I know Your Phoebe works because I used these same practices in my congregation in 2019, 2020, and 2021 and we achieved NET GAINS of membership for each of those three years. 

And yes, we didn’t meet in person from March 2020 to April 2021. 

Here’s how I did that.

From Church Directory to Communications Platform

In the summer of 2019 when I entered this new pastorate I gave the church directory a real workout. Wherever I had contact with a member, I made little notes for the date, the means of communication, and anything pertinent discussed. That’s a no brainer, right? 

But I kept going through the directory making sure I was having contact with folks at least once every two weeks, trying to build relationships beyond our initial introductions. Patterns started to reveal themselves, and my notes showed me the method of communication that would likely be most successful in reaching particular people. My notes also showed where we were in the conversation, so I wasn’t just reaching out with “Hey, I just wanted to check in.” I’m an introvert, and small talk is often painful. Having prompts made it much easier for me and more personal for those I was contacting. 

More importantly though, going through the directory let me see who I wasn’t reaching, and having built those other relationships meant that I had a good idea of who could help facilitate those connections. 

How did that lead to new members? 
1) We didn’t lose members in the transition. 
2) Members felt connected and brought more friends and neighbors to “come and see.”
3) By getting members to help connect me to those “on the fringes,” I was inadvertently training them for evangelism. 

And that meant that when visitors would come or folks interacted with us on social media, I added them to my directory, and with congregants helping to facilitate introductions or secure contact information, I could build relationships with people entering our orbit as well. 

Conversations with membership care went from “Who’s sick?” to “Who haven’t we seen? What do they need? How can we reach them?” And that meant not just determining who should call/text/email/visit but what community events I should attend to get some potential face-time. Bonds were formed, relationships were getting stronger, and people had friends in the church. We had cultivated a sort of culture of mutual accountability. It wasn’t going to take a few months for people to notice that you were “missing.” Things were serious after 10-14 days. 

And that meant people knew they’d be missed if they skipped worship or dropped a meeting. It feels good to know that you count and that folks will miss you. That accountability will also make you give a second thought to just flaking out from a gathering. It often also means that you want others to feel that way too, so you start reaching out more yourself. 

The Start of Automation

My March 2020 story is the same as most of yours, but by April 2020 my system of scanning through the directory twice a week to maintain contacts had transitioned into spreadsheets and calendar reminders. I was starting to digitize and automate that work because, well, I was running out of space for notes in the directory but also because I could not risk letting anyone slip through the cracks. 

When I had contact with someone through phone/email/text/Zoom coffee hour/porch visit/etc, I logged it in my spreadsheet and set a calendar reminder to check back in 10 days. If I had another contact with that person before the 10 days, then I would reset that reminder for another 10 days out. Each day I would check my reminders, see who was on the schedule, consult my spreadsheet, and reach out. If I were able to connect with the person, I’d set a calendar reminder for another 10 days. If I didn’t connect with that person, I set a reminder for the following day, and I’d keep plugging away, often with the help of other congregants, until I made contact. 

And this was the same process used with visitors to online worship or people interacting with us on social media, making sure that personal relationships were being built through consistent contact. 

The spreadsheets and reminders were overly complicated, and I’m sure you wonder why I needed these tools to keep up with roughly 100 people. The short answer is that I found the pandemic to be stressful not personally and professionally, and I was not functioning well. My short-term memory, in particular, was trash. 

But that system also provided the following:
1) Having set tasks each day forced me to prioritize this work. 
2) Shortcuts allowed me to call/text/email people or link to their Facebook/Instagram profile right from the spreadsheet. This saved so much time. 
3) Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

I know this isn’t sexy and that you want Discord servers and a new open source Twitter and for your TikTok to blow up. I would like those things for you too, but I know that this works. 

Nothing can beat having someone’s email address, phone number, or permission to DM. 

Your Most Valuable Tool

If you are a pastor who is part-time or solo or without support staff, (like the majority of Mainline pastors), you have to choose how you use your limited resources of time and energy. You aren’t likely to be able to do stellar work on every platform. You might be a great preacher and teacher with a unique perspective, but you aren’t likely to become a celebrity pastor. Let’s be real: the algorithm has its own ideas. I’m not saying that social media is a complete waste of your time, but it’s not as effective as direct, personal communication. Nothing is. 

Are you ready to adopt a communications strategy that achieves results? Let’s chat and see what Your Phoebe can do for you!