Two Secret Words of Church Strategy

For seventh and eighth graders, we offered a fall retreat, too. Every seventh grader wanted to (and did) go. Why? It was their first chance to experience “Frequency Weekend.” And, every eighth-grader wanted to go, too. Any guesses why? It was the LAST chance to experience “Frequency Weekend!” Mission trips were only offered to seventh graders.

Scarcity and exclusivity drive attendance, participation, and engagement.

Compare that to most church ministry offerings, where we offer this Sunday precisely what we offered last Sunday and what we’ll offer next Sunday again, too. Completely missable.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you attempt to one-up yourself every week. That’s impossible. When I was a youth pastor, I learned that lesson the hard way. You can’t always make this Sunday dramatically better than next Sunday, but you can make this Sunday unique. You can make this week different. You may be able to offer something scarce or exclusive. Or both.

Incorporating Scarcity and Exclusivity in Your Church Strategy

Not every single thing you do can incorporate scarcity and exclusivity. Your ministry model needs some predictability. But remember: Unmissable experiences beat predictable programming every single time.

Here are 10 ideas for your ministry. Perhaps you could implement one of these immediately, or maybe an idea below will spark an idea of your own: 

1. Offer church services by age and stage of life. Perhaps not weekly, but monthly. Or quarterly.

2. Create a monthly married night out experience. Each event needs to be slightly different, but a monthly offering is scarce enough to drive participation. And exclusively targeted to married couples. 

3. Host topical small groups on a rotation. I.E., Every Winter, offer groups on finances, in the Spring, target books of the Bible, and in the Fall, focus on parenting. Consider adding exclusivity by limiting the seating and registration.

4. Hold church services once a month. I realize this may sound insane but think about it. If you only have one in-person church service a month, you’d hate to miss it because your next opportunity would be four weeks away. 

5. Give away branded t-shirts or other swag to the first 25, 50, or 100 people to attend, register, etc. FYI: Free stuff motivates people to volunteer or take a similar step in your church. 

6. Shut down your online stream for a month.

7. Invite a special guest preacher and promote them well.

8. Rotate preaching methods during a sermon series. For instance, Week 1 could be an interview, Week 2 is a traditional sermon, Week 3 is told through stories, and Week 4 is the dealer’s choice. Unique approaches to the message increase interest.

9. Rotate worship styles. Add an organ and choir one week and take it more gospel the following week. Turn down the sound and go purely acoustic or turn it up with lights and electric guitars. 

10.  Offer a full family service designed with children, students, and adults in mind once a month.

The good and bad ideas regarding church strategy are endless. Here’s what we can say for sure: If your church offers the same thing to the same group of people every week, the results are inevitable: interest, attendance, and participation will decline. Again, the goal isn’t to one-up yourself week after week. That’s impossible. You are, however, attempting to incorporate scarcity and exclusivity into your church strategy whenever possible. 

The conclusion with respect to church strategy is painfully clear. People are motivated by scarcity and exclusivity. Why not use these motivators in our ministry models?

This article on church strategy originally appeared here, and is used by permission.