Positioning Your Church as the ‘Go-to’ Place for Families

We had accepted the position with fear, trembling, & excitement. A church in BC asked us to come & help them “raise the evangelistic temperature of the church”.

To be honest, I remember struggling (a lot) to discern how to facilitate that as an Outreach Pastor. However, the church had an amazing team and showed enthusiasm & commitment in reaching out. As a result, the church was able to push past the “200 barrier” and become positioned as the ‘go-to’ place for families in the community (a suburb to Vancouver).

I felt like we were getting positioned when one of the parents who had sent her children to an outreach said her son was calling me “Boston Rob” at home. As an unchurched student, he had no frame of reference for what a “Pastor” was, so he associated my name with a well-known reality T.V. personality at the time! We were starting to draw people who only knew popular culture, but needed to be introduced to the culture of the kingdom.

We didn’t get everything right, but as I look back on that season of growth a few things were steps in the right generation:

1. Launching Intentional Next-Gen Outreaches- The church ran multiple VBS-type programs through the summer & other programs (smart parents learned that this was a great place to send their children… and enjoy some relaxing time while we entertained their kids!).

2. Encouraging Community Engagement- I was surprised one Christmas Eve to see that two of the gentlemen that I coached a local high school football team with had dragged their families to church. I hadn’t even invited them, but the relational connection pointed them to where they could go as seekers.

3. Providing Safe Space- The father of two pre-teen girls told me how they liked our church because the last church they tried out “scared the h--- out of him”! I laughed, but I then realized that he was serious and that a space where the whole family could grow in faith (without pressure) was very attractive to him.

4. Creating Discipleship Pathways- Adults who were exploring faith could go to Alpha (then Beta or another follow-up initiative after Alpha) then get plugged into a small group. Pre-teens who showed interest in the summer outreaches were invited to a 4-week baptismal class where they learned about salvation and basic discipleship (they also brought their parents and we ordered copious amounts of pizza!).

It turns out that I didn’t need to be held back by fear, and that getting positioned in the community is ‘doable’ for all of us with: creativity + God’s help + tenacity!