Opportunity is on the line… Answer the call!
What’s the more important opportunity as Jesus marketers, the chance engagement with a stranger who’s not interested but that we might be able to reach with a well crafted message, or the neighbor who calls the church or goes to the web site looking for help or information?
In a recent blog by the infamous marketeer, Seth Godin, he writes of an unfortunate experience when calling a chocolate maker about waning product quality. My first instinct was, get a life! But then I started to think about the point of what he was saying, how businesses should be more concerned with customers calling in or visiting a support web site than with marketing to new customers. It’s the age old principle of customer retention and it’s true, it takes far more money to attract new customers than it does to retain existing customers.
I wondered at whether the same were true of the church and I feel that it most assuredly is.
Think for a minute about how Jesus approached similar situations in his ministry, after all, he’s our primary example, right? There were many times when Jesus would be in the middle of engaging a crowd and in the process of ministering to hundreds or even thousands he would be approached by an individual with real intent and would drop everything to give them his undivided attention. Think about it, he’s walking along trailed by a hundred or more followers all who needed the same salvation he came to offer and he happens on a tree with a short dude hanging from it. Not only that, the short guy is a jerk and makes a living ripping people off but the guy is ripe for change. Does Jesus say “Sorry, I can’t leave this crowd to focus on you… I’m just doing my job.. blah, blah, blah…” or does he say “come down from the tree and let’s go chill at your place for a bit so we can talk one-on-one.”
Convicting.
If you’re a pastor or other church leadership, think about this the next time you’re contemplating the job of the person answering the phone. Be sure you’re training your front office staff to appropriately escalate needs whenever they can. Make sure there’s a response path for web and email inquiries and a plan for handling the neighbor who comes to your door at night asking for bread. These are our most valuable opportunities friends. Don’t let them slip away.
