________
-Media
-Neighborhood
-Coaching
-Planning
-Contacts
 

- Getting on their radar. If an unchurched person in your community thought of visiting church, would he even think about yours? (white paper)

- Take a closer look at the neighborhoods around your church. Request free detailed demographic report of your target area.

- Church Launch? Request Breakthrough's widely-used, research-based resource guide for new church launch marketing plans.

- Breaking out of the outreach box: ""Withreach" defines a fresh mindset for connecting with the unchurched, beyond the limitations of outreach (white paper).


- See examples of media tools that effectively
reach the heart..



Marketing in the world of withreach.


----By C. Michael Johnson



 
As I write this I am searching for the best way to convey the excitement I have for the new world of possibilities now unfolding. By now you’ve no doubt experienced the many of the labor pains of this brave new world. For those of you who love adventure and don't mind moving out beyond the comfortable and predicable (and predictable decline)... by all indications you won't be disappointed.

This article is about marketing, specifically marketing in the world of withreach. But our first problem is that when I say marketing, most of us think promotion, which is only one subset of marketing, and rarely effective in isolation. To exaggerate the point, scan the scenario in the box on the below.


objective:
need:
strategy:
method:
option 1:
problem:
option 2:
result:
conclusion:
action:

  
grow our church
more people
attract a crowd
create an event
rely on word of mouth
how to get people to talk
do some promotion
disappointing
promotions don't work
retreat back to what's familiar

The broad definition of marketing is: all activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchange intended to satisfy human needs or wants.

Since the strongest basic human needs are to find redeeming purpose and the high calling of God for which our hearts yearn, the Church finds itself in the most enviable marketing position imaginable, where they can become the delivery system of an unbeatable satisfaction to an endless market.

The 'all activities' part of this definition include preaching, teaching, caring, praying, making friends. The greatest opportunities lie in discovering the synergy of these activities with both conventional marketing methods and innovative marketing approaches now emerging, partly made possible by the more deeply connected world in which we now live. Some of those new approaches are:

-------Leveraging individual and small group communication
-------Community advocacy communication
-------Intentional viral (word-of-mouth) campaigns
-------Honor strategies
-------Bridge events
-------Community conversations
-------Internet-based communities of interest
-------Social entrepreneurism
-------The Big-Idea or WOW (word-of-wow) strategies
-------Leveraged collaborations and partnerships
-------Community convening and vision-casting
-------Facilitating volunteerism and the need to give
-------Business and dream incubators
-------Community arts strategies
-------(and many others)


How can we get our arms around all of this? And how can we begin to form a cohesive, broad-based plan? There are two paradigms that I believe are absolutely fundamental to building a withreach marketing plan.

Two Forces that are changing our world
...and all our missional plans.

Since bookstores and libraries are bursting with good material on these two sweeping movements, I will not go into a lot of detail here, but here are some brief descriptions:

The Depth of the Heart. In a wholesale reaction to the rational and mechanical, we are in the middle of a burgeoning quest for all things spiritual, meaningful, and experiential, with greatest attention given to the deepest aspirations of the human heart.

The Breadth of the Whole. In the midst of decentralization and fragmentation we long for wholeness. We desire to make, not just connections, but meaningful connections. From holistic health to finding systemic solutions for community development we long to understand problems and solutions in wholeness. We already live in a very connected world, what is missing is the meaning in the connections.

We should not shrink back from these two movements, we should be leading them. They just might be the foundation of a next great awakening.

Now how could this help in terms of developing a more comprehensive missional marketing plan? First, see them always as the main themes of the story, and therefore your city reaching plans. One way to remember them is to think of them as the 'whole-hearted' components of a 'whole-hearted' vision to reach and transform your community -- toward heart and wholeness.

heart: withreach is a reach for the heart. A short definition of this approach could be described as honorable, incarnational, no-strings-attached, mutually-rewarding, personal and media-based conversations with an eye toward long-term friendship, and the transformation and redeeming purpose of individuals, communities, and cultures (for more on defining withreach go here).

whole: in a more complete and holistic city reaching plan, we will always try to see the big picture in the truest sense, create vision for systemic solutions, and whole-solution outcomes for the whole person, the whole Church, and the whole community.

