Growing Your Church in Tough Economic Times

In even stable economic times, we are all looking to save money. Our churches are no different. We are charged with being good stewards of all that God has given to us, but we are also tasked with the responsibility of reaching our community with not only the Gospel, but to be a beacon of hope in a dark hour.

Self-supporting ministries are necessary for any church. But the problem with some such ministries is that they become cost prohibitive to those who wish to take advantage of the services you offer. Charging even overhead costs will keep some people away when you want to draw them in. So how do you develop such a ministry and keep it free to those who you are trying to reach? There is a way.

What we did was to partner with local businesses to sponsor our particular ministry. We publish 10,000 eight page newspapers quarterly-that's 40,000 papers a year-that are designed to reach the community with Christian values.

A paper such as this can become a staple of your church outreach. In our first two issues we have had scores of visitors, scores of phone calls, and have generated a tremendous amount of excitement in our church.

It has cost us nothing monetarily.

You can partner with local businesses. For their donation, you can give them an ad space in your paper. The business benefits in addition to feeling like they are contributing to a worthy cause. In fact, for us, we usually profit around a $1,000 each issue.

Following this model, you can pass the papers out for free by canvassing neighborhoods, placing them in libraries, offices, and any place where there is a waiting room or traffic. And people read them! This is not a fundraiser for us-although it does raise funds-but it is an outreach program! It has the added luxury of supporting other ministries and activities as well.

Businesses often want to invest in their community. Most of our advertisers don't expect much from these ads-though almost all have benefited in some way from it-but they like the concept of contributions that gives them something in return. We don't ask them to give thousands of dollars. Instead we sell the ad space for reasonable prices. If you sell 15 ads at $100 an ad, you will make over $500 on your paper.

This concept of partnering with local businesses that promotes their businesses yet funds your outreach program can probably be adopted in a variety of ways for a variety of ministries. A little thought and leg work will go a long way!