Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 In today's episode, we discuss how your church can get Easter visitors to return the following week. Resurrection Sunday is the most attended day of the year for churches. And if you want those visitors to return, it is essential to have your assimilation process dialed in. We hope this conversation helps your church reach more people
Speaker 1 00:00:20 And grow. You're listening to the reach, right podcast, the show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello, and with me as always is my cohost Ian Hyatt. We're here to help your church see more visitors and grow. Hey guys, welcome to the <inaudible> podcast.
Speaker 0 00:00:58 Episode number 39. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost. You need to buy it. There he is. That's it? Yeah, no, it's good. We're working good. We have a good topic today. We're going to be talking about something that is quite seasonal and appropriate right now. Uh, if you're listening to this a couple of weeks after the fact, I apologize, but we're talking about how to get Easter visitors to return the next week, how to get them to come back. I think, uh, today is, uh, Thursday the day before. Good Friday, April 1st. So looking forward to a good conversation around this, uh, Easter is our Superbowl Sunday, and I think, um, this Easter is probably more normal for most churches. The last Easter, a little more normal. I don't know. We'll still be online at my church here in Honolulu.
Speaker 0 00:01:50 That's how things are here. You guys are probably are. You're not fully back in full attendance. I wouldn't like it. Not everybody has returned probably yet. Have they pretty close, leading up to Easter? It's a, I think we're going to be, we're going to be pretty full. So yeah. Yeah. Most of our churches that we, uh, they work with, I think they're having some kind of services. If they're not fully reopened, they're doing something in person. Uh, maybe some churches are trying outdoor services, but I think some of the big festivities that go along with Easter, like I know your church used to do helicopter ag drops and that kind of stuff. Those have been Tim Teebo came one year. That's right. So that may have been paired back a smidge, I think in this, uh, in this, uh, hopefully merely post pandemic season though.
Speaker 0 00:02:37 So, but, uh, I think for those of us that are meeting or if you're still doing a, uh, zoom meetings or doing online services only, uh, this is still an appropriate question I think is how do we get people to come back to the next service, uh, come back the following week and try to pull them into your assimilation process. So we have six ideas that we think would make sense for churches. Uh, they're kind of like rules, I would say, even that would help people to make that, make that leap to come back, hopefully consistently. So I'll go ahead and kick us off with number one. Uh, that is, this should be so obvious, but if you want visitors to return, you need to get their information, need to get their information from them. This is, I know sometimes we feel like a broken record with this because this is something so important, uh, as digital marketers, that's our business.
Speaker 0 00:03:25 As we help churches figure out digital marketing, and that is gold when you get people's information. But, um, so many churches, I think they struggle with this still. Uh, they feel strange asking for people for their information. Uh, and I understand that because in this day and age, people are hesitant to give their information. It's kind of something that they try to be more cautious about than they used to in the past. Uh, but, uh, it really is what you need in order to pull someone into your assimilation process. And usually that's inviting them to come back at other weeks. So, uh, whatever it takes, whether it's online before the service or during the service, uh, you need to find ways, uh, to gather people's information. Um, maybe you could talk a little bit about some of those ways that we encourage, or maybe we've encouraged people to do it before service. Maybe you could talk a little bit about that for us.
Speaker 2 00:04:16 Yeah. Yeah. And I think, uh, one thing you mentioned that's good to touch on is that we understand why churches are a little apprehensive to, you know, get people's information. They don't want people to feel pressured of course, and feel like they're going to spam them after they get their information. And I think quite simply what, what my church does and we do a good job of it is, is, you know, before the service starts, when we're doing the announcement, you know, we, we mentioned the card at the back of the chair. We, we want you to fill it out and we're going to put a gift in your hand. We incentivize them a bit and we say, Hey, you know, we just want to follow up, see how we can be there for you, pray for you. We're not going to hound you. We just, we mentioned all of those things.
Speaker 2 00:04:53 We try to get in the mind of that first time visitor and make them feel okay about it. And I think that, you know, a lot of newer people or people that are unchurched when they go to a church, they, they, you know, they have that preconceived notion that, uh, they're going to show up at our door afterwards and, uh, you know, and, and be awkward and get in our business. And so I think when you address those things and, and you incentivize them a bit, I know we put a, we put a little water cooler thing in their hand, you know, um, different seasonal times we'll maybe do coffee mugs or a coffee gift card or something like that. But, um, there's a lot of different things you can do. But I think the main thing is just to kinda, you know, make them feel comfortable, let them know you're not going to hound them type thing.
