Many churches are chasing the wrong thing when it comes to church growth. They don’t think about anything that will involve people. They think more social media.

Simply putting out more Facebook ads won’t do the trick.

Posting a viral photo or video won’t grow your church.

Social media isn’t actually the real answer. At least it isn’t the only answer.

Unfortunately social media can be a red herring for church growth.

There’s something deeper that needs to be addressed before church growth really is an option.

Otherwise, your ad and promotion plans are simply a superficial activity that will bring superficial results long term.

So then, what should you be more focused upon?

The key driving factor to church growth you should focus on: More Involved Church Members

A recent study solidified this dynamic of church growth: the more lay people are involved in recruiting new people the more likely a church will grow.

Don’t believe me? Believe the stats:

• Not at all involved: Church growth observed as much as 35 percent
• Involved a little or some: 45 percent
• Involved quite a bit: 63 percent growth
• Involvement a lot: a whopping 90 percent

This is one area where it certainly cannot simply be staff-led activity.

9 Ways You Can Involve Your People More For Church Growth

• Get volunteers to pray for and send written follow-up notes to every person who visits and fills out a connection card or survey

• Host a “Back to Church” or  an “Open House” Sunday so people have an excuse / occasion / event to invite a friend
• Assemble a volunteer greeting team for Sunday mornings

• Plan regular outreach projects where volunteers are out in the community for the purpose of interacting more with people in your town via community service projects. Remember the purpose isn’t explicit evangelizing, but rather relationship building and visibility of your church

• Host a quarterly new residents night and invite the town services and other local merchants to present (get a new library card, learn about the schools or summer camps in town, pet licenses, recycling calendars, continuing education, free trial local gym memberships, mayor or town council, etc)

• Contact the local schools and see how your members can help with tutoring or mentoring students in need

• Sponsor a free teacher appreciation breakfast or snack station in the faculty lounge that volunteers coordinate, deliver, setup and clean up

• Rent a booth at the next town fair and don’t set up a table with brochures about your church, but rather provide a fun interactive booth activity that members can plan and help run

• Work with the local PTA to help deliver meals for a week to any family they learn about a death or serious injury / hospital stay.

The point I think is you need to involve more people proactively and explicitly thinking about serving and interactive with people outside of your membership.

Marketing and advertising can help seed those interactions or reinforce them. When they work together, great things can happen. But you cannot have one without the other. Marketing without lots of relational activities going on simply handicaps your efforts.

Don’t forget that you need to equip your people, not just instruct your people and creating more ways for more members to become involved is giving them organic and tangible ways to be able to regularly invite new folks to come visit your church.