Church Outreach Campaign Produces Inspired Results

Here is a program developed by one of our colleagues. We thought it was so good, we wanted to share it with you.

When two established church congregations in Texas decided to unite to create Sugar Grove Church of Christ, there was some concern. The National Council of Churches (NCC) says 97% of merged congregations fail within three years. Additionally, both churches were in declining neighborhoods; a decision was made to build a new church in a nearby community without a congregation.

Church leaders knew a special outreach campaign was needed, and they put their faith in their local promotional advisor. “It was about keeping the congregations together,” he says, noting the slant was to draw attention to what the combined congregation is, rather than what it was, and what it could achieve. “The focus was on growth and reaching out to the unchurched.”

Two taglines were chosen. The first, “At the Heart of Things,” was accompanied by an image of three hearts, two joining into one, and meant to educate the merging congregations about the power of the combined church. The second, “A Place for You,” was used on materials delivered to the surrounding neighborhood.

The campaign kicked off at a Fourth of July parade. The church entered a float, which 80 members followed while throwing imprinted discs to spectators. Attached to each disc was an invitation to the groundbreaking for the new church. Over the next eight months, three promotions were delivered to nearly 1,800 homes. The first, which included a bag of potato chips, imprinted chip clip and church bulletin, was hand-distributed. The message, “Life is like a bag of chips,” stressed the idea that life needs to be kept fresh.

Next was a letter including a Weepul fuzzy head in a hard hat bearing the church logo. It mailed as the girders went up for the new church. The message: “Things built by man will tumble, but things built by God are everlasting.” Another mailing followed, with sealed jar of pickles and heart-shaped jar opener, urging recipients to “open up” their hearts to the congregation. The next Fourth of July church members again walked the route, distributing logoed T-shirts, pens, lollipops and water bottles containing invitations to the opening dedication.

Over 1,500 attended; two-thirds weren’t yet church members. In the first year, membership grew by 300, then another 200 the next. Ten years later, 97% of the churches’ original members still attend Sugar Grove. The overall campaign was recognized by the NCC for its “miraculous” success.