Had another great discussion recently about the obscene shortcomings of “awareness” campaigns. It seems like too many people are just stuck in thinking that the only thing their church needs is greater awareness in the community. “People just don’t know we’re here,” they lament.

I don’t buy it. I think most churches believe they have an “awareness” problem when they don’t. I’m convinced that more than plenty of folks surrounding the churches in our communities are well aware of our existence. The simply don’t care.

They don’t care because we haven’t given them any reason to care. When external church marketing and advertising tackles nothing more than “waving our arms” at people, we’ve wasted our time and money. Rather than engaging them in a remarkable, compelling story and giving them a chance to be a part of that story, we happily give them our service times and location. Then we sit back and play “here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors, where’s all the people?”

The other important group of people who need to care most are our own members. If members aren’t naturally compelled to invite their family, friends, and coworkers into the church community, there’s a reason for that. They don’t care enough about the value the church provides to share it with anyone else. They also don’t care because we haven’t given them any reason to care.

By the way, most people won’t care about what YOU care about. But their interest will more than likely peak when they hear about what THEY care about. Identify those in your community and within your congregation. Then begin sending out that message.

They’ll visit your church for the first time when they care. They’ll begin a life-transforming relationship with Christ when they care. They’ll grow and mature as Christians. They’ll happily volunteer their time. They’ll cheerfully bring their tithe. They won’t be able to wait to share their faith and lead more people into the Kingdom … when they care.