Looking for fresh ways to grow your ministry and inspire a culture of generosity? This article provides 12 crucial ways to start growing your church by focusing on your mission and finding innovative ways to share and grow in God’s name.
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Today, many churches are spreading God’s word virtually and forming small groups of Christians to pray and worship together. The benefits of growing your church include reaching more people, sharing God’s message, and making a difference in people’s lives.
In this article, you’ll discover 12 innovative strategies to help you scale growth in your ministry. First, we’ll look at the three crucial ways you can start growing your church today.
The first churches started out of people’s homes. Christians shared what they had learned from Jesus and spoke about his imminent return.
As you grow your church, keep in mind these first groups of believers and develop missions and goals that strengthen the church for today’s world. You can learn from these groups and their techniques as you plan for the future.
SMART goals rely on the idea that your organization will succeed if goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
Form SMART goals to increase membership that help you stay focused on your mission and goals while planning strategies and activities to reach out to new people.
Create goals that are realistic and measurable. These goals should relate to your mission and ensure that each program you develop will help your church reach its goal.
Membership programs help increase your impact, raise more money, and reach more individuals. There are several different types of membership programs, but most churches follow the Membership-as-Advocate model.
Churches can use the membership-as-advocate model to encourage attendance and greater involvement in church-related activities and programs. By forming groups, members can join forces to reach the church’s mission and spread the word of God. Using SMART goals and looking at past successes helps form a plan for increasing church membership and fulfilling your mission.
Donorbox helps you create membership campaigns with customizable tiers and a simple membership form. Embed the form on your website or host it for free on Donorbox. You can also manage the member records and payment information at the backend. Check out this membership campaign from River Church Baltimore, which is a simple but effective way to get started.
A great communications plan will help you reach and retain your target audience. They are the most important aspect of the consistent growth of your church. At the same time, each audience responds differently to the same communication type.
To reach this target audience with an effective communications plan, start by asking yourself the following questions:
Donorbox Donation Forms help you collect valuable donor information. This information is then stored in the donor management system. Manage your supporters from the backend easily, add any offline donations to their record that they’ve made during an event, add communication notes (shown below), and more.
Plus, you’ll receive important donor moment notifications so you know just the right time to reach out. Get alerted when a recurring donor makes a change to their donation, on the anniversary of someone’s first-ever donation, and more.
Your ministry relies on tithes and other offerings to continue growing and spreading God’s word. One of the most critical steps you can take to encourage donations to your church is to offer current and potential donors the fastest and most convenient giving experience.
Beyond ensuring your donation form is optimized for mobile and desktop, it’s also important to provide various payment methods that appeal to different donors and demographics – and their giving preferences.
Donorbox OmniGive™ Donation Forms make it easy to expand your global reach and raise more for your ministry. Powered by Stripe, the OmniGive Donation Form allows you to offer supporters 22+ payment methods, including credit/debit cards, Multibanco, Pix, and digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App Pay, and Amazon Pay.
Payment methods display dynamically based on your donor’s location and device type.
Take a look at how Joel News is collecting donations via their Donorbox donation form. We love how they offer additional payment methods like Amazon Pay and Revolut Pay!
Some may say your church does not need a mission statement since the obvious goal is to spread God’s word. But an excellent mission statement gives a sense of purpose and paves the road to reach a ministry’s goal.
By creating a mission statement that outlines a path to spread God’s word, your church will have an easier time reaching its goals.
Bonus resource: Use our handy Mission & Vision Statement Worksheet to help you craft.
Focusing on the children and youth in your church is crucial to your ministry’s growth strategy.
Encourage membership by implementing activities that resonate with youth and children and communicate with them in ways they find comfortable.
Engaging a younger audience will vary from church to church. How have you tried to reach the younger generation in the past? Did they work, or was there not as much of an impact? As you look at your past child and youth activities, we have a few suggestions:
Virtual church wasn’t just a pandemic fad. Some home-bound individuals have not been able to keep up with their church family because they cannot get to Sunday services.