Speaker 0 00:05:35 Yeah. And we've talked in other episodes about how before the service, even we encourage churches to have a plan, your visit section. I think this really makes a lot of sense. Uh, I would encourage most churches to have some kind of an Easter landing page on their site, like a big event page that talks about what a visitor would expect. Here's a free gift that you're going to get. Here's what the sermon is going to be about. Here's what your kids will do. But in that, giving them an opportunity to fill out their information and plan their visit or pre-register their kids, but just doing something to get their information ahead of time. That helps with that. And then I think in service just, don't be afraid to make a big deal about it. I see a lot of churches when we watch online services or be able to watch what's happening in their, uh, in their physical services, watching that online.
Speaker 0 00:06:21 I see a lot of churches and pastors, they'll just say, Hey, we have a card. If you have a second to fill it out, that'd be great. You know, just like making it something really that you would say in passing, but this is probably one of the most important things that a visitor can do on their first visit. Obviously you want them to hear the message and interact with it and give their life to Jesus. That's all very important. We're not taking away from that, but we need to really make sure we understand the importance of gathering someone's information so that you can help them down that discipleship path and that assimilation path that churches have put together there.
Speaker 2 00:06:54 Yeah. One thing too, that we've seen on a lot of church websites that's been effective for if you're virtual or for the live streaming viewers is having an online connection card right on that live streaming page. So there's a button right after they've watched where they can fill out that card, leave their information, their contact information, but they can also say, Hey, I'm interested in baptism or membership or prayer. Uh, I have a queer meet or something like that. And it meets a need, you know, it meets a need and it gives them the opportunity to feel more comfortable filling it out. So that's another idea.
Speaker 0 00:07:28 Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. And I think the second one goes along with it. Why don't you go ahead and tackle that? What do we do with that information
Speaker 2 00:07:34 Once you have their information, follow up with them, contact them. So, yeah. And it's kind of funny, you know, you think that this is again a no brainer and very obvious, but I think a lot of churches, they, what they do is after that Easter service, they're just, they pray, which we, we encourage you pray for those people that came and you pray for them to come back, but that alone, um, you know, yeah, sure. That alone can do it. We don't wanna, we don't want to minimize prayer, but it's actually probably a very good idea for you to follow up with them and contact them, let them know. Hey, great to see you. Uh, you know, um, you know, we've talked a lot in the past about like, you know, um, email sequence stuff that you can, you know, you can, you can email them a couple of times after, and there's, there's all sorts of things we can talk about there, but simply to contact him and just say, it was great to see you, Hey, you know, we, we love to having your kids, if you brought your kids to that service.
Speaker 2 00:08:25 And is there any, you know, we, here's what we have coming up down the line at our church that can meet your need. And, but I mean, you know, I think that's just so important. It's just to let them know, you know, contact them after they came and let them know that they're welcome back.
Speaker 0 00:08:40 Yeah. So I have a couple of things to say about this. I, I think that, um, there's a hesitancy in contacting people in ways that are deemed invasive, I think. Right. So I don't think that a phone call is maybe a requirement for every single visitor. Uh, you know, sometimes it just depends on the person here's my rule of thumb is if I get someone who is a millennial or younger, I almost certainly wouldn't call them after they came in their service there. And, you know, maybe you have some kind of way to figure that out based on, um, yeah, you usually don't ask someone's age in your visitor card, but, um, you know, I think that you find some way to figure that out. I think if you have someone that is a boomer, uh, it might make sense to make a phone call to someone like that and get on the phone and say, Hey, thank you so much for visiting with us.
Speaker 0 00:09:27 I think across the board though, email is probably the most common and be the best approach on that after service. And I think for millennials in lieu of a phone call, millennials and gen Z, I think a text would be appropriate like a text from the pastor. Just, it doesn't have to be something that's a long thing or starting a conversation, but just say, Hey, it was so good to have you. If we can do anything at all for your family, let us know that's a good text to send. Uh, that would be really good, but I would also add that. I think every single person from a family that comes on Easter should get their own communication back to them. So what I've seen churches, I know our church did this, uh, at the last church I pastored and I've seen many other churches have great results with this.
