How to grow your church—15 actionable strategies & tactics

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Tired of chasing church growth strategies and trends that never seem to work as well as you intended? 

We get it. Growing your church and increasing the sense of community among members can feel like trying to complete a puzzle without all the pieces. 

Fortunately, you can take some practical steps today to create a roadmap on how to grow and increase church attendance. 

In this post, we’ll share 15 actionable strategies and tactics to grow your church.  

15 tried-and-true strategies & tactics to grow your church

Build a strong foundation

Creating and maintaining a strong foundation is critical for growing and engaging your church community.

Three essential components when strengthening your foundation are:

• Having a clear central mission for your church 
• Creating programs and opportunities that support that common goal
• Fostering personal relationships and connections

Identifying a clear central mission helps unite all members toward a common goal and provides a theme to help guide the development of programs, outreach, and other church activities—so everyone stays focused on the same overall goal.

This mission can also help you bring in new members who align with your church. It can help create relationships between members—deepening their connection with their faith and with each other to build a strong, thriving community. 

Implement effective outreach strategies

Church outreach strategies help you connect in meaningful ways with your larger community. But when developing your approaches, you’ll want to identify the goals for your programs. For instance, you may want outreach that helps connect you with other churches in your area or ones designed to help you reach new people who are unconnected with other churches.

Also, identifying what groups of people you’d like to reach or serve can allow you to develop outreach strategies to help you achieve your goals. 

Additionally, make sure it is clear to newcomers what the next steps are if they want to learn more about your church, and make those steps easy to follow. Enlist the help of your existing members and equip them to be effective sources of outreach through your programs and with their personal relationships outside the church.  

Some examples of effective outreach strategies include:

• Community get-togethers, which can be themed or involve a specific topic
• Annual church picnic that’s open to the community
• Volunteer events like cleaning a park or visiting a nursing home  
• Hosting a book drive or garage sale at your church’s parking lot
• Having a booth at your community’s county fair
• Hosting talks on topics important to your community, such as mental health, parenting, or self-defense

Build meaningful connections with the youngest members 

Connecting meaningfully with kids helps deepen their faith, build meaningful connections with their peers and other church members, and equips them to become effective leaders and disciples. It’s an impactful investment that strengthens them and your church. 

Developing opportunities and worship that are designed for them and their needs creates a sense of belonging to the church and shows them they are valued. 

To get them involved, consider:

• Setting up small groups specific to different youth age groups
• Include them in brainstorming ideas to increase their involvement
• Get their feedback on the Sunday School curriculum and opportunities available
• Encourage them to ask friends to join them at activities
• Create experience-based worship that is meaningful for them and connects with them
• Extend leadership opportunities to them as possible, such as youth-led worship
• Incorporate mentors who are a little older than them but who they can relate to

Enhance the worship experience

Your worship services are your church’s core, bringing together most of your members. Strong worship motivates, encourages, and brings members together—connecting them to their faith and your church’s mission.

To enhance the worship experience, you’ll want to consider all aspects of worship from the perspective of members and newcomers. For example, you can consider:

• Welcome guests warmly, such as having greeters in the parking lot and at entrances
• Ensure pathways to the worship area, Sunday school, or other key areas are well-signed, especially if you have a larger church
• For newcomers with children, make it clear, easy, and welcoming when they check their children into Sunday school 
• Incorporate welcome screens that include announcements and key information that is easy for both members and newcomers to understand
• Evaluate your worship to make sure it’s meeting the needs of your members and community
• Make post-service announcements, whether by the leader or on screens or bulletins, clear so newcomers and members have specific next steps they can take to continue engaging with the church 
• Have a system for interacting with newcomers post-worship that makes them feel welcomed, allows them to ask questions, and then provides a follow-up either through mail or email

Build strong small groups

Small groups can be a powerful way for church members to grow and connect. But it’s important to build these groups carefully to ensure they don’t go stale or create cliques within your church.

