Evangelism Marketing

I grew up in a home where we were aware of the speed limit, and ignored it entirely. I don’t know if it’s a genetic defect in my family, or the socialization growing up, but my parents do not drive the speed limit. I was born with a lead foot. And it’s been a problem for me most of my life.

I used to live in Seattle, and when I was a young adult I played in the worship band for the Oregon Conference down in Gladstone, OR. The drive from North Seattle to Gladstone should take about 3-1/2 hours, with no traffic. But the wheels on my car were not balanced, and my car would vibrate once I got up to 70 mph or so. If I kept accelerating, though, once I got up to about 95 mph the vibration would stop, so that was my minimum for the trip. One time I made the trip in just a touch over two hours. So yeah, I have a lead foot.

A few years ago I went to a retreat center in the Oregon woods. I spent three days just reflecting, journaling, praying, spending time with God out in nature. As I was driving home, feeling a spiritual high, I got this overwhelming sense of God telling me, I need you to drive the speed limit.

No way, I told Him.

But over the next several days a tension built in my soul. I remembered that Jesus obeyed the laws of the land, telling us to “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God” (Mat. 22:21 NLT). I knew the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13, “Those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God” (verse 2 NLT). I couldn’t reconcile disobedience of traffic laws with obedience to Christ. And I finally reached a point where I realized that for me to remain a faithful disciple of Jesus, I needed to obey the speed limit.

So I slowed down. Oh, how painful it was, at least at first. But the pain of that cognitive dissonance motivated me to change my behavior. It was less painful for me to slow down on the road than to continue feeling that dissonance discomfort.

That’s the power of cognitive dissonance.

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Today, I’m going to dive into the psychology of Adventist evangelism. Specifically, I’m going to share some of the research about cognitive dissonance that I’ve uncovered in my PhD studies, and I’ll look at how we can use this in our evangelistic practices.

For several years now I’ve wanted to develop a framework for innovation in Adventist evangelism. I want to find a way to take all the incredible creativity and passion found in churches across the NAD and harness that in a way that actually propels effective evangelism forward for all of us. As I’ve worked on this, I came to realize that I need the academic rigor of a doctoral program to actually develop this. So last year I started working on a PhD in strategic media at Liberty University. As I’ve looked at the range of communication theories, I’m beginning to see how many of them apply specifically to our evangelistic practices in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Adventist Evangelism

So let’s start by looking at the purpose of Adventist evangelism. Membership is really important to Seventh-day Adventists, and it has a very specific definition and process. It requires extensive Bible study leading to an understanding of, and agreement with, 28 fundamental beliefs. Traditionally, specific behavioral changes were also required prior to official membership, such as abstaining from tobacco and alcohol use. Once these prerequisites are met, an individual becomes a member when they are baptized or, if the individual was previously baptized by immersion, a public profession of faith (General Conference, 2016, p. 44-51).

Several of these fundamental beliefs require a significant shift in belief. You can’t just walk up to someone on the street and say, hey, I’d like you to join my church. You just need to change the day you worship on, give 10% of your money to the church, and give up meat for textured vegetable protein. And by the way, your grandma is not actually in heaven. Right? It takes time to help someone work through these shifts in thinking.

I’m not going to argue whether we should be making members as part of the discipleship process. I’m taking that as a given. Adventists believe that as someone grows closer to Jesus, and better understands what He Himself taught about Scripture, that person will want to identify with this Remnant Church. In our denomination, then, at a practical level, active membership is our goal for evangelism.

Now, historically public evangelistic meetings have been the primary means of recruiting members. Our denomination has used this method for over 150 years, which begs the question: why are we still using this method? And cognitive dissonance theory actually gives us an answer: because public evangelistic meetings are the most effective way of helping a group of people adopt a new identity as Seventh-day Adventists.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive dissonance theory was first proposed over 65 years ago by Leon Festinger (1957), and since then it has received widespread attention and mountains of research. Here’s the theory in a nutshell:

You have in your mind a bunch of attitudes, perceptions, knowledge, and beliefs. The theory calls these thoughts “cognitions.” When cognitions are related to each other, they can be either consistent or discrepant. Two cognitions are consistent if one leads to the other, and they are discrepant if they are inconsistent with each other.

Cognitive discrepancy leads to psychological discomfort, or dissonance. It’s uncomfortable. “The magnitude of dissonance between one cognitive element and the remainder of the person’s cognitions depends on the number and importance of cognitions that are consonant and dissonant with the one in question” (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019, p. 4).

