Church 'Prospecting' Goes High-Tech
by Allie Martin
April 28, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Christian retailer is helping churches reach out into local communities with a new Internet-based tool.In today's mobile society, people are continuously moving into and out of neighborhoods, bringing constant change to a community. LifeWay Christian Stores is now offering a tool that makes it easier for churches to keep up with all those changes and to locate prospects.
LifeWay Prospect Services allows church leaders to use high-tech strategies when it comes to outreach. For a small fee, church officials can use the web-based service to create custom-made lists of prospects that the church may wish to contact about upcoming revivals, Easter or Christmas events, Vacation Bible School, or other church-sponsored events.
Jacqueline Swartz, marketing supervisor for LifeWay Christian Stores, says the service is useful for churches with either small or large congregations.
"Our service allows them to go out and find those individuals and actually make a personal contact with them, invite them into their church community, and hopefully invite them to worship with them," she explains.
Swartz says community outreach should be a natural part of every church -- and it should be done in an effective way. She says church staff can visit the Prospect Services website and, based on various criteria, request a one-time listing of the type of individuals they want to reach.
"They submit the request on-line -- and really within a matter of a few hours, they receive an e-mail back that says 'we found x-number of individuals and families that meet your criteria' in the area that you specify," she says.
The LifeWay service also offers a monthly subscription that helps churches stay current on changes in their community. Monthly subscriptions would include new homeowners, new parents, and those who have recently moved into an area.
