Growth And Assimilation - Part 3

February 16, 2011

Getting people in the door is one thing, retaining them is really quite another. Gary McIntosh wrote in his book, Beyond The First Visit: A Complete Guide To Connecting Guests To Your Church, “A church keeps about 85% of its guests who come back for a second visit the week after their first visit.” If that is true, then more care must be given to designing and perfecting an intentional follow-up process. In the survey I asked:

Once a visitor attended your service, did you have an intentional, planned follow-up method? Out of the nearly 160 pastors that answered this question, 25 percent indicated that their church did not have an intentional follow-up process for first-time guests. As the churches were divided according to their growth percentage in 2010, however, 100 percent of church that grew by 15 percent of more had an intentional method of following up with first-time guests.

The methods used by the churches that had an intentional follow-up process were interesting. A clear divide appeared between those churches that grew more than 15 percent and those that grew less than 15 percent in 2010. I asked: What were your main processes for following up with a first-time guest? Here are the top three answers for both groups.

Across the board, churches that grew less than 15 percent sent out a personalized letter to first time guest as their primary way of following up (65%). Second to this was a time of “meet and greet” with the pastor after the worship service(45%). Third was the use of email. (35%) Churches that grew by more than 15 percent used email as a primary method for follow-up (90%). Second to this was a sending a personalized letter (62%). Third was a phone call (50%).

What do these numbers mean? I’m sure there is more to the growth of these churches than a simple follow-up process, but I do think these numbers tell us three things:

1. We live in a technological age where people would rather receive email than snail mail.
2. “Meet and greet” with the pastor may not be the best way to follow-up. First-time guests, at least in my experience, are not usually ready to jump in and have personal conversations with the pastor. They may be uncomfortable with being in church in the first place and now you are asking them to come into a more private meeting with the pastor.
3. Making a phone call to follow-up may not be as taboo as many think. If the person sitting in your church writes down their phone number on a communication card, it means they are not opposed to receiving a call. Calling, unlike “meet & greet”, provides safe personal space for someone seeking more information.

What do you think?

Posted 2/16/2011 in Stephen Gray | 0 Comments - Add Comment