Using myself as an example, I have a belief that I am a law-abiding citizen. But when I drive over the speed limit, that can lead to cognitive dissonance. That act itself is discrepant with my belief that I’m a law-abiding citizen. When I get in the habit of constantly looking for police, this habit is discrepant with my belief that I’m a law-abiding citizen. And when I realize that I’ve gotten a reputation among my friends for having a lead foot, that reputation is inconsistent with my belief that I’m a law-abiding citizen.

So humans use several strategies for reducing dissonance (McGrath, 2017). First, they can remove discrepant cognitions. They can choose not to retain the thought that leads to the dissonance. So for example, I could decide to completely ignore speed limits, or decide that speeding is not really breaking the law. That eliminates this discrepant cognition.

Second, they can add new consonant cognitions. For example, I could focus on my time usage, where speeding is consistent with my belief that using my time as efficiently as I can. Or at lower speeds I could focus on how speeding to get into 5th gear is more energy-efficient, saving me money on gas, thus my speeding shows good stewardship of the financial resources God has given.

Third, they can reduce the importance of dissonant beliefs. Speeding is not as big a deal as stealing or murder.

And fourth, they can increase the importance of consonant cognitions. For example, troopers in my state are required to issue a ticket when someone is caught going more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. When I’m only going 5 miles over the limit, I can focus on that to lower my dissonance discomfort.

In addition, resistance to changing a particular behavioral cognitive element depends on how much pain or loss the change requires, as well as the pleasure, or reduction in pain, that would come from the changed behavior (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019, p. 4). So slowing down increases the pain of driving, as I spend more time in the car commuting. On the other hand, paying a traffic fine is also painful, which is why people often drive more slowly for a while after getting a ticket.

So why is cognitive dissonance so powerful? 

One researcher suggests the reason dissonance pain that comes from cognitive incongruency is so uncomfortable is that it implies mistakes in the individual’s belief system (Gawronski, 2012). This inconsistency serves as an unambiguous indication that one’s beliefs must be updated to fix this error.

Because it’s about beliefs, cognitive dissonance theory is a great framework to use in Adventist evangelism.

Using Cognitive Dissonance in Persuasion

So let’s talk about that. How can we use cognitive dissonance in evangelism?

Researchers have looked at several tactics that can be applied in persuasion environments to leverage cognitive dissonance to change a belief (Carpenter, 2019). Let’s go through some of these and look at how they can be applied in the context of public evangelistic meetings.

Repetition

Repetition can lead individuals to change belief. One early study found that repeated exposure to incongruent information can increase cognitive dissonance, leading directly to belief change (Anderson, 1971). Another study found that people average various pieces of information (Anderson & Farkas, 1973). As inconsistent cognitions are introduced, cognitive dissonance grows, until a tipping point is reached. The new cognitions overwhelm the previous ones, resulting in a reduction of cognitive dissonance as a new belief is accepted due to the repeated exposure to this new information. Because of this, beliefs typically move in the direction of the new information being assimilated. As more information is processed, the weight of the belief is increased, making it harder to change in the future (Phillips, 2021).

Let me give an example from my experience. Back when I was in my 20s, I found myself listening to Rush Limbaugh every day. It didn’t take long before my political views move sharply conservative. Then I moved, and started listening to NPR every day on my commute. Guess what? After a few months I found my political views had become quite liberal. In both cases, as I was exposed repeatedly to a particular viewpoint, my beliefs shifted in the direction of the new information being assimilated.

Public evangelistic meetings are highly repetitive, with various cognitions building on previous ones. The series typically starts with an emphasis on the authority of Scripture, which is then repeated in every meeting. There is also repeated appeal in most meetings to the Lordship of Jesus, as revealed in Scripture, and participants are invited to step forward in obedience to Jesus repeatedly.

The difficult topics that present the most cognitive dissonance are presented later, after a lot of repetition of other consistent cognitions.

Valence

A cognition with a higher valence, or value, to a subject has more impact on increasing or decreasing the dissonance resulting from an inconsistent cognition (Chung & Fink, 2008). Several aspects of both the series environment and the presentation work to increase the valence of cognitions consistent with new beliefs introduced by the speaker.

First, the series topic itself offered value to participants. Bible prophecy is a complex topic requiring guidance from an expert, and there’s a lot of interest in it. Using Bible prophecy as the framework for teaching Bible doctrine increases the value of the resulting information presented.

