“CONNECT FOUR” 4 Keys to Connecting People to Your Church

“CONNECT FOUR” 4 Keys to Connecting People to Your Church Bishop Tejado W. Hanchell, Ph.D MCHCA STRONG Church Conference 2019

A STRONG church is a growing church and growing churches are intentional about connecting people to the church.

The average church retains about 10% of the people who visit their church each year.However, at the same time the average church loses about 10% of its members each year.This means that the average church, that is not intentional about connecting new people to the church will eventually decline.

Churches that are serious about building “Kingdom Connections” must develop a system of connecting people to the church.

There are four keys to the Connect Four System. • Reach • Retain • Recruit • Release

THE GREAT COMMISSION • Go (Reach) • Make Disciples (Retain) • Baptize (Recruit) • Teach (Release) “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20).

Connecting • Before churches can connect people to the church, they must prepare for them. • One way to prepare for people is to eliminate the word visitor from your vocabulary and replace it with the word guest. • Visitors are expected to leave; guests are expected to stay. • Before we can get them to stay, we have to get them to come.

There are four keys to the Connect Four System.

REACH • Churches must follow the Great Commission and “go.” • GO = Get Out • When we go out, we must make sure that the doors are open for people to come in (The doors of the church are open). • Front-door churches • Side-door churches • Multi-door churches This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

RETAIN • Rapidly growing churches retain between 25 and 30 percent of their first-time guests. • The basic principle to remember is that the SERMON is not the message; the SERVICE is the message. • People care about how they are GREETED, SEATED, and TREATED.

RETAIN #2 • First-time guests should receive at least three contacts from the church within the first week. • Email (within 1-2 days) • Phone call (within 2-3 days) • Postcard (within 4-5 days)

RECRUIT • We have to get people off the bench and into the game. • People need to be invited to serve – many of them are waiting to be asked. • When you ask people to serve, don’t ask them to give up their life. • Start with a short-term project.

RELEASE • Leaders must be confident and secure enough to let go of the reins a bit and release others to exercise their leadership gifts. • If we are building “Kingdom Connections” we must realize that the kingdom is bigger than our local church.

5th KEY – BONUS! RECOVER This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

References • “Connecting Guests to Your Church” Gary McIntosh • “Deep and Wide” by Andy Stanley • “Activate” by Nelson Searcy 15

“CONNECT FOUR” 4 Keys to Connecting People to Your Church