“Understanding Faith & Church Trends”

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is touring the country making a presentation to Christian leaders where they are presenting some trends and statistics that relate directly to the church community in Canada. I attended the event in Toronto with a couple of other guys from our staff team and was fascinated by some of the things presented.

Although (or maybe because..) I’m an artist to the core, there is something about graphs, spreadsheets and colour-coding that just speaks to me! Several things jumped out at us during the presentations, giving us lots to talk about on the way back to Orangeville as well as the days following, but let me show you two stats that I think have lots to say about the church, social media and our opportunity to reach people where they are.

Here’s the first one -

And the second -

Okay. So why do I find those two graphics fascinating? If you are on staff at your church, where are you spending advertising dollars? If you do spend them (and we do, although not tons) then it’s probably in a couple of places – the church directory in your local paper, maybe a radio ad and then some special newspaper advertising for events or programs. If your church is a bigger congregation in a bigger market maybe TV advertising even play in to it.

So check the numbers. Where are advertising firms NOT spending their money? Newspaper, radio, TV. Where do churches generally think advertising? Newspaper, radio, TV. The ad firms know better than the churches – that’s not where the people are. Those three forms of media are either losing audience or losing audience attention. Got a PVR? Then you know that commercials just aren’t part of your TV experience anymore. When was the last time you actually decided to go to an event because you saw an ad in the paper?

But.. The opportunity is here to make some significant changes. Check where ad agencies ARE spending dollars – mobile, email, online. Why are they doing that? It’s where the people are. You’re trying to reach people, aren’t you? So why not focus some of your advertising attention on the places where those people actually are rather than trying to shout at them in a place where they are not!

I’m not here to tell you the “how to” of making this happen. Want to learn about social media? Go ask some students in your congregation. They will tell you. And don’t laugh off their suggestions – like the ad firms, they will generally know better than you.

Alright.. So what about the second?

The second graphic is interesting to me because it asks the question “Where would/should/could we put the ‘worship service’ in this little diagram?” Well.. where would you put it? Where would you LIKE to put it? Do you see the concept – richness vs. touches? I love the diagram and we are spending some time at OBC talking about how social media/networking will play a role in helping us to make disciples.

Three questions -

1. How is your church actively engaged in advertising and networking in places where people already are?

2. Have you made some decisions to stop advertising in certain ways? Should you?

3. How have you increased the richness of your worship services in a way that left lasting impressions on people?

Let’s hear it in the comments.

Looking for more info on this stuff?

Evangelical Fellowship of Canada – www.efc-canada.ca
Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism – www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/crce
Church & Faith Trends – www.churchandfaithtrends.ca

4 Responses to ““Understanding Faith & Church Trends””

1. Darryl says:

   February 6, 2010 at 10:44 pm

   Hey Chris,

   Help me understand what they mean by Richness and Touches?

   Thanks.

   Reply
   • Rick Hiemstra says:

     February 9, 2010 at 10:52 am

     Hi Darryl,

     Richness and touches are just two ways to think about media. Richness has to do with the quality of communication. For instance, if we were to sit down and have coffee you could read my body language, respond to my tone of voice, etc. It is a rich communication medium as opposed to this post which is text based. Text is less rich, we know this because we SHOUT WITH CAPITAL LETTERS and add emotion with smiley faces and acronyms (LOL). These additions to the text are a tacit admission that the medium is not very rich. You have more impact with a rich medium.

     Touches on the other hand is advertising language. A touch is where your message makes contact with a potential customer. So a touch could be an online add, or a TV commercial. It could also be the time someone hears a sermon, attends a meeting, goes out for coffee, listens to a podcast, etc. An advertising rule of thumb is that it takes 7 touches before someone is paying attention. That doesn’t mean they’ve accepted the message. It just means that they noticed you.

     The chart is to help us see that many of the forms of media that we’re used to using, while being rich in format, nevertheless have very few touches. You have to have people’s attention before you can influence them so you have to pay attention to the number of touches you have with the people you are trying to reach.

     All the best,

     Rick.
2. Bill Fledderus says:

   February 8, 2010 at 10:48 am

   Hi, Chris. Your address for the EFC is wrong. http://www.efc-canada.com does not work. Just use http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca or the shortcut theEFC.ca

   Peace

   Reply
3. Charlene says:

   February 8, 2010 at 2:38 pm

   Hey Chris:

   Great stuff! Could you encourage people to attend Christian Leaders Connection events so they can hear and learn more? All the details are posted at http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/clc

   It was great to have you at the Toronto event!

   thanks for your promo

   Reply