When was the last time you spontaneously tried a restaurant? No recommendation from a friend or even a review – you just saw a sign and said what the heck, let’s give that a try?

If you are like me, cold calls to restaurants are not high on the priority list. We often base our decision to go to a new restaurant because “we heard it was good” from a friend or colleague, or it received great reviews.

That being the case then why do we expect people to simply walk into our churches because we have a pithy quote on our sign and have painted our doors red? True, we will, on the odd occasion, have a cold call from a seeker, but these occurrences are far from the norm.

What’s far more common is a friend or colleague recommending their church to you, just like a restaurant. They do so because they know why they love their church, and they can articulate exactly what their church does well and what they particularly enjoy. It could be a good youth group, a strong music program or maybe their preacher is fantastic at liturgy and always provides inspiring and relevant sermons.

Whatever the reason is, if parishioners know exactly why their church is the best they will be willing to share their feelings with friends or colleagues.

So my question then is this: why would someone come to your church? What is your because?

Can you or your parishioners finish this statement quickly and concisely…

“You should come to my church, St Switham’s by the Swamp, because…”

If you or your parishioners can’t finish this statement to briefly and effectively describe your church, is it any wonder that few new people darkening it’s the doors? If people aren’t walking out on Sundays excited to share their experience with a friend, then why would we expect hundreds of people to flock to our churches on “bring a friend” Sunday or “back to church” Sundays?

The best and oldest form of evangelism is still our parishioner’s social networks. But to leverage these networks we must first inspire them, educate them and then give them permission to go out into the world and tell people that their church is the best because…