Speaker 0 00:10:12 You are missing a huge opportunity if you are not connecting and sending something physical to kids that come to your church services. So after every single visitor came to our church, we would write them out. The children's pastor would write them a handwritten card. They would put stickers into that card, little stickers and fun things for kids. And they would send that in the mail so that it kind of gives these kids the connection also, because really it's a whole family affair, obviously. So I think it's really important that you do something to contact them. So in that contacting for the adults, you probably want to talk about what, uh, an invitation back to the next service. That's really important, I think in most cases. So it's one of those just rules of outreaches that you get, what you ask people to do, right? If you don't ask people to do something, you shouldn't expect them to do it. Uh, so I think that's just one of those things that a lot of churches miss is in that follow-up email, you should say, Hey, I would really like to invite you and would love for you to come out to our service this next Sunday. Here's, what's going to be happening. Here's what to expect, uh, you know, give them an opportunity to connect that way. So absolutely contact them. Don't waste that huge opportunity there. Anything else to add?
Speaker 2 00:11:23 No, no, I think you covered it well, and once you hit up, the next one
Speaker 0 00:11:27 Sounds good. Number three is incentivize them, uh, give people an incentive to come back. Uh, this is something that, uh, we, we are big believers. You've heard us talk about this on many podcasts before. If you're a listener, uh, incentivizing people to do a desired response is one of those marketing things that you, you just have to have to figure out there. So giving people a reason to come back, uh, whether that is, Hey, I have a free gift for you, or we have some reason that we want you to be there again. A lot of times churches, they, they get the incentivizing on the front end. So they'll say, Hey, if you're here for the first time, we have a mug before you, or we have something for you. And that we're for that, but don't feel like you have to end the incentives right there after the first visit, because I think a second visit it's.
Speaker 0 00:12:16 If someone comes back a second time, their odds of becoming a part of your church, family are very high. If they've come back a second time there. So finding more ways to incentivize that I've seen us do, uh, we would do, uh, cards in the mail with gift cards, uh, to a coffee shop after a second visit. That was something that was really important to us at our church, but, you know, get creative, think of ways to do that. Maybe it's, uh, maybe you have another piece of swag that you give them in the service. I don't know what it is for your church, but finding incentives for people to come back again. And then that really is,
Speaker 2 00:12:49 It could be that, uh, you know, there's, there's all sorts of ideas. And I think one thing you mentioned that is good to reiterate too, is just, you know, know that, know your people know the community that you're reaching, you know, think about what they value. Of course, you know, you know, every pastor knows their own town and community that they're in and the people that they should know, the demographics there and the people that they're targeting and come up with something relevant for that demographic. Uh, you know, I know we've done things here for, you know, we're in a huge growing area in the greater Austin, Texas area where, you know, there's people moving in daily families with kids. And so our incentive sometimes is, Hey, we got this coming up for the kids next week after Easter, you know, after we, we got food trucks or we got, you know, snow cones, get a snow cone truck, something like that, you know? Yeah. Incentivize them based on you know, who they are and, and what you think they would value them.
Speaker 0 00:13:45 Yeah. That's really a good idea. I love that idea of having a Stoker or food trucks or something after service, something to look forward to the next time that they come and kind of, I guess, number four, it goes along with that. So why don't you go ahead and hit that
Speaker 2 00:13:56 Start a new series, and this would be something like you said, you follow up with each individual family member. This would obviously be for the adults, let them know, Hey, we have this new series starting now. Cause you know, of course Easter messages are mostly Easter neared and, uh, they're, they're their own topic. It's its own topic obviously. Um, but if you start a new relevant sermon series, you know, think about the people that do come, you know, on Easter and often that's the only time you see them until Christmas Eve. Um, you know, what is it, what kind of fresh series, what can you come up with that's relevant, you know, for those people specifically, you know, of course making relevant for your church and everyone else. But yeah, but I think you've got to put the visitor first. You got to put that person first that then, you know, this is the only time they're coming. And a lot of times we know this, we know that a lot of people that visit churches on Easter, they, they are unchurched people that they are just doing to bring their kids. And so what relevant, you know, kind of topic, can you come up with their series for that? Uh, for those people,
Speaker 0 00:15:00 I would say this. So a lot of times we're tempted to talk about something that is a specific need. And we'll talk about this more in our next one, but the, uh, I think the temptation is, Hey, let's do a parenting series right after Easter, or let's do a marriage series right after Easter or something like that. That, that th those are really, there are people that are really gonna to love something like that. But then there's a large group of the population that, that won't be relevant to them at all. So we don't usually recommend that as being the series that you would do coming out of some of that, because it has to have a really broad appeal, but I think this is the time you should always be launching some kind of a new series of sermons, right after Easter, you should make that your goal, uh, and then make it something that has a broad appeal. So I don't recommend starting like a verse by verse walkthrough on revelation, you know, the week after Easter. I mean, unless you're in that kind of a community where that really makes sense, I don't know, but that's, that's probably not a good idea, but something
Speaker 2 00:16:00 It's tempting to do these days, right.
