Monday, June 23, 2008

Seven Critical Activities For Growth

The “market” for new church members is huge today. Studies say 60-70% of the people in any urban center are not attending church (or a temple or mosque for that matter). So why are new church starts failing at the same rate as Amway distributors? The reasons are the same — there is no substitute for consistently doing the right things with your time. Great churches and great network marketing businesses are built by focusing on activities rather than outcomes.


Critical Network Marketing (and New Church Start) Activities
I personally know two married couples that have achieved remarkable success in network marketing, building businesses with more than 5,000 customers that generate between $250,000 and $900,000 per year. In both cases they achieved critical mass in less than 3 years. They attribute their results to consistently executing and teaching their seven critical business activities. Not surprisingly there is a large over lap between these critical seven and those present in a successful new church starts.



Much like network marketing, building a new church from scratch requires a commitment to consistent activity. Can you see the parallels?

Build Contact List = Build contact list (this includes mailing lists)
Set Appointments = Invite to worship services or events
Make Presentations = Relevant worship services or events
48-hour Follow up = Follow-up with guests and ask for referrals
Celebrate Success = Celebrate guests/new members/inviting
Team-Based Training = Bible study/small groups/new member class
Lead By Example = Commitment to consistent, authentic activity


All of these activities need to be imbedded in the culture of new churches. From my perspective most of these critical activities represent a unique opportunity to create a beneficial church culture. In the remaining 7 blogs we will explore each activity in turn.


Until then, would you add anything to this list of Critical Seven?