Leading Church in a Flat World

Another terrific post from Shaun King of the Shaun in the City Blog:

In large part due to technological advances and the literal tearing down of walls that divide people groups into little segments that basically hate each other, the playing field in any particular area of the world (including church) is more level (or flat) than ever, but most churches have not yet caught on to this.

Hear me – the “old strategies” of leading church may work.

Some churches still swear that mass mailers are wildly successful. I believe them.
Some churches still say that 9am-5pm are the best office hours. I believe them.
Some churches still proclaim that the sermon is the most important thing a church can offer. I believe them.

The problem isn’t whether I believe them or not, it’s that MILLIONS & MILLIONS of people don’t and while an equal number of people may really love mass mailers, traditional office hours, and have lives that revolve around the sermon, new strategies will reach people that old strategies won’t. I’m not even saying one strategy is better than the other here, but that new strategies are needed to reach unreached people. Period.

Here a few numbers behind how Courageous Church has used new(er) strategies to reach new people.

--Of the 700 people in attendance @ our church grand opening on January 11th, over 65% of them learned of us online.
--Over 50% of our weekly 1st time visitors learn about our church from Facebook or Twitter.
--About 50% of our financial giving takes place online.
--Our Facebook ads have been shown a total of 26 million times. Yes. I’m serious and we rounded down
--A very low ball estimate for the cost of a mass mailer to 26 million people would be $400,000. Our ads (which are numerous, targeted, current, etc.) cost us $8,000.