Weight

The weight of each consistent cognition adds to the overall weight, leading to adoption of the new belief (Chung & Fink, 2008). So you can increase the weight of consonant cognitions to help someone adopt a new belief. For example, public evangelistic meetings focus on increasing the weight of scriptural authority. Because all these beliefs are based on the Bible, scriptural authority is the one cognition consistent with every new belief as it is introduced. Throughout the series, the Bible is put forth as the authoritative source of truth and therefore given tremendous weight.

Once a guest accepts this belief in the Bible, it becomes a cognition consistent with each new belief as it is introduced. Giving the Bible weight as a consistent cognition helps drive guests toward the adoption of each new belief.

Credibility

Early on, researchers looked at the role credibility played in cognitive dissonance. One study found that getting a discrepant message from a highly credible source produced higher dissonance discomfort than a similar message from a less credible source (Aronson et al., 1963). For example, if your doctor says you have high blood pressure and should cut down your sodium intake, this will create more cognitive dissonance than if your spouse says it. Essentially, the credibility of the source adds weight to the cognition delivered by that source, encouraging belief change (Phillips, 2021).

Several characteristics of evangelistic meetings work to raise the credibility of the speaker, thereby increasing the weight of new beliefs as they are introduced. Wearing a suit culturally indicates professionalism and authority. The speaker bio in marketing materials can raise credibility.

The environment itself can raise the credibility of the event in several ways. Consistent, high-quality graphic design in marketing pieces, the banner outside the church, and the large backdrop on stage raise credibility. A large mail piece printed in color on glossy paper implies a high-value event. Requesting that guests pre-register will make the event appear to have limited supply, raising its value (Lynn, 1991), and the registration table itself in the lobby can also raise the perceived value of the event. All these characteristics increase the credibility of the speaker and the event itself, thereby increasing the valence of each new belief that is presented.

Social Support

Studies have shown that social support for an inconsistent cognition increases dissonance, leading to an attitudinal change to reduce this discomfort (Lepper et al., 1970; Strobe & Diehl, 1981). In other words, social judgment increases the weight of the inconsistent cognition, driving toward a change in belief (McKimmie et al., 2003).

It appears that part of the power of public evangelistic meetings is the social support provided in this environment. Guests interact with several church members prior to even sitting down at the first meeting. There will often be “row hosts” assigned to various sections of the seating area whose task is to engage guests in conversation before and after each meeting, building a relationship. Repeated exposure to the same individuals leads to relational bonding (Littlejohn et al., 2021, p. 227), which in turn provides social support for belief change (McKimmie et al., 2003). Having both members and guests wear name badges will aid in this social bonding.

There is also a social aspect to the presentation itself. The speaker can ask a question of the audience, anticipating agreement. For example, you could ask, “How many of you think that we’d be better off if we believe the Bible?” and raise your hand as an example. When people in the audience raise their hands, too, it demonstrates widespread social support for the statement, which adds weight to that cognition.

Task Difficulty

Here’s one that is completely counterintuitive. The more effort someone puts into a task, the more valuable the resulting reward is perceived to be. In cognitive dissonance theory this is known as the effort-justification paradigm (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019, p. 7), and has been confirmed in numerous studies over the years. Requiring more effort to gain the benefit of a specific change in belief increases the value of that belief, and leads to a longer-lasting change.

One of the criticisms of public evangelism among Seventh-day Adventist members is the substantial time commitment required to participate. Yet for those who do participate, this very commitment raises the difficulty level of the task, which is found to decrease dissonance for cognitions related to that task. In addition, the Bible study guide provided to each guest at the conclusion of each meeting is homework that requires additional effort. The effort-justification paradigm suggests that participants who put more effort into the event will find more value in the resulting beliefs.

The long-term effect of this effort is a reduction in post-decisional dissonance, which will lead to higher retention of these new members in the church. In other words, if we want people to stay members after they join, we should be making things harder for them, not easier.

Freedom of Choice

Scholars have looked at the impact of “forced compliance” on cognitive dissonance (Joule & Azdia, 2003). When someone is forced to comply with a rule that is inconsistent with other cognitions, they have less dissonance about that behavior than if they freely chose to follow that rule. As a result, belief is more likely to change when there is freedom to choose that belief, rather than being forced by circumstances or authority.

This is an explanation for what happened in Nazi Germany, when people did things that were incongruent with their core beliefs. Because they felt forced to do these things, they had lower cognitive dissonance, which allowed them to move forward with these behaviors.