To build stronger small groups, brainstorm these topics:

• Why you have small groups and ensure each group has a clear purpose and goal
• Who is best to lead the groups and provide support to ensure they continue to grow as a leader
• How the groups will be structured—for instance, are they time-limited or open-ended
• How you will evaluate the effectiveness of the group 
• How people will be able to join the group—such as a group finder tool—or what is the process for forming new groups

Continuous learning & training

Faith involves a lifelong journey of learning and growing—whether you’re the pastor, part of the church’s leadership, or a member. Everyone is growing, learning, and evolving. So, it’s essential that the church also supports this endeavor through continuous learning and discipleship training, especially for the leaders within the church. 

To help foster this focus on learning, create an atmosphere of openness, enthusiasm, and curiosity. This approach starts with your most senior members and can filter down to the youth. Showing them the importance of growing in their faith over time and asking questions. This also helps encourage and model members and newcomers to get involved and engaged in their faith and church.

Additionally, providing relevant training for leaders will ensure that the worship, programs, and opportunities within the church are high-quality and relevant to your members and community. Making it easier to attract and retain new members.

When identifying the types of learning and training opportunities:

• Encourage feedback from leaders on what would help them be better leaders and what is working, such as through anonymous surveys
• Ask members to complete feedback surveys on what they expect in a church leader and what areas they think could be improved
• Provide training for your leaders on personal growth and interacting effectively with a range of people, such as how to handle difficult situations, criticism, or flattery, and how to enhance their patience
• Identify the types of training and learning that can help your church, for instance, training for welcoming visitors or working with volunteers
• Provide discipleship resources for your leaders to help them continue to grow in their faith and how they lead worship to keep your church current and thriving

Implement feedback cycles

Your church members are essential to the health of your church. So it’s critical to incorporate methods for them to provide feedback. It shows that you are listening and valuing their opinions and experiences. As a result, it gets members and newcomers excited to be involved.

Because we all want to be heard and valued.

There’s no one way to gather feedback. The key is to try different methods until you find a combination that works for your church. Ideally, you’ll have a variety of methods to fit different people’s preferences and needs. Depending on the size of your church, you may want to assign a person or a small group to be in charge of gathering and going through the feedback before it gets disseminated to key leaders. 

Additionally, be sure to provide follow-up on the feedback with your members. Let them know about the types of feedback and how you’re responding as a church. These actions show that you’re listening and incorporating their thoughts.

Some ways to gather feedback include:

• Having kiosk stations outside the doors of your worship area with paper and pencils or a postcard with a questionnaire nearby so they can easily provide information
• Encouraging attendees to leave feedback at the close of the service and inform them of the ways they can do so
• Incorporating online tools such as online survey tools or email members
• Making it possible for individuals to respond anonymously to encourage honest and open feedback
• Asking specific questions, especially if you’re evaluating a program or potential opportunity for the church
• Using your social media channels to ask a variety of engaging questions and to periodically remind people of other ways they can provide feedback

Get personal testimonials

Personal testimonials showcase the individual journeys your members are having with their faith. These testimonials help encourage members and newcomers. They provide hope for those who may be feeling disconnected and show how your church and community are helping.

Testimonials are powerful tools that build a meaningful connection quickly. Incorporating these testimonials in your social media, church website, links in emails, and during service and other special events can help you strengthen your existing community and attract newcomers.

When gathering testimonials, you may want to:

• Identify a variety of people from different backgrounds and ages within your church who are open to talking about their journey or how the church has helped them
• Ask members of your small groups or leadership committees to provide testimonials individually or as a group
• Create a list of prompts to help people who are sharing testimonials, such as a meaningful moment they had in the church or at a church event that helped strengthen their faith or connection with their beliefs
• Get your youth involved by asking them to help film short testimonials of other members and also themselves
• Capture videos of moments at events, during service, or other church activities to show your church in action 

Invite guest speakers

Guest speakers can provide fresh perspectives, insights, and energy. Speakers can also help attract newcomers, especially if they are talking about topics critical to different groups in your community. 