Another group the church is losing is college students. These are young adults who may have been very involved in church programs and activities, but once they went to college, those relationships fizzled, and they found other groups.
Offering virtual Sunday services and small online groups for college students can help continue these relationships and students’ passion for the church.
People who live lives of generosity and work for others show what it means to be a Christian every day.
By encouraging the youth in your church to find places to volunteer and share their skills and passion, you create a walking promotion for your church.
If your sermon only speaks to adults, how do you expect to keep children and youth excited and involved?
Sure, there is a children’s church, but once you hit a certain age, that option loses its appeal. Ask your youth pastor and team to come up with ways teens can take a larger part in your sermons.
Watching younger individuals speak about Christ will not only encourage young people to stay but also excite the older church members who may fear what will happen to future generations.
Parents do their best by helping kids take notes or getting them to play quietly. As a pastor, you can help parents keep their children quiet and reach younger people with new ways to learn about God.
Several Bible apps include games and note-taking tools that can form part of your sermon. These hands-on devices can open the world of the Bible to younger members. If your church offers public WiFi and includes how to use these tools during your sermons, many in your congregation may take advantage of this new way to learn.
Reach out to your ardent supporters and volunteers to fundraise for your church and spread the word to their own networks. This will help you acquire new supporters and raise more funds.
Peer-to-peer campaigns are ideal for this. Invite your best supporters and volunteers with a strong network and many followers to create their own fundraising campaigns and raise money for your mission. Encourage them to be an integral part of it and reward their good efforts.
With Donorbox, creating a peer-to-peer campaign is as easy as toggling a switch. After you’ve invited as many supporters as you want, invitees will receive instructions on how to create and customize their individual campaign pages.
Alternatively, add a button to your campaign so supporters can opt in to fundraising on your behalf. Once your fundraisers start raising funds and spreading the word, your parent campaign will list the top fundraisers (shown below) to encourage more people to fundraise for you.
Bonus resource: Find out how to create a Donorbox peer-to-peer fundraising campaign here.
Youth teams are not the only ones who can learn and benefit from volunteering with nonprofits. Boost involvement in your church by asking members to volunteer for local organizations.
Offer ways to help the homeless, drop off meals to the elderly, and give childcare options to parents who cannot afford them. Involvement in these activities will help your church members share what being a Christian really means.
Another way to promote a caring environment and invite new members is by allowing already formed groups to use your facilities. Sundays and Wednesdays are generally popular days for your church activities, but that leaves five more days where other groups can meet.
Alcoholics Anonymous, parent support groups, and PADS or other homeless networks are always looking for affordable facilities to use. Don’t think of them as just renters. Instead, build relationships with them and welcome them to join your services.
Now that you’ve built new relationships with supporters and maybe even gained some new members, it’s time you have a plan to manage them well.
Segment your supporters into different groups based on their giving abilities, location, giving frequency, etc. This will help you understand your supporters, create targeted communication and marketing pieces, and strengthen those relationships.
Finally, get started with moves management. It defines the goals and stages of a donor relationship. These steps will help your fundraisers or staff members maintain relationships within the community and ask for donations when the time is just right.
Choose a donor management system that is automated and easy to use. For example, Donorbox adds your donor information automatically to its donor management system as soon as donations are made. You can check the details, contact them, add notes, and apply filters to segment donors.
Churches see themselves competing for the few members of their community who want to join God’s family. Why not be different this year? Do other churches offer different options for Bible or education classes, or seminars? Can you find ways to join them in these efforts?
By joining forces to hold public events or being part of another church’s work in the community, you are building a supportive environment for all Christians and churches.
There may even be a few people who attend an event at one church but feel a stronger connection to your church members they met there. Connect with other local church leaders and suggest ways to join forces. After all, you share the same goal of spreading God’s word.