Throughout a public evangelistic series, freedom should be granted to each guest to make decisions on their own. While an environment is created conducive to acceptance of each belief that was introduced, compliance is not forced. This increases the dissonance discomfort of new beliefs, which will lead to the adoption of that new belief to reduce dissonance discomfort.

Reduced Media Exposure

I want to cycle back to the weight given to cognitions, and point out something else. Beliefs tend to move toward the new cognitions being integrated, and information integration shapes belief through the averaging of various pieces of information. Because of this, it is important to minimize exposure to cognitions that are inconsistent with each new belief being introduced.

Most television programs propagate a belief system inconsistent with our biblical perspective (Kidder & Penno, 2016). Because of this, minimizing exposure to such television programming will help reduce the weight of cognitions inconsistent with the new beliefs. Public evangelistic meetings occur multiple nights per week for several weeks. So one side effect of this structure is that media consumption is reduced. Participating in the meetings necessarily means guests are not watching television during that time. This reduces the weight of cognitions promoted by this TV programming, and allows the average of information being integrated to be weighted toward biblical belief.

Furthermore, the study guides and books offered at the end of each meeting reduces media exposure as well, because time spent studying and reading this material means less time for consuming other media.

Are you understanding what I’m saying? Public evangelistic meetings essentially require a media fast for several weeks, which has all kinds of benefits. For us, it means incongruent beliefs from television programs are not reinforced during this time period, and that leads toward belief change.

Summary

So these are the different ways specific tactics influence cognitive dissonance:

• Repetition
• Valence, or value
• The weight of cognitions
• Credibility
• Social support
• Task difficulty
• Freedom of choice versus forced compliance
• Reduced media exposure

Cognitive dissonance among participants in public evangelistic meetings appears to be tactically managed through many characteristics of these meetings. Researchers point out that as new information is integrated, it shapes belief through the averaging of various pieces of information (Anderson & Farkas, 1973). As inconsistent cognitions are introduced, cognitive dissonance grows, until a tipping point is reached. The new cognitions overwhelm the previous discrepant ones, resulting in a reduction of dissonance discomfort as a new belief is accepted due to the repeated exposure to this new information.

So the key here is not that you want to minimize cognitive dissonance in evangelism. That dissonance discomfort is the very thing motivating people to change their beliefs. Remember, the reason humans find cognitive dissonance to be so uncomfortable is that it implies mistakes in the individual’s belief system. Inconsistency serves as an unambiguous indication that one’s beliefs must be updated to fix this error. Dissonance discomfort is a powerful motivator for changing belief.

So it’s not that you want to minimize cognitive dissonance. What you want to minimize are cognitions that are incongruent with the new belief you’re introducing, and the way to do that is to emphasize cognitions that are consistent with that new belief. This is why emphasizing scriptural authority is so important in Adventist evangelism.

Innovation

Let’s end by talking about evangelistic innovation. Many of the characteristics of public evangelistic meetings would result in decreased effectiveness if removed from the method’s structure. For example, reducing the number of meetings lowers the information repetition and reduces the task difficulty, which would work against belief adoption. In addition, a shorter series would not reduce media exposure by the same amount, resulting in more weight given to cognitions inconsistent with Scripture. Through the Covid-19 shutdowns over the last two years, many churches attempted to hold public evangelistic meetings online, but found the effectiveness was reduced. Cognitive dissonance theory would predict this, due to the reduced social support participants receive in an online environment.

On the other hand, there are tweaks to public evangelistic methods which may increase effectiveness. For example, Steve Vail is the evangelist in the Carolina Conference. He has tested a seating arrangement with participants in table groups. Initial results have been promising, suggesting this has the potential to improve effectiveness by increasing social bonding between members and guests, resulting in higher social support for the new beliefs.

The belief framework of Seventh-day Adventist doctrines can lead to significant cognitive dissonance among people newly exposed to these beliefs. As we innovate evangelistic methods, it is important to ensure that cognitive dissonance is effectively managed throughout the process to drive toward belief change. Whether the innovation is evolutionary, with small tweaks to the method, or revolutionary, attempting wholly new approaches, we have to think about cognitive dissonance as we make these changes. The strategies for managing inconsistent cognitions and the resulting dissonance discomfort must be considered for the innovation to be effective.

Let’s go back to the original question. Why are we still doing public evangelistic meetings? Our denomination has used this evangelistic method for over 150 years. So why do we still use this method? I think by now the answer should be obvious. Cognitive dissonance theory shows that public evangelistic meetings are incredibly effective at helping a group of people adopt their new identity as Seventh-day Adventists.

