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Give Presence

Apr 9th 2008Jeremy MyersChurch Planting & Mission

I made it to round 2 in the Exponential Blogging Tournament over at ChurchPlanters.com. Thank you for voting for me!

Now, go vote for me again! Ha ha. But only if you think my post is best.  The issue we were supposed to address was ”What is your best marketing and/or outreach idea for under $500?” Here was the answer I submitted:

What is the best way for a church to spend $500? Give Presence. (No, not Presents… though that might be part of giving presence.)

People today are tired of commercials (TV and radio), door hangers, junk mail, email spam, surveys, and telemarketers. Most people only get annoyed by such things, and this is especially true when they come from the church. They think, “If that church has nothing better to do with its money then send me junk mail, I’m sure not going to attend there and give them my money!”

The best thing we can do with our “Marketing/Outreach” budget is to give presence. Just join the people in your town and city where they already are, and do what they are already doing. Typically, with such a strategy, a church planter doesn’t need to worry about how to gather a crowd or get the word out about a big event, because the city (or whoever is organizing the event) is already doing such things.

So go to your local Chamber of Commerce or city website and get a community calendar, as well as a list of civic organizations and community service events. Then be present at as many of these events and projects as possible. Be the most active, joyful, service-minded citizens your city has ever seen.

For the Fourth of July Festival, join whatever the city is doing.

Serve free hot chocolate at the New Year’s Parade.

Build homes with Habitat for Humanity.

Volunteer at the homeless shelter.

Give out free beads at Mardi Gras. (Ok, maybe not that one.)

To effectively reach our culture, we need to stop trying to do our own thing. Instead, go to where the crowds are already gathering. It’s easier, cheaper, and frequently, a lot more fun.

1 Comment »

One Response to “Give Presence”

  1. Jeremy Myers on 12 Apr 2008 at 8:59 am #

    I read the following on Seth Godin’s blog today and thought it fit well with what I was trying to say in this post.

    I had an interesting interaction along these lines this week. A woman named Jennifer Rosini at Forbes sent a note that read:

    Hi ,

    You are invited to join the new community of the high quality business and financial bloggers from Forbes.com. Our community - the Business and Financial Blog Network, will launch shortly.

    I wrote her back, pointing out that she hadn’t even bothered to pretend it was a personal note… just a mail merge missing my name.

    She responded (this is the entire note):

    I’m not sending these out. I have people working for me that send out 500 a day. Are you interested in joining, Seth?

    The juxtaposition of the third sentence with the second just highlighted the inanity of the entire enterprise. It’s a high-quality network, but 500 people a day are being asked to join, and it’s okay to spam people but do I want to join anyway?

    The end result of spam (email spam, blog spam, Twitter spam, Squidoo spam, comment spam, phone spam, politician spam) is that it eats away at your brand. If you don’t have a brand, you might make some short term cash but it gets tiresome creating annoyance everywhere you go. If you do have a brand, a brand like Forbes, say, you don’t notice the brand erosion… until it’s too late.

    Here, it’s simple:

    You can contact just about anyone you want. The only rule is you need to contact them personally, with respect, and do it months before you need their help! Contact them about them, not about you. Engage. Contribute. Question. Pay attention. Read. Interact.

    Then, when you’ve earned the right to attention and respect, months and months later, sure, ask. It takes a lot of time and effort, which is why volume isn’t the answer for you, quality is.

    That’s a great way to get a job, promote a site, make a friend, spread the word or just be a human.

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