After 30 years
of experience with holistic church marketing and community outreach,
working with churches and ministries across nearly 100 denominations, in
every state and in many other countries. Drawing on that wide
experience, this article outlines what they've learned to be the
12 most common mistakes churches make in Christmas outreach.
Church
can takes active steps to avoid these mistakes and dramatically
increase the effectiveness of their outreach. Christmas outreach done in
the way described here will positively impact every other facet of a
church's ministry, and many of the recommendations provide smarter ways
to plan for the whole year.
Seth Godwin calls it the Purple Cow.
Tom Peters calls it the WOW principle.
George Lois calls it the Big Idea.
Seeking a change of
scenery, you drive a new route through the countryside. The first cow
you pass draws attention. If kids are along, they practice mooing and
laugh. Everyone watches for the next cow. Yet after an hour of cruising
along pasture fences, who notices anymore? Not that the cows have become
any less effective at being cows. But to a passing motorist with
passing interest, all those cows begin to seem familiar and ordinary and
nearly invisible. The only thing that would get new attention and
strong interest would be a purple cow. We live in a world of
extraordinary things. The mistake often made is to settle for the
ordinary, familiar....or safe. Familiarity does not always breed
contempt. But settling for the ordinary and the all-too-familiar may
breed something else.