Conclusion

As I’ve worked on this research and put this presentation together, I’ve realized how complicated this stuff is. So let me try to simplify it as I end.

You have to consider cognitive dissonance when you’re doing evangelism. If you pile on too much information that is incongruent with someone’s current belief structure, they’re going to just throw it all away. That’s the easiest way to deal with dissonance discomfort. But when you have an ongoing relationship with someone, it’s harder for them to just throw it away. And when you gently build that information, it gives the best chance for reaching that tipping point, where someone will change their belief because it’s the easiest path to reduce the dissonance discomfort.

Public evangelistic meetings are really effective at doing this, which is why the fastest growing Adventist churches in the NAD still include this as part of the evangelism cycle. The evangelism pyramid tells us that when built on the foundation of friendship, kindness and compassion projects, seed-sowing activities, and bridge events, a reaping series can be incredibly effective at introducing Bible Truth in a way that leads to lasting change in belief.

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At SermonView, we have a passion for ministry, and we’re nerds for marketing. We believe that church exists for those who are not yet part of it, so our passion is helping churches like yours reach people in your community who are ready to connect with you. We do that by helping you market your evangelistic events, and by finding people in your community ready to study the Bible with you. And we can also help you turn your church website into an evangelism engine.

The SermonView crew would love to help you market your next evangelistic event. Let us know if you’re planning a bridge event or reaping series and we’ll get you a quote for evangelism marketing.

References

Anderson, N. H. (1971). Integration theory and attitude change. Psychological Review, 78(3), 171–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030834

Anderson, N. H., & Farkas, A. J. (1973). New light on order effects in attitude change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(1), 88–93. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0035578

Aronson, E., Turner, J. A., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1963). Communicator credibility and communication discrepancy as determinants of opinion change. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045513

Carpenter, C. J. (2019). Cognitive dissonance, ego-involvement, and motivated reasoning. Annals of the International Communication Association, 43(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2018.1564881

Chung, S., & Fink, E. L. (2008). The cognitive dynamics of beliefs: The effect of information on message processing. Human Communication Research, 34(3), 477–504. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2008.00329.x

Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Row, Peterson.

Gawronski, B. (2012). Back to the future of dissonance theory: Cognitive consistency as a core motive. Social Cognition, 30(6), 652-668. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2012.30.6.652

General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. (2016). Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual (19th ed.). Review & Herald Publishing House. https://www.adventist.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/seventh-day-adventist-church-manual_2015_updated.pdf

Harmon-Jones, E., & Mills, J. (2019). An introduction to cognitive dissonance theory and an overview of current perspectives on the theory. In E. Harmon-Jones (Ed.), Cognitive dissonance: Reexamining a pivotal theory in psychology (2nd ed., pp. 3-24). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000135-001

Joule, R., & Azdia, T. (2003). Cognitive dissonance, double forced compliance, and commitment. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33(4), 565-571. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.165

Kidder, S. J., & Penno, D. K. (2016). A Christian perspective on watching secular TV programming. In W. H. Oliver & E. Oliver (Eds.), Healthy Families for Eternity (pp. 60-66). https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1144&context=pubs

Lepper, M. R., Zanna, M. P., & Abelson, R. P. (1970). Cognitive irreversibility in a dissonance-reduction situation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(2), 191-198. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0029819

Littlejohn, S. W., Foss, K. A., & Oetzel, J. G. (2021). Theories of human communication (12th ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.

Lynn, M. (1991). Scarcity effects on value: A quantitative review of the commodity theory literature. Psychology & Marketing, 8(1), 43-57. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.4220080105

McGrath, A. (2017). Dealing with dissonance: A review of cognitive dissonance reduction. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11(12), e12362-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12362

McKimmie, B. M., Terry, D. J., Hogg, M. A., Manstead, A. S. R., Spears, R., & Doosje, B. (2003). I’m a hypocrite, but so is everyone else: Group support and the reduction of cognitive dissonance. Group Dynamics, 7(3), 214-224. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2699.7.3.214

Phillips, C. L. D. (2021). Belief, affect, and cognitive dissonance during repeated information exposure: Testing the sequential information integration model [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Temple University]. TUScholarShare. https://scholarshare.temple.edu/handle/20.500.12613/6866

Stroebe, W., & Diehl, M. (1981). Conformity and counterattitudinal behavior: The effect of social support on attitude change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(5), 876-889. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.41.5.876

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Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

A couple of months ago, my daughter and I visited a college in Tennessee. She’s a high school junior and worship leader at our church, so we like to get out and visit other churches whenever we can and experience other church cultures. On this trip we were there all weekend, so we decided I would pick the church to attend on Sabbath morning, then she would pick a church to visit on Sunday morning, too. I wanted to experience worship at a regional church, while Zoey wanted to go someplace with a good contemporary worship band.

