How to Reach People Who Don't Go to Church
Note: This is an AI generated transcript of my YouTube video
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People don't go to church these days for good reasons. They don't like it. They don't have time for it. They don't trust it.
So as a church planter, let me ask you: What's your plan to change their minds? Do you have one?
At our church plant, I'm proud to say that around 60-65% of our regulars had no church background when they started coming. Our church is literally their very first church, or the first church they've attended since childhood.
That didn't happen by accident. It happened because we've been working a strategic plan since before we even launched. Specifically, we've been doing five things that have helped us change the minds of people who don't like church more than anything else.
The Better Question
As a church planter, you're probably constantly asking yourself: "How do I reach people who don't go to church?"
That's a good question, but I think there's a better one: How do I build trust with people in my community who don't go to church?
This is better because we can make contact with all the people in the world—whether online or in person—but if they don't trust the church, it won't matter.
Imagine you had all the money you needed to send mailers to every single person within a 25-mile radius of your church. That would be amazing, right? But here's the problem: If they don't trust the church, they won't care. It doesn't matter how cool the mailer looks or how intriguing your Easter message title is. Without trust, they won't give you the time of day.
Isn't that true of you as well? When you get ads for things you don't care about, what do you do? You throw them out, scroll past them, or unsubscribe.
Since so many people in our communities don't go to church because they don't trust it—whether they lost trust or never had a reason to trust it in the first place—our first priority as church planters should be to give them a reason to trust, or to trust again.
The Power of Generosity
I think one of the fastest ways to earn somebody's trust is to give to them with no strings attached.
Think about the people in your life you trust most. They're probably some of the most generous people you know—not just financially, but with their time, resources, knowledge, and wisdom.
If I want to reach unchurched people in my community, it starts by asking: What can I do to serve them without sending the message that we expect something from them?
This is crucial, especially in places like New York where people are skeptical. They're always looking for the catch. If they detect even a hint of a catch, it will lessen or eliminate the trust they were willing to give.
For example:
If they detect that your fun event is actually a sneaky fundraiser
If they feel bait-and-switched because what they thought was free food turned into a high-pressure altar call
If they came for a kids' event but found themselves locked into a sermon they never expected
The trust will vanish immediately. Even though our intentions are good, these approaches reinforce what skeptical people already think about church: that the church has an agenda, that they're not interested in helping people but using them, that they just want your money or to brainwash you.
Their thought is simple: The church wants something FROM me, not something FOR me.
If we want to change their minds, we need fresh approaches that leave them thinking, "Wow, that was actually really nice" or "I'm shocked that was actually free."
What Jesus Said About This
This generosity-first approach is exactly what Jesus had in mind in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5, Jesus talks about how the church is like salt and light—both add tremendous value and make people's lives exponentially better.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:16: "In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your Father in heaven."
Notice the order: Good deeds first, generosity first, service first, love first. Then, precisely because of the no-strings-attached value we've added, they will notice and celebrate the goodness of God.
If we want to change the way people think about God, it starts with our good deeds. It starts with our service, our no-strings-attached kindness, care, and love. It starts with our willingness to be generous to our community and expect nothing in return.
Generosity leads to trust. Trust leads to influence. And influence sets us up to inspire our community to love and follow Jesus.
The 5 Trust Builders
Think of these like seeds. They start small when planted, but over time with watering and care, they grow into something massive. They even begin to compound and multiply. If you do these five things and keep doing them, your church plant will become a trust-building machine that reaches more people every year.
1. Personal Invitation
I'm not just talking about you as the church planter inviting people—I'm talking about teaching your church and launch team how to actually invite others.
Not everyone knows how to do this, and they might need to borrow some of your courage. This is the number one reason new people show up each week at our church: they were personally invited by someone.
People are far more inclined to give their trust to things their friends and family already trust.
Here's a personal example: I absolutely despise seafood. If it comes from the sea, it's not for me. If a sushi restaurant opened across from my house with the best marketing in the world, I wouldn't care. I'd probably be annoyed it was so close.
But one thing could get me to go: if somebody I loved and trusted invited me. My friend George invited me to sushi, and because I trusted George, I went. I ate teriyaki chicken and white rice, and it was excellent. Now I go back regularly and even take my own friends there. I never would have gone on my own. This is the power of an invitation.
