Old Fashioned Impact

Every week, our church receives Connect and Prayer cards.  As you can deduce, these cards are where guests fill out their information and anyone can request prayer.  As these cards are turned in each week, we go through them.  I schedule time on my calendar to reach out to the people who fill out Connect Cards, and our team prays for every request that comes in every week.

Why do I mention this?  Because prayer and connection are seemingly old fashioned practices in modern church ministry.  With the boost of programs, production and broadcast efforts, we can forget the simple impact potential of reaching out to people to offer prayer and connection.  The responses we receive from people when they learn they have been prayed for by name are incredible.  It opens the door for more connection and builds trust with those who attend our church. 

That’s a little bit of our picture, but how can this translate into ministry for you?  Here are a few “old fashioned” practices you can do this week to enhance the potential for impact in your ministry:

1.     Pray for people and let them know you did. 

This sounds too simple, and maybe it is even presumed of you.  But I can assure you that taking some time to pray for people by name and let them know you did could make a greater impression on their lives than you think.  Take some time and do that this week.

2.     Reach out to new people.

People want to feel seen, loved and known.  So take some time this week to simply reach out and offer a follow-up invitation to those who have recently come to your church.  Don’t worry about sounding like a salesman.  Ask them a few questions about themselves and how they got to your church.  Offer to answer any questions they have about your church, and just start an ongoing conversation that will hopefully carry into months of getting to know someone new in your church.  This is the new “visitation” so-to-speak.

3.     Thank You Notes.

This is going to sound extra rare, given the age of digital communication, but I want to encourage you to actually write (yes, handwriting involved here) notes of gratitude to those in your church.  The recipients can be generous givers in your church, volunteers, staff, small group leaders, etc.  Take some time this week and send out a few hand-written Thank You notes.  This stands out, and people will remember it.