How to build downward forces

NEW: Every Friday, I’m doing church growth posts, where I look at practical ways you can get more people involved. I’m calling this “marketing.”

---

(This is part 2. Read part 1 here.)

In order to get someone to move toward more commitment, you need three things:

1) Focus
2) A path
3) A tweet-length narrative that connects the first two

First, focus. This is about saying no to 99.9% of the good options so that you can say yes to the 0.01%.

Most churches don’t get this far. It’s too hard to say no to good programs. Plus, there’s the backlash for members who are heavily invested. But time and again, it’s not the frenzied that get ahead, it’s the focused.

Second, a path. Once you’ve established the narrow area you are going to focus on, a path connects your offerings in a linear way. It tells your members: what we’re doing here isn’t arbitrary.

You’ll know you’ve got a path in place when a progression forms. If, for instance, the path goes from worship gathering to small groups, then what do small groups have that the gathering doesn’t? And why would a person who wants to grow more see that as an obvious next step? Answering these questions tells you when you’ve got a path that works.

And third, a narrative. This is you taking your (and your audience’s) motivation and wrapping it in a story.

(A “story,” by the way, is just a framework: you’ve got a problem, but we’ve found a solution. Here’s how to get to your happy ending. Every blog I write is a story.)

Once you get your narrative, boil it down to a tweet. If it’s longer than this, it’s probably not ready for public consumption yet. Once you can tweet it, put it everywhere.

What happens through this process is that those who are a good fit move down toward greater commitment. And those who were just here for free coffee, well, there are lots of places with free coffee.

P.S. If you’re the measuring type, doing this gives you clear levers to pull and adjust.

---

This is a concept I talk more about in Minimalist Marketing.