When hosting guest speakers, consider:

• Creating a small team to identify potential speakers and ensure topics are in line with your church’s mission
• Asking your members what types of topics or speakers they’d like to hear from
• Encouraging members to invite friends, family, or others in the community to attend talks
• Having a marketing plan in place to promote the speaker in the community, such as posting on your social media, posting it in your local newspaper, or asking local businesses to allow you to post a sign about the event

Run community service initiatives 

Develop a strong volunteer culture within your church to help engage your current members, serve your community, and provide a pathway for those outside your church to join your members in service. 

This approach keeps everyone focused on a common goal of serving and can allow those outside your church to get to know your members and your church’s values. 

To help generate a church culture of  community service within your church, you can:

• Team up with local nonprofits and service groups in your area, offering your church’s support
• Work with key people in your community to identify areas of need that your church can fill, such as organizing food, school supply, or winter coat drives
• Start your own annual community service event where anyone is welcome, such as organizing to clean up a local park, packing food, or making blankets for the elderly or abuse survivors

Set up discipleship programs

Discipleship programs provide another way to build connections among members, provide a clear outlet for questions, promote engagement with the church among new and existing members, and show how your church values its members.

When starting discipleship or mentorship programs, you’ll want to consider:

• The purpose and goal of the programs
• Who the program serves, such as youths, special groups within your church, leaders and leaders-in-training, or other group
• How you’ll educate the mentors on the expectations of their role, their purpose, and provide them with the resources and tools they need
• How you’ll get feedback on the programs—both from the mentors and the mentees  

Encourage diversity in ministry

The more diverse your ministry, the more you’re able to reach a broader range of people in your community and increase the sensitivity of your church to their needs.

You also increase awareness among your members and show the love of your faith and your church for everyone in your community. Your church and its worship will be more approachable and show you value people.

To foster diversity, you will want to:

• Evaluate your leadership teams and ensure your community’s diversity is represented
• Incorporate training and leadership education opportunities 
• Build programs and outreach that specifically meets the needs and interests of different groups within your community
• Incorporate messages of diversity within your worship services
• Be intentional about including new groups within your larger community 

Offer flexible service times & live-streaming 

With so many obligations, it can be hard to attend services regularly.

But offering different service times or even live streaming your service using a platform, like Subsplash, can help.

However, you’ll need to keep in mind what your church can reasonably do. For instance, smaller churches may not be able to offer two services each Sunday. But they may be able to offer one service per month at a special day and time. 

When exploring ways to offer more flexible service times, you can:

• Survey your members to see what days and times they prefer
• Ask if there’s interest for a special service offered once a month at a day or time that’s different from the normal worship
• Record or stream services and post them on your website, YouTube, and social media for those who can’t attend in person

Church planting

Church planting is a way of growing a church. In some cases, it may be the process of starting a new church by organizing a group of members in a specific location. But it can also be the process of spreading an existing church into new locations.

Spreading into new locations can help make it easier for people in your community to attend your church so you can grow and reach more individuals. 

However, planning is essential for church planting to work. For instance, you don’t want to grow where there isn’t a need or stretch your church’s resources too thin.

When considering whether church planting is the right choice for you, you may want to:

• Build relationships in the unchurched community where you’d like to grow, like organizing activities, talking to leaders in that community, and encouraging existing members to be active in the area
• Create anonymous feedback systems so those within the new area can provide input on what their needs are and their interest in your church coming to their area
• Organize some small group activities or events that meet the needs of that community and fit with your church’s mission to see if you’re a good fit
• Identify the reason why you’re expanding to help guide you throughout the process

Implement a church engagement platform 

Technology is an essential tool to help your church grow and make it easier to stay connected with members today. That’s why many of the savviest churches are implementing engagement platforms, like Subsplash.  

For instance, having both an in-person and online church can make it easier to communicate through group messages, email, and text with churchgoers. You can use church websites, custom church apps, and TV apps so you can spread the word about your mission, upcoming events, live-stream services, and provide information and discipleship resources to engage with the church and one’s faith.

Not to mention, you can also use our technology to help streamline check-in for Sunday school, automate donor management processes, or track weekly attendance. 

Discover why 17,000 churches and ministries turn to Subsplash to reach new people, know their members, and grow their churches. [.blog-contact-cta]Book a free demo today.[.blog-contact-cta]