Here are some idea starters on the way to getting the whole picture into your plans:


body, soul, AND spirit
short term AND long term
personal AND media conversations
past, present, AND future
individual AND community
EVERY community sphere of work and influence
the WHOLE church in your city


Powerful synergies are discovered not just in how these work with each other, but how they also interact with the heart strategy.


An example of a withreach strategy.

This might seem a little heady, so let me give you a tangible strategy or two.

The first strategy is an idea I'm personally doing myself. It starts with a desire I have to meet and engage other business people in my immediate neighborhood in meaningful conversation that might lead to doing something together to help the community.

There is a boat marina close by that is opening a new restaurant on the river. So my idea is to start a neighborhood breakfast club. No special speakers, no overt agenda, just make friends, stimulate good conversation, and see how the things that matter lead to making a difference. Along the way, I have no doubt that God-given, and God-sized dreams will be discovered, hearts and divine purposes will be redeemed, and the Kingdom of Heaven will come just a little closer to earth.

Well, the first step of my plan is to let people know about it and not just let them know but 'brand it' or create a story that it can live in.

So here is my own list of ground rules and essential strategy components:

1. It has to be withreach.

2. My first goal is to create meaningful conversations.

3. My second goal is to create meaningful friendships.

4. My third goal is to discover the treasures and God-given dreams in those friendships (I see them as prime community assets) and to find out how God is already at work in their lives, and work alongside Him, rather than pre-judge what should come next.

5. My fourth goal is to see how God incarnates the conversation and the dreams of this small group in a way that brings creative transformation to the community.

6. I will integrate personal conversations with the power and leverage of media conversations.

7. I will try to spark imagination, innovation, creativity, risk, and look for leveraged win-win ideas, and systemic solutions in everything we do. Done right it should become an 'idea incubator.'

8. I will enlist a core group (as sort of a charter group) that share the Kingdom vision, probably no more than six or seven.

9. I will create a core theme and identity to reinforce the branding. I want everyone to have the same clear image of what it is and what it is not. The branding will consist of a name, simple logo, theme line, and general look and feel that will carry over into all communication that will be used in the near future.

10. I will create a web site for the group and just like the local grocery store, keep it always personal, human, local, and fresh.

 

Creating synergy between
the ‘Church dispersed’ and
the ‘Church corporate.’

In keeping with our goal to see the church be the church, we should encourage ideas for these kind of withreach projects to come self-initiated from members and to arise out of, and along the path of, their own dreams and callings. You can choose to support them in any way you can and possibly share some of the cost (maybe creating some kind of grant proposal system). However, there is nothing wrong with mounting church-wide projects along the lines of your vision or present focus of your ministry team, while you encourage people to explore their own ideas and step out and become the salt and light in the community in which they work and live. Ultimately, reversing the 80/20 syndrome will have more community impact than anything you could engineer top down. But, real strength will come when their efforts are integrated and supported with quality, strategic marketing.
  

11. Since I know the power of direct mail, I will create an oversized postcard in keeping with the branding. I will strive for a WOW-effect for this first all-important introduction, and hopefully generate much word-of-

mouth (viral) awareness. I will mail them to the 4,000 homes in the county, and keep a thousand unaddressed for personal distribution throughout the year. The cost of this mailing (about $1600) will be shared by the core group (about $200 each). This also seals our vested interest in the withreach project. Once we have a large group we will enlarge the cost-sharing if and when media projects are needed (this is another form of getting the unchurched to pay for your outreach).