How to Equip Your Church to Invite:
Provide Resources: Give people invite cards—little business cards with information about your church. At least once a month, we put these on seats in the auditorium so people can grab them and pray about who to invite.
Create Big Days: Identify specific days to invite people to—the start of a new series, New Year's, Super Bowl Sunday, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, Ice Cream Sunday (third Sunday in July), Back to School Sunday, your church birthday, baptisms. Give advance notice so people can invite friends.
Promise Consistency: If your church is inconsistent (nobody knows how long the service will be, whether there will be music, if there will be coffee), people will hesitate to invite. We promise it will always be about an hour and follow the same format, so people know what they're inviting friends to.
Show What Happens When They Invite: We have a "plan your visit" system where first-time guests can register online. We put a sign with their name on the best parking spot, give them a gift and tour, help them check in kids easily, save them a seat, and make sure they meet me and my wife Emily. When your church knows their friends will have a great experience, they're more motivated to invite.
Prayer Gatherings: At least once a quarter, gather to pray for your community—especially people who don't know how much God loves them. When we pray for people, it prepares our hearts to invite them.
2. Community Events
These aren't church events—they're events specifically created to serve and love your community.
We currently do four major events every year:
Street Fair: Our church is on a main road that gets shut down for a street fair in June. Instead of trying to have church, we volunteer at the fair and give away free stuff all day.
Summer Movie Nights: Every Monday in July, we host outdoor movies in our parking lot in partnership with our local library and Chamber of Commerce. The library provides the inflatable screen and licensing for recent releases (Inside Out 2, Sonic 3). We provide the space, popcorn, cotton candy, and invite food trucks. Completely free.
Fall Fest: We celebrate our church birthday (second week of October) with a fall festival featuring a pumpkin patch, fire trucks kids can explore, food trucks, bounce houses, petting zoo, race cars, and lawn games. It gets bigger every year.
Drive-In Movie: In December, we show The Polar Express on a 40-foot screen borrowed from our Chamber of Commerce. People watch from their cars with audio pumped through their car radios. Afterward, we have a winter wonderland inside with photos with Santa.
All completely free. We're working on adding two more events (Easter egg hunt and another winter event) to have one every other month.
Critical Points About Events:
Quality Over Quantity: Your events must be really good. A crappy event will do the opposite of building trust—it will push people away. The higher the quality, the more trust you build and the more likely they'll return.
If you don't have the team, finances, or resources to do something really well, just do one event per year. Don't spread yourself thin trying to do multiple mediocre events.
Collect Information: If you're not collecting emails, you're missing one of your greatest opportunities. How will you invite people back if you don't have their contact info?
We do this through giveaways. At every event, we raffle off something (usually a $100 Amazon gift card). It's free to enter—just scan a QR code and give us your email so we know where to send the digital card. Once you have their email, you can continue building trust through valuable email content.
3. Community Involvement
This is different from community events. This is when you get involved in what your community is already doing—coming alongside existing events and helping without pushing your own agenda.
When people see that your church is just there to help with no agenda, their walls come down and they're far more likely to trust you.
Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce: This is huge. Attend as many meetings as you can, meet chamber members and leaders, and find out what events are happening—both chamber events and what other businesses and nonprofits are doing.
Then send as many volunteers as possible to help with their events. You go yourself because you have influence as the pastor. Offer to pay for supplies or food for volunteers. If your chamber doesn't have a permanent space but you do, offer your space for meetings.
This sends a powerful message: you're not here to take—you're here to give, serve, and support.
Our relationship with our chamber has been incredible. They awarded us Chamber Member of the Year when we weren't even two years old yet. Because of our community involvement, they also nominated us as Business of the Month in our town of nearly 500,000 residents—and we won. I had to accept the award at town hall on the local news.
Both awards within our first two years, all because we showed up and offered to help whenever and wherever we could.
Support Local Nonprofits: Give them money, volunteers, and opportunities to speak at your church. Once a quarter, we partner with a local nonprofit. For every quarterly check-in card our church fills out, we donate $5 to that nonprofit. The organization gets two minutes during our service to share what they do.
