Four Unique Approaches to Church Outreach That Are Gaining Traction

By Thom S. Rainer

I am a student of the local church, particularly church outreach.

I love to see and hear how churches are reaching their communities more effectively. I love to see and hear how congregations are becoming more Great Commission focused.

It is an honor to share with the readers of this blog some of the input I am receiving. I am particularly grateful to the community at Church Answers for their constant feedback and input. Though the ways to reach a community are seemingly unending, allow me to share four that seem to be growing in use and effectiveness.

1. Advertising on Waze. This navigation and traffic monitoring app has been ranked as high as number one in the fastest-growing apps. This Google-owned service has actually replaced many of the standard navigation apps in operation today. Some churches are taking advantage of the low cost of advertising on Waze, as the service seeks to become more aggressive toward monetization. The advertising rates will likely rise in the future, so some church leaders are wisely making the move to lock in several months of advertising now.
2. Adding a Thursday night service on holiday weekends. Both church members and unchurched community members travel on holiday weekends, particularly those with the holiday falling on a Monday. A few creative churches are adding a service on Thursday for those who might be on the road Friday to Monday. To be clear, these churches are only having Thursday evening services on holiday weekends, but a number of other…