Pentecost Pointers
Pentecost Pointers are occasional ideas from your Regional Minister, and others, as to how to keep your ministry accessible, interesting, and relevant, especially in terms of evangelism.
Pentecost Pointer 1:
Make sure your worship time(s), your address, and whether or not you live stream worship and the link to do so is at the TOP of your website on both desktop and mobile versions. Think of this in terms of how newspapers used to talk about story placement: put it “above the fold.”
Likewise, put those five items (worship time(s), address, live stream yes/no, and live stream URL) in your Facebook “About” section and your Instagram/Threads/etc. Profile “Bio.”
If you don’t know if your website or social media has this easily viewable, check it out now on your laptop AND your smart phone. Don’t sit there wondering, look now!
[ ] Worship Time(s)
[ ] Physical Address (if you meet on-site)
[ ] Live stream available? (i.e. do you offer on-line worship?)
[ ] Live stream location (i.e. YouTube, Facebook, Website and the URL for it)
If you want new people to show up, you simply have to give them the information they need quickly and boldly to do just that! Don’t make people search for this basic information!
Come back here for more Pentecost Pointers!
Pentecost Pointer 2
Does your church or worshipping community have “Digital Deacons?” These are persons charged with being online during your livestream worship service. This works best with one Digital Deacon on Facebook Live and one on any other platform, such as YouTube and the church’s website if you have livestream and chat abilities.
This Deacon welcomes people by their screen name when they come online (or by first name if they know who it is.). “Welcome to worship, @DogLover11! We are so glad you are with us today.” Perhaps you can follow up with, “If you have any questions or need anything please let me know!”
Digital Deacons might also:
• Post a URL link to the online worship bulletin, if you have one.
• When you are approaching the time of offering the Digital Deacon should post the URL link to the community’s online giving platform.
• As you approach the time of Communion the Digital Deacon can invite online worshippers to make sure they have something ready for communion where they are (and assure them it doesn’t have to be bread and grape juice!).
• If you have an open prayer time, invite participants to share prayer concerns (first names only, please). Some communities have a way to get this information to the person praying to include verbally in the service.
• Finally, as you approach the end of the service thank everyone for being present, and post the church’s website URL for more information. (Make sure your website is up-to-date or this will be counter-productive!)
If you are really intentional about evangelism, you would want to follow up with the online participant with a message later in the week thanking them for attending worship and inviting them back. If you know the scripture, theme, or sermon title for the next week, you can share that as a teaser!
If your church is worried about people using livestream worship as a way to slowly ease away from the life of the church (a common misperception), this is a perfect way to keep them engaged and help to prevent that!
If your church is worried about people using livestream worship as a way to slowly ease away from the life of the church, this is a perfect way to keep them engaged and help to prevent that!
Pentecost Pointer 3
Every single time you have an event where you expect visitors, have a flyer ready for THE NEXT UPCOMING EVENT where visitors would be welcome to attend. For example, if you expect visitors for your Graduation Sunday Service, have a flyer for the summer ice cream social in the bulletin and posted around the church. For Scouts Sunday (1st Sunday of February), have your Lenten Luncheon or Sermon Series outlined on a flyer and available to pick up. If you offer a Community Thanksgiving Meal be sure to place on all the tables a flyer about the advent sermon series and Christmas Eve service details and make an announcement about them.
And, as always, make sure your flyers have all the necessary information such as who, what, when, where, and how much? Who is invited? Where will the activity be, including address? What day and time will it be held? Is there a cost and if so how much? What is the “dress code?” Every single flyer should have your church’s full name, address, phone number, website, and email address on it. Look at your publicity through the eyes of a person who has never attended church.
Pentecost Pointer 4
Invite church participants to be “Social Media Partners” who commit to liking and sharing the church’s or ministry’s social media posts on a regular basis. Those that do are recognized and honored.
Engage “Social Media Partners”
This idea comes from my local gym. Invite people to become “partners“ of the congregation for the purposes of expanding your social media presence. They could be called Chalice Christian Church Partners, (using whatever the name of your church is). The requirement to be a partner would be that they would have to have at least one, preferably two or more, social media accounts. They don’t have to be just on-site participants, but could be on-line participants as well. These volunteers would agree to the following:
- Like or follow the church’s social media accounts if they don’t already.
- At least once a week (or at a frequency, you choose) like or comment on or share at least one of the church’s social media posts
- Be willing to post on their own social media account at least one time a month (or whatever frequency you choose) a positive word or message about the church or the church’s programming, and tag the church in the post.
- If they have Facebook, provide a “review” of the church on the church’s Facebook page.
What’s key to this is to incentivize activity on the church’s social media and the sharing of positive posts. To verify the Partners are fulfilling the requirements you would probably need to rely on self-reporting (unless you have the staff or a volunteer to do it.)
Of course, there are rewards for doing these things! You can choose one or more of the following, depending on your style and the congregation’s capacity:
- Once a quarter recognize the partners who successfully completed their commitment in the previous three months by announcing their names in worship and/or putting their names on a worship slide by or in the newsletter.
- At the end of the year present partners who participated/were successful with a certificate of recognition.
- Once a year have a reception at the church or in the pastor’s home for all social media partners who participated/were successful in the previous year.
- Perhaps offer participating/successful partners with some item of swag with the church’s name on it or something from the Disciples.org online store.
It would be helpful to occasionally take a screenshot of a particularly good post from one of your partners and share it in the church’s newsletter and/or worship slides. This has the added benefit, particularly if you are self-reporting, to let your partners know you notice and celebrate what they are doing. Any time is a great time to launch this, but a particularly good occasion would be social media Sunday, which is always the last Sunday in September.
Pentecost Pointer 5
Gaining A Visitor’s Viewpoint
As the Pastor or Evangelism Team Leader, invite a friend, coworker, or neighbor who has never been to your church to visit your church for worship. Tell them you’re not trying to convert them or get them to join your church, but rather you just need a fresh perspective on what’s happening there. They would be a sort of “secret shopper.” As an incentive, promise them you’ll buy them lunch (or dinner) afterwards. Don’t tell your church members this is happening, or they may behave differently and skew the endeavor.
Don’t give your secret visitor *any* information about the church or worship service (other than they name and general location), not even the address or time! Tell them finding out those details is part of what you are interested in learning about from a new visitor. When they visit, don’t acknowledge them in any way, other than what might be a usual generic greeting.
When you process this with them (hopefully soon after) ask them about how easy it was to find the information they needed to visit, could they find the right door to the sanctuary easily, was it accessible to them in any way they needed it. Ask them about how they were welcomed and if they didn’t have enough attention or too much. Did the bulletin or slides give enough information to follow the service comfortably. Come up with your own questions.
However, there is one most critical element to this Pentecost Pointer: ACT ON THE INFORMATION YOU RECEIVE!!! Take the information your friend or neighbor gave you and share it with your leadership. Choose a few of the most important learnings and give yourselves a timeline on how to address them. Think about having a different “secret worship visitor” every year.