What’s the first thing we each did? A Google search, of course. And as we were searching online, I had this aha moment.

We’ve had a church home for many years, and I haven’t gone searching for a church to visit in a really long time. I had one shot to find the right church, to find the experience I wanted, and the primary means I had to find it was Google searches, leading to church websites.

As I looked at various church websites, I found that very few of them were actually communicating with me as a potential guest. I needed to know the basics:

• Time of service
• Location
• We were still in a Covid-19 wave, so I wanted to know the masking policy

But I also needed more than that. I was looking for a specific type of worship experience, and I had one shot. So I wanted to see a photo of the worship service. I also wanted to know how to dress to fit in with the culture of the church, so I wanted to see people in the congregation in addition to the worship team.

In the end, on Sabbath we visited the Orchard Park Adventist Church in Chattanooga. Now, I’m comfortable in church, but I have to admit, it’s intimidating walking through the doors of a new church for the first time. So getting to know that church a little better through their website helped me be a little more confident walking through those doors.

Same thing for my daughter. Both churches we visited clearly communicated the church culture through the design, content and visuals of the website. Again, we had one chance to find the church experience we sought, and that website was the primary way we got to know churches in the area.

Today we’re talking about church websites, but before I get into the tactics of an effective church website, let’s talk strategy for a moment.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

To understand what needs to go into an effective outreach website, let’s explore the psychology of church guests. In our last webinar, we talked about how God created humans with the innate need to belong to community, and one fundamental reason people come to a church event, whether it’s a worship service, a Bible study, or a community event, is because they are seeking to fulfill this fundamental need to belong. We are social creatures, and although church of course has a theological component, with a vertical relationship with God, church is fundamentally a social experience, featuring horizontal relationships between humans.

But humans are uncomfortable with uncertainty. When people think about walking through the doors of a strange church, filled with people they don’t know, this can cause anxiety. Today social anxiety is one of the chronic mental health challenges of this age, so we need to do whatever we can to lower the anxiety of our guests. The framework I want to suggest is called Uncertainty Reduction Theory.

Part of this anxiety is the uncertainty of how a social interaction will play out. A guest might wonder, if I don’t wear a tie will people treat me differently? Or what if I do wear a tie, but no one else is? Will people be talking in King James English, or using strange vocabulary I won’t understand? Will I be criticized because my clothes smell like cigarette smoke? Will I get cornered by someone trying to “save” me?
In a social setting, people are constantly assessing the environment and predicting how a conversation will flow, because uncertainty is uncomfortable.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory tells us there are several things people do to reduce uncertainty (Brashers 2007). When you meet someone for the first time, there is a cultural ritual we go through, and a big reason for that ritual is to reduce uncertainty. When I shake someone’s hand, look them in the eye and say, “Nice to meet you,” I’m reducing their uncertainty about how our interaction is going to go.

Okay, so what’s this got to do with church websites? Online research is another strategy people use to reduce uncertainty. The primary purpose of your website is to reduce your guest’s uncertainty. The pictures on the website should show people in the church environment, allowing the guest to pick up visual clues about the culture. What are they wearing? How are they interacting? The language on the site should reflect the culture of the church. If you’re a conservative church that uses the King James Version in your service, your website should reflect that. If you’re a church with a contemporary worship service, have a picture of the worship band to show the culture. The website should be authentic to the experience guests will have.

Let’s be clear: your church website IS communicating to guests. It says something about who you are and what you’re about. A lot of church websites are simply saying, we only care about our members, because the site is filled with bulletin announcements and insider speak. Or it doesn’t have anything specific about that local church, just a little something about Seventh-day Adventists in general. What does that communicate to guests who visit your website? Does it make them feel valued? Does it do anything to reduce their uncertainty?

The primary purpose of your website is to reduce your guest’s uncertainty. They should get a feel from your website of what they can expect to experience when they walk through the doors of your church.

What Goes into an Effective Church Website

Okay, enough theory. Let’s talk about what goes into an effective church website. Whenever you are creating a communication piece you want to think about who the audience is. Neil Gordon wrote, “Effective communication preferences the recipient over the sender,” so think about who your recipient is for your church website and what they need.