Speaker 0 00:16:03 Maybe that is maybe I'm dead wrong. Maybe that's exactly what people are all scripture is. God-breathed right. And it's important and profitable. So it's it. Maybe it is the right thing to do. But I think that in most cases, something that is a little bit more approachable, uh, something that is, uh, if you're a teach through the Bible, kind of a church, you know, that's the kind of churches I've pastored, we'd go verse by verse through books of the Bible. Well, that's a great time to launch your James series or to start on a new gospel or something like that and launch something like that out, because that helps people. It makes it approachable. And I would say, you should be talking about this a lot on Easter Sunday, you should be talking about, uh, your, you run your bumper video for the new series that's coming. If you guys do that kind of thing. But really these words I think are what's really important next week is a great week to come back because if you're starting and you're new here, this is going to be a great time to jump in something like that. And really what the topic of the series is that you want to make it approachable for someone that's newer to faith, newer to your church. And I think that really will go a long way for people giving them that kind of an opportunity.
Speaker 2 00:17:08 Good, awesome.
Speaker 0 00:17:11 Number five, let me hit this one here. It kind of goes in tandem. This is where you do the other part. Number five is start a new class. Uh, so, uh, not on Sunday morning, but Easter is a great time to announce a new class or set of classes that are coming up. And these are the places where you can really launch out in those felt Mead kinds of classes. So the ones that come to mind are doing a Dave Ramsey, financial peace university class, or starting a, uh, a celebrate recovery, uh, ministry there where people can deal with some of those, uh, addiction issues or doing a parenting class or doing a marriage seminar or doing those kinds of things because that well that won't hit every single person. I think there is a subset of your visitors that will find great appeal in something that's an actual need in their lives.
Speaker 0 00:18:03 I think just about everybody can relate to one of those things that we just talked about. We all deal with some level of addiction probably in our lives, and we all deal with, at some point, most people deal with parenting issues over half the population deals with marriage issues in our divorce care, the financial issues as every single adult and even children to some degree. So someone you're going to find classes that appeal to people. I think giving people opportunity to jump into one of those, because they're sitting there on an Easter, they're dealing with the stress of having lost a job in this pandemic or so that what a great time to talk about this opportunity to get their finances in order and get that all dialed in. So I think that that's a great time to do that. What do you have to add?
Speaker 2 00:18:44 Yeah, no, I, I think that, you know, how many times have we heard too, that, you know, even not just after Easter, like we're talking about, but throughout the year, uh, a lot of unchurched people or, you know, people that don't regularly attend church or, um, even have faith, um, they will come go to churches to do financial peace, or they do some sort of a class that is, you know, like you said, need focused, you know, and I think that that's something that, you know, we see leadership like leadership seminars and stuff that churches put on and they'll get business, local business leaders in there. So it's kind of the same, same type of thing you can really, you know, when you're meeting that kind of a need, you can attract people that, you know, give them a reason to come back and people that normally wouldn't, you know, with one of these. So I think that's good stuff.
Speaker 0 00:19:30 Yeah. I mean, they're, they're always valuable, but I think right at that Easter time, you have the largest audience and you have people that are, they almost certainly have some kind of a felt need that. I think that what I've learned is that people usually come to Christ in a time of tragedy and transition, right? So when they're feeling some kind of a burden, so a, a tragedy or some kind of hurt that they're feeling because their finances are broken or their marriage isn't working very well, or they've lost a loved one. There's lots of classes that go along with these kinds of seasons in life. And this is the one time that you're, you're having these people that may not engage with your church, that you can actually appeal to. These kinds of felt needs so huge opportunity. So I would really encourage churches to start classes in this season right now.
