Ten Things That Have Replaced Traditional Outreach in Churches Over Three Decades

When I began my journey as a church consultant in the 1980s, I had a simple but effective way to measure a church’s outreach effectiveness: I asked to see the records of home visits made in the previous month. Comparing those numbers to the church’s average attendance gave me a reliable sense of whether the church was likely to grow.

From my perspective back then, churches that knocked on more doors were more likely to grow. Even today, visiting with receptive hosts in their homes can be highly effective—but two significant challenges have emerged over time.

The Shift

The first challenge is gaining access to homes. By the late 1980s, when I was also a pastor in St. Petersburg, Florida, I noticed a shift. Gated communities and security concerns made drop-by visits increasingly difficult. The second challenge is receptivity. People were becoming less open to uninvited guests and, in some