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July 22, 2008
Giving and the Church Member Experience, Law #3
The 3rd Law of the Church Member Experinece is Church member familiarity (with doctrine, people, educational and service opportunities, etc.) breeds alignment.
The old saying in sales is that "people buy from who they know, like and trust." The more familiar people are with your church, the values you represent and the people who make up your church, the more likely they are to fund and support your ministry.
What's difficult as church leaders (people who are in the middle of everything) is that not everyone is privy to the same amount (and depth) of information you have about your church. So we often times assume everyone "just knows" what we believe and the ministry and service opportunities available. This simply isn't true. We can't make this assumption and doing so will impact giving habits.
Those people who are most familiar with your church's theology/doctrine, operations, leadership and overall ministry, who hear and are a part of your church's story will be the ones who have the strongest emotional and identity connection (i.e. alignment) with your church. This will result in better church member giving.
What are you doing to ensure that everyone in your church is aware of what you believe, familiar with the people in your leadership (beyond basic function and "stage" time) and what ministry your church is involved in?
(By the way, when your "Welcome Packet" weighs more than the yellow pages it's time to take a different communication strategy.)
Maybe it's time to begin hosting coffee hour or small, arranged dinners with small groups of your people so that they can personally hear the heart beat of each of your leaders.
Previous posts in this series:
Giving and the Church Member Experience, Introduction
Giving and the Church Member Experience, Law #1
Giving and the Church Member Experience, Law #2
Posted by bstroup at July 22, 2008 8:16 AM
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