Last week I had lunch with a brother in Christ and elder in my local church. He's the kind of guy who literally puts his phone number out there for anyone to call him. And many guys do, about one per week on average.
Many of these guys say they want to get connected in the church in some way. In the past, this brother would send an email listing out the various groups guys could join, figuring that based on time and location, they'd select the best fit.
The response rate on this old way of outreach was 1 guy out of 10 would respond to the email.
After a recent conversation where we talked about how striking it was for me in California when a guy reached out to buy me coffee and just get to know me, this brother decided to try a new tactic.
Now he emails guys with a simple request to get coffee and get to know them so he can help guys figure out where to connect.
The response rate on this new approach is 9 out of 10 guys respond to the email.
That's a 900% increase in response rate in under 60 days!!!
So what can we take away from this?
- People like to connect with people, not programs and groups.
- We need people willing to put their name and number out there.
- This takes time and commitment, this elder has had 10, maybe 20 coffee appointments over a couple months, which he just counts as the cost of making disciples.