Even though they have four campuses in central Ohio and minister to 3,600 people over 10 weekly services, Grace Fellowship understands that their front doors need to be seeing new faces continuously. I had the pleasure of speaking with Ronee De Leon, Administrator of both the Local Impact and Guest Services departments at Grace Fellowship to see how PastorsLine has been able to help. We spoke about how PastorsLine helps them encourage brand new guests through their front doors with texting.
Before PastorsLine: Relative newbies but catching on quickly
Grace Fellowship joined PastorsLine last summer. Before that, they had only been using CCB and communicating with email via the CCB process queues.
Very quickly, Grace Fellowship ministries began using PastorsLine as part of their communication strategy. The Young Adult Ministry began over the summer. The Middle School Group followed with reminder texts. Of course, the PastorsLine-CCB integration is a big plus, too. Ronee, herself, began thinking of how she could use PastorsLine to take their assimilation processes to the next level.
Latest challenge: Front door initiative to get brand new people
Ronee shared with me that just last weekend, Grace Fellowship “took advantage of a new marriage series we have coming up using PastorsLine. We passed out invite cards and had a big social media push, advertising that we were going to raffle several different prizes at our campuses: a weekend cabin stay and gifts cards to a high-end area restaurant.”
And the wins were…
Grace Fellowship hit their weekend goal of 3-4% brand new people walking through their front doors. Ronee said that a big part of hitting that goal was “the capability to do the raffle at such a high level through PastorsLine”.
They especially liked…
In PastorsLine, duplicating campaigns is quick and easy. Ronee said that was a “great help [because I] didn’t want to have to change the contest keyword, slide, and program for each service…so, for example, once the Thursday 7 pm service was over, I just duplicated the contest campaign, released the keyword, made a new one, and named it ‘Sunday morning 9 am’.”
How do they see PastorsLine impacting their church day-to-day?
Now, their new guest opt-in keyword is projected on a screen during every service with a ‘text to connect‘ message. The keyword is also in their church program. Those who text the keyword enter an automated chat. The chat first captures their contact details and then offers them further links depending on what the texters are interested in.
And the wins are…overall, new guests are preferring to text.
Ronee says her church is upfront with telling people they understand that life happens and there might not be time to opt-in right then and there. So, the keyword is ready when they are. She says they are seeing people text in at all times…even midweek after a weekend service.
Grace Fellowship also offers to connect cards and getting involved online. Ronee says they’ve noticed that new guests are opting for texting. Here’s her take on why: “[PastorsLine data capture with auto responses] is an easy way to anonymously self-identify in such a large church without having to go to our connections space (Grace Central)-a room to the right as you’re walking out our doors. You can stop in there and talk to somebody, but a lot of times people like the anonymity of such a big church and [PastorsLine] is a way for somebody to connect before they’re ready to identify themselves and have a conversation with somebody.”
The Future: Next big thing using PastorsLine?
Currently, new guests get an email on Monday following the weekend services with a handwritten note on Wednesday. Ronee is thinking about a text on Wednesday.
Also, the Grace Fellowship ‘weekend’ begins with a Thursday night service. Ronee is considering texting the new guests from the previous weekend with an invite…something like: It was great worshiping with you last weekend. Hope to see you tonight.
Ronee had a few compliments, too.
She shared that she is “super impressed. I’ve worked with Jason a lot. He and I chat pretty regular [sic], and he teaches me how to do all of the ninja moves. … You guys have just been incredible for us.”
Want to level up your church’s Front Door Initiative or perhaps add texting to your First-time Guest Follow-up Strategy?
Yes, take me to the free, $0 for 30 days trial.
Not yet, but I’d like to know more about texting in churches.
About the author
Anne Heath
Anne is a stay at home Mom and also volunteers at her kids’ schools and her church in her spare time. Her hobbies include weightlifting, crafting, photography and coffee consumption! She found PastorsLine through a CCB-recommended webinar while volunteering to help the assimilations pastor and fell in love with it almost instantly. She started implementing PastorsLine to help their church grow and also get their existing members and new families more connected and plugged into the church.