12. At every turn we (who are the core group) will seek the Holy Spirit's direction as to what He is up to and what He wants us to do. We will pray for the individuals in the
larger group with intelligence, since from our meaningful conversations we will now know them very well and have plenty to pray about. The focus will be solely on seeing them become all that they are meant to be and their God-given dreams be fulfilled. As the core group, we are sure to grow spiritually ourselves since God is drawing out of us and we are exercising our own gifts in real-world ways.

The cost of all of this? Probably less than $300 each over the first year. The cost to the church budget? Zero. The results? Priceless.


When all you have is women...
make 'women-aid.' *

Now what if a group of women in the church (or in several churches) took this approach to their neighborhoods. Most likely, they'd have three things over my river buddies. First, for some reason women have just been better at things like this (think potlucks and teas). Second, women probably are going to have more affinity and dreams for their neighborhood and the friendships that can develop there. Third, they have more passion for what an empowered neighborhood could mean to their children (not that Dad's should not, but hey, I'm trying to be real).

If a strong core group of ladies took the lead on this, they could impart the vision to manyother women in the church. But at whatever level they began it would not matter, for it would grow as the stories are shared. In this scenario though, I do think the numbers would swell, so the cost sharing will decrease significantly.

Since it is one of the best withreach approaches I've seen, added to the strategy above, I would work in the Neighborhood Connection program. I would do the first two to three visits as the strategy recommends (see the plan) because that builds a trust relationship with a large number (many times 70-90%) of the neighbors in a short time. After that I'd mail the postcard, create the neighborhood gatherings, set up a neighborhood web site, and start going for the dreams.

Creating a withreach marketing plan for your cityreaching, transformational adventure.

These are just two examples of withreach marketing strategies. And even the list of emerging strategies above is far from the whole picture. What is important is to see the bigger picture, begin to create a 'whole-hearted' plan, and begin to measure conversations, friendships, dreams, and community impact, rather than warm (and not so warm) bodies in the pews. Combine the power of media in a synergistic and integrated manner with personal and dream-fostered volunteerism. Think through the communication process each step of the way, integrating WOW-effects, viral marketing, and Internet conversations. Look for multiple ways for people to respond and begin conversations. Empower your members to reach out through the path of their own dreams. Consider a matched-gift approach to funding member-based and team-based withreach marketing strategies. As the carrier of the torch, the church leadership can play a pivotal role, in inspiring imagination, integrating strategies, networking and communication, convening community partnerships, and opening doors so the Church of the city can emerge.


Become the advocate of your community.

One of the most important things a church or a group of churches can do is community advocacy, looking for the real needs of the community, the hurting, the brokenhearted, and the disenfranchised and calling the attention of the whole community to those needs. Wouldn't it be great in your city if the Church convened community collaborations, but led the way by mounting a massive campaign that acted as the catalyst to end hunger, solve the homeless problem, or all but eliminate youth violence, by addressing these problems with leveraged, heart-sensitive, holistic, systemic, withreach marketing campaigns and ministry solutions? No organization in your city is positioned as well or empowered as much as the Church.

It is absolutely within your means... right now. And, as with every other worthy endeavor, it starts with a dream.

C. Michael Johnson

A Postnote: Partnering outside the box.

We've been helping churches reach their community for over 25 years. Sometimes I feel like we have more vision (and ideas and strategies to go with them) than we can hold. I love to brainstorm new ideas, but the real power is not in just selecting from a menu of creative ideas, it's in partnering with a church that has the resolve and bull-dog determination to create their own incarnational and integrated plan to reach and transform their city. As the ideas take form, the results take shape, and the excitement and energy builds.

If this resonates with you, and you'd like to talk with me about how we might work together and possibly become Partners in that kind of dream, email me or give me a call.


City Partnerships

Through the City Partnership program we are establishing partnerships in 500 cities between now and 2008. If you are interested in becoming the City Partner for your area, drop me an email. Tell me a little about yourself, your church, your city, and your vision.

Email me at mike@breakthroughchurch.com or call my assistant, Donna at 800-595-4327 to set up a phone appointment.

For more on the Community of Dreams City Partnership plan, go here

 

Breakthrough Media