etc.