There are 3 primary audiences for your website: guests, members, and leaders. All 3 groups have unique needs, and they also share some needs, too.

Guests

Let’s talk about guests first. Guests are looking for answers to some basic questions:

• When do you meet?
• Where do you meet?
• How should I dress?
• What can I expect when I get there?
• How can I reach someone if I have a question?

For guests, your primary objective is reducing uncertainty. Communicate who you are, to help them decide if your church might be a good fit for their spiritual needs. Then give them a feel for what they can expect, to help lower the anxiety of walking through the doors of a strange place.

I believe church is meant for those who are not yet part of it, so your website should speak to them first.

Members

Now let’s talk about members. Most member questions have to do with upcoming events and activities.

• What was that thing coming up?
• When is that thing?
• Where is it happening?

Some other questions they might have include:

• What are some ministries that I can get involved in?
• Who do I contact to get involved?
• Can I give tithes and offerings online?
• Can I submit prayer requests or praises online?

Leaders

The last audience is your group of leaders at the church. The primary question leaders ask is about logistics and scheduling:

• Who is doing what this weekend?
• What was the decision we made about that thing?
• How are we doing financially?

For several years, my church’s website had a private login area with documents: board minutes, financial statements, the latest nominating committee report, the church directory. As a leader I found that incredibly helpful.

A church website can speak to all 3 audiences, but you have to be really careful about how you do it. Take a look at our demo website that I think balances this pretty well. Please note, this is not a real church, only a demonstration of how we believe an effective church website is structured: Prairie.church

Prairie.church Example

Some things to notice on this website’s homepage:

• Right at the top, it speaks to guests, with a prominent link to a page specifically for guests.
• There are lots of pictures that showcase the people and culture of the church.
• There are several ways someone can respond immediately, with links to submit prayer requests, praises, and kudos.
• For members, the schedule is prominently before the top section.
• A complete list of recurring weekly events is found at the bottom of every page, along with a map showing where the church is.

On the page for guests, there are several things to note:

• The primary purpose of this page is to reduce uncertainty for guests, so it goes into great detail about what to expect on a Sabbath morning.
• If your website is going to be evangelistic, you have to assume guests have no background with Adventist culture. So on this page some key phrases are explained, such as “Happy Sabbath,” “Sabbath School,” and “Sabbath School Quarterly.” This is intentional, so the guest is prepared to encounter terms when they visit.
• More photos reveal the culture of the church.

Roles in Building a Website

Let’s talk briefly about what’s required to actually create a website. This is true for any website at all, and it’s also true for church websites. There are four different roles that each must contribute to constructing an effective website. The first website I built was 27 years ago, for La Sierra University, and I’ve worked on literally hundreds of websites since then. What I’ve found is that for a website to have maximum effectiveness, all four of these roles must contribute to the end product:

1. Vision. Someone needs to articulate what the website is trying to accomplish and passionately drive the vision forward.
2. Technical skill. Someone needs to be able to handle setting up a hosting service and building the technical framework of the site.
3. Communication skill. Someone needs to be able to write the copy on the website in a way that communicates to your audience.
4. User experience, or design. This has to do with site navigation, buttons, and the photos and design elements that are used.

Most people can contribute to at least one role, sometimes two. There are a few really gifted people in the world that are capable of filling all four of these roles. HOWEVER, each role uses a different part of the brain, and transitioning between each role has a pretty high switching cost. Because of this, one person CANNOT fill all four of these roles concurrently. It’s just not possible. Believe me, I’ve tried. The only way it works is to spread it out over several days or weeks, working on one role at a time, then giving recovery space before working on a different role.

But really, the best websites are created by a team whose members each fill just one of these roles. That’s how we do it here at SermonView when we work on websites.

Using Google Ads to Get Seen

Okay, so you’ve got a relevant, up-to-date website that speaks to guests. That’s nice, but how do potential visitors find that website? Of course, they’ll find you on Google.

There are two ways your website can appear in a Google results list. One is what’s called an organic listing, and the other is paid advertising.

Organic Listings

Google builds its database of web pages by going out onto the internet and looking at every page it can find. Once a page is in its database, it checks back every few months to look for any changes. If a website has frequent changes, like a news site, it will check every few hours, or even every few minutes. But for a typical church website, Google updates it every few months.

The system looks at the content of each page and puts it in its database. Then, using a proprietary algorithm, it decides which websites to display for any given search, and decides in what order to show them. It considers your location, other websites you’ve visited, and your recent searches to try to ascertain what you’re actually looking for, then it gives you a list of websites that it thinks will be most relevant to you. It’s pretty amazing technology, because it happens really fast.