Speaker 2 00:20:17 Good stuff, good stuff. The last one here is the big one. We touched on it a little bit already, but make sure their kids want to return to your church. And so, uh, I mean, that's huge, uh, at one of the reasons why my wife and I joined the church that we joined was because of how great of a kid kids ministry that they have and youth ministry. Um, and I mean, if we really wanted to make sure that our kids were in a healthy place spiritually and can grow, but let's just talk about the people that may not even be thinking about their kids' spiritual needs. Everyone wants their kids to have fun and be involved in something. I can't tell you, my, my daughter who's in seventh grade invites. So many of her unchurched friends to, to, there are two events that happened at our church and they go, they go, and our parents like them to go.
Speaker 2 00:21:05 Even if their parents don't attend church regularly, their parents love for them to go in and be involved in, in something like that. So I think that, you know, th the way to, what do they say to a way to a man's heart is through his belly for food? I think the way to parents' heart, a parent's heart is through their kids often, you know? So I think that you really want to make sure, and I know a lot of churches do the Easter egg hunt stuff. That's all great. But I would almost say do something else. That's memorable along with whatever you're doing. That's Easter geared that stands out to that kid. And that kid would say to their parents, mom, dad, I really want to go back. They did this also, we didn't do just the egg hunt, but we did this and next week they're doing this, you know, and, and, and honestly that could be a big, um, contributing factor to them visiting again.
Speaker 0 00:21:55 Yeah. I think that, there's one thing that I'm almost certain of is if kids tell their parents, they don't want to go to church. Their odds of returning are very low, I would say so the parents could have the best time, but if the kids are in the car complaining on the way home about how boring church was, uh, don't expect them to be back next week. Right. So I think that, uh, I think you make a great point in, in getting them, getting kids that reason. So giving them some kind of an incentive, again, we're back to that, giving them something that they get by showing up. So what you want is in the car ride home, that kids are telling their parents, Hey mom, if I come back next week, they're going to have this for me here. And, uh, but whatever it is, something, whatever appeals to that age appropriate season that those kids are in, you have something like that set up and the kids asking their parents, if they can go back next week.
Speaker 0 00:22:43 I think that goes a long way. Even if the parents are kind of on the edge, they're like, I don't know, but their kids are saying, can we please, can we go back? That's a huge win. So don't miss that opportunity. As much as we talked about incentivizing parents, contacting parents, that really goes for young people too. And that's, you know, all the way from a little, three-year-olds having them be excited about what's happening next week, all the way up to teenagers in some kind of youth ministry, giving them opportunities and something that they're excited about. I think that really is huge. So yeah. Huge opportunity.
Speaker 2 00:23:15 Yeah. One thing I would, I would add to that too. One last thing is just, I think that it's not all about like incentivizing them with fun events. Now that's a good thing to do. We're all about. But even if, because I know that there's some pastors out there that their main goal and this shouldn't be the main goal for every church is to teach children about Jesus and, and teach them about the Bible and to get them close to God. Even if you, if that's your main focus, make it memorable and fun. Somehow, even if it's, even if you're just teaching oriented with the kids and you're not doing the, you know, the food trucks or the dunking booths or whatever, whatever it is you think of, you know, still make it impactful and fun for them. Um, so don't just knock them upside the head with the Bible, make it fun.
Speaker 0 00:24:00 We are all for the gospel being preached. Don't forget to do that on Easter. Uh, you know, talk about the resurrection and make sure kids understand that, make sure adults understand it, but give them a reason to come back because we all know that one Sunday, you know, one, a 75 minute service or whatever it would be. Uh, it's hard to affect an entire life trajectory in that one time. Now you can start it. You can start a change, change changes happen. People give their lives to Jesus on Easter very often. But I would say that, uh, really plan on how we're going to disciple those people, not just those 75 minutes there that's, what's so important. So, uh, I think we'll leave it at that this week. Thank you guys so much for being part of the retried family here. Uh, if this has been helpful to you, it would mean so much to us. If you would rate, review, subscribe and let your friends know about this podcast. Uh, thank you guys for tuning in again this week and we'll catch you next week.
Speaker 1 00:24:55 Thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online at reach, right studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week.
