Four Principles Of Networking For Pastors

Networking is one key for pastors who are seeking to grow their church.

In some notes I took from a Bill Easum seminar, several years back now, he stressed the importance of the pastor being freed up and visible in the community connecting with new people. For churches with an average worship attendance of under 500, the pastor needs to allocate a large chunk of time during the week connecting and meeting outside of the building. Members of the congregation need to step up to take care of the in-house stuff to free up enough time for the pastor to network.

Easum stated that if you want the church to grow, you need to connect with about 100 new people a month. With this goal, you may see about 10 of them show up to the church.

Here are his four principles of pastoral networking in the community:

Proximity

You must be someplace people can see you. Networking requires that you are out in public, in high traffic spaces with an opportunity to visit, meet and connect.

Predictable

If you can be in some of the same places about the same time each week, you have a better chance of building those relationships.

Persistent

Keep at it. It takes a while for networking to take root. You may hit a spell where it doesn’t seem like you’re being effective, but keep on sticking with your plan to be available to meet people in the community.

‘Prochable

Lift your head, look people in the eye, and smile. Connecting requires energy.

I write with church leaders in mind and I would be honored to have you join me by subscribing to the blog. You can take a look at the top posts here. The posts are categorized: pastors, worship leaders, student ministry and kids ministry. In case we’re just meeting, here’s little about my life.