This helps the nonprofit trust you, helps your church trust you (they see you care about the community), raises awareness about needs people didn't know existed, and shows your church opportunities to serve outside the church walls.
4. Lead Magnets
This might be the most unique trust builder you've never thought about before.
A lead magnet is a free giveaway you promote in exchange for someone's email. The simplest version is a 10% off coupon that pops up on a store's website asking for your email.
If you have a really great lead magnet that adds significant value, it helps people trust you because you've literally improved their life with what you gave them. But when they give you their email in exchange, you gain the ability to add even more value through helpful emails.
Sure, some people will unsubscribe, but many won't. They'll let you live in their inbox for years. Every time you send a helpful email or invitation to a free event, you're top of mind again. Depending on how much trust you've built, you're one step closer to inspiring them to engage with your church.
Examples of Lead Magnets:
Since 60% of people on Long Island are Catholic or have a Catholic background, my first lead magnet was "Catholicism vs. Christianity"—a six-page PDF explaining the differences. It's on our homepage because it's relevant to most visitors. Everyone who's given feedback loves it.
Other effective lead magnet ideas:
Why would a good God allow bad things to happen?
How to pray
How to read the Bible
Five lessons about God every kid needs to know
God and mental health
A companion podcast through the book of John for Bible beginners (21 episodes, one per chapter, with someone new to the Bible asking questions)
You don't have to overcomplicate this. You can take a sermon you've preached and turn it into a PDF. Boom—you've got a lead magnet.
Why This Works: Most people who visit your website aren't ready to plan a visit to your church. Going from looking you up online to visiting in person is a huge step. If your only call to action is to plan a visit, there's a high chance they'll click off without doing anything but lurking.
But if you also have helpful guides sprinkled around your site, you might get them to download one or two. They'll give you their email, and now you have the opportunity to slowly convince them to plan their visit through the helpful and inspiring emails you send.
5. Marketing (Social Media & Merch)
This is my least favorite trust builder, but it's still effective. The second biggest reason people visit our church (after personal invitation) is social media—Instagram or Facebook mom groups.
Facebook moms love knowing about free events for their kids. Get into every local mom group on Facebook and share your amazing offerings for their children.
Our Social Media Philosophy: We say our social media is a window into our church for our community. It rarely focuses on insider-only events or topics. It's geared toward unchurched people considering making church part of their lives.
Our hope is that as they browse our channels, they'll see we're not weird and they'd fit right in. Every picture, video, and post has one job: show that we're not weird and you'd fit in here.
When they feel our church is relevant and welcoming, they'll start to trust it more.
The Power of Merch: Someone came to our church because they saw our launch team wearing Local Church shirts at a restaurant where I was playing guitar and singing. This family noticed our team having so much fun and engaging lovingly with their kids. The mom saw we were all wearing the same shirt with our church address on the back.
About a year later, when she was ready for a church, she remembered how our team made her feel and how they loved her kids. She looked up Local Church, found us online, and has been coming ever since.
But this only works if your launch team and church are warm and friendly. If they're cold and off-putting, don't sell them any merch.
Your Action Steps
Here are the five trust builders:
Personal Invitation - Teach your church and team how to invite
Community Events - Host really well-done free community events
Community Involvement - Get involved and help with what your community is already doing
Lead Magnets - Create high-value resources that genuinely help people
Marketing - Tailor your social media and merch as windows for outsiders to see that you're not weird and they'd fit in
If I missed something and you've discovered effective ways to build trust with unchurched people, let me know. I'd love to learn from you.
If you're just beginning your church plant journey and need help raising funds, download my free fundraising guide featuring my top five tips. These tips helped my wife Emily and I raise over $345,000 in startup funds—and we don't know a bunch of wealthy people. Just normal folks using these five strategies.
No matter what stage you're in, no matter what you're facing, you've got this. You have the Holy Spirit of God in you, which means there is absolutely nothing God can't do through you.
Believe in yourself, trust in God, and enjoy the journey.
Want more church planting resources? Visit churchplantjourney.com to get free guides, tips, and strategies for launching and leading a thriving church plant.