Ever since the pandemic, churches have started to find new ways to reach their current population. Virtual churches are growing and allow even more people to attend your church.
Stream your services online and offer online prayer groups, Bible studies, or other activities online. People who listen to services online take time to learn more about a church. They may also join small groups and support the church financially. Plus, the rise of hybrid church means you offer something for everyone.
Another way a virtual church is particularly helpful is for raising funds online. Directing people to your website – the welcome mat of your church! – where your donation button is clear will help boost your fundraising. People keep their mobiles handy at all times, so when they visit your church, let them know about your online presence.
Along with other benefits you provide online, mention the option to give. You never know who might end up giving to your church online and even opt for recurring donations.
Pro tip: Use QR codes and place a giving kiosk in your church lobby to share more information about your church and collect cashless donations swiftly from your congregation (more on this below!).
While the virtual church is a newer trend, social media has been around for longer and has shown no signs of losing its popularity. There are a few ways churches can use social media to promote their mission and reach a larger audience.
Churches can share public events on Facebook and encourage church members to take a picture at the event and share it online. Ask Sunday morning attendees to share a Bible verse or quote from the sermon on Twitter. Encourage them to speak about what the verse means to them.
There are various ways social media can help grow your church. Learn more about how to develop a social media plan and keep your mission in mind when creating ways your church and members can share information, invite new members, and raise more funds.
Events like community gatherings and fairs can attract new people and provide a platform to share your mission with the public.
Parents and children in the community look forward to these events every year, and in addition to introducing people to your church, you are also raising money to keep your church thriving.
Pro tip: Offer potential attendees a convenient and positive experience by promoting and selling tickets online with Donorbox Events. Create unlimited ticket levels as per your pricing strategy, keep track of sold tickets, gather the attendees’ preferences with custom questions, and check in guests with ease. Donorbox also lets you accept donations right from the event ticketing form.
Learn how to promote your church event on this blog post.
As fewer people keep cash and checks on hand, weekly offering plates are not collecting the money they used to. This lack of funds can make growing and promoting your church difficult.
Churches can use a donation kiosk to give attendees a cashless way to donate using secure credit/debit cards and digital wallet payment options. This also encourages larger gifts to your church. By including a giving kiosk in your church lobby, you can subtly nudge congregants to donate swiftly when they feel most moved to give – whether they are entering or leaving a service or church event.
Set up a brand-aligned kiosk with Donorbox Live™ Kiosk and instantly send personalized receipts once attendees have donated while capturing their details on the backend for future outreach – crucial for growing your church community and connecting with members.
Another option is to use text-to-give. Your church can include a texting number and campaign ID in your program. Pastors can then ask people to give with their phones right there and then.
Since more people have smartphones, they can easily text the campaign ID to the number and receive a link to an online donation form. Donors can repeat the donation anytime on the go with just a simple text – no need to open the donation form again.
Need inspiration? Check out our ultimate guide to text-to-give for churches.
Sunday services are what people think of when they hear “church.” But membership in God’s family does not require a large building and hundreds of followers.
Grow your congregation and inspire new members through smaller groups. For instance, prayer meetings, parent support, and children and youth classes give individuals a place to share their enthusiasm for God and build strong relationships with fellow believers.
For example, Simple Church Europe has used these church groups as inspiration to spread Christianity around Europe and build up the faith again.
Donorbox MinistryMomentum has helped thousands of ministries worldwide through its simple and affordable fundraising features. Watch this short video to learn more about how easy it is to boost your tithes and offerings:
Churches are always looking for ways to reach more people and strengthen their membership. We hope these 12 strategies help fuel your ministry’s mission and reach more people faithfully.
Donorbox MinistryMomentum is designed to help ministries like yours raise more mission-critical funds and strengthen relationships with your supporters.
Looking for more church fundraising tips and insights? Visit our Nonprofit Blog and subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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