There are things as a website owner that you can do to make your website more friendly to search engines. This is called search engine optimization, or SEO. There are companies you can hire to help you optimize your website, using keywords, meta tags, and a bunch of other tricks. But it can take years for SEO work to make a difference, and even then it’s fragile. We’ve had websites with a #1 or #2 rank for a specific search suddenly drop to page 3 or 4 when Google updates its algorithm, which it does frequently.

If you can do it, great, but it takes considerable effort and ongoing attention to be successful. There are companies you can hire to handle SEO for you, but we’re seeing low-end SEO services costing $250 per month, $3,000 per year, and going up to $3,000 per month and beyond. They are expensive and none of them will guarantee results.

When we build a website here at SermonView, we think about SEO and make sure the content is SEO-friendly. But we don’t do active, ongoing search engine optimization ourselves, and we don’t recommend you put effort into it. The payoff just isn’t worth it for a church website.

Paid Advertising

So if SEO isn’t consistently effective, what can you do? That’s where Google advertising comes in. With Google Ads, you can bid for placement at the top of a particular search. You decide which keywords and phrases should trigger your ad, you can restrict it geographically, and you have full control over what that ad says. And because the searches related to your church are fairly specific and infrequent, this can be a really cost-effective way to get seen.

Some keywords you should advertise on include things like:

• Your church name
• Adventist church in your city name
• Adventist church near me
• Church near me
• Sabbath church near me
• Sabbath school near me
• Bible study near me

You should also have articles on your website about some specific Bible topics, then purchase advertising for relevant keywords that direct to these pages. For example:

• Sabbath
• What happens when you die
• Second coming
• Bible prophecy
• End time events
• Healthy living
• Body the temple of God

You can also purchase advertising on Google maps, so when someone searches on maps your listing comes up first. This is important, because 1 out of 8 Google searches are directly in Google Maps.

Now, if you were to hire a Google ad agency, you would pay similar rates as SEO. The cost starts at $300-500 per month just for the management fee and goes up from there, plus the actual Google advertising costs. But we’ve been able to get that cost much lower, which I’ll talk about in a minute.

Laura’s Story

So does advertising make a difference? Let me tell you about my friend Laura. She grew up Seventh-day Adventist but had gotten disconnected from church moving around as a young adult. She moved here to Vancouver, Washington, and shortly after that move decided to connect with a spiritual community. She searched “Bible study near me” on Google.

My church was running ads, and we showed up in Laura’s search results. The crazy thing was, she wasn’t even looking specifically for an Adventist church, she just wanted a Bible study. But there we were in the results, so she clicked through to our website. One thing led to another, and today she is fully engaged in the life of our church, serving on the Sabbath morning tech team and participating in a weekly Bible study group. I saw her just last Sabbath, launching a new young adult ministry with some of our other young church leaders.

Does a church website make a difference? Yes. Does advertising that website make a difference? Yes.

Laura found her church on Google.

Last month, over 100,000 people searched on Google for the phrase, “churches near me.” And over 50% of church attendees say that a church’s website is important in picking that church for a visit. Your website is the online welcome mat for the community, and it needs to speak to your guests.

SermonView’s Service

I know updating your church website is a big undertaking, on top of dealing with Google advertising and keeping the website up to date. Creating a website requires those 4 roles we talked about: vision, tech skill, communication, and user interface skills. It’s time and talent that most churches just don’t have. Hiring even a part-time person to handle this will cost you $15 to $20 thousand per year, and so will hiring an online agency to do it.

So let me tell you what SermonView will do for you.

Google Ads

First, we’ll create a localized Google ad campaign that covers the basic searches related to your church: variations of your church name, church near me, those types of searches. We’ll also make sure you’re placed correctly on Google maps and get that location information up to date, then include maps in the ad campaign. On top of that, we’ll cover some additional keywords, like Sabbath, what happens when you die, Bible prophecy and end time events, with these pointing to specific pages on your website with content related to the topics.

If you were to outsource this, the management fee alone would start at $3,600 per year, and could be as much as $10,000 per year. I know small businesses that spend over $1,000 a month, $12,000 per year, on Google advertising. This is all covered in our solution.

Website

But advertising only gets people to your website, and we’d like you to have a strong, guest-friendly website. So we’ll also build you a new website that’s focused on helping your guests reduce their uncertainty. Remember those 4 roles we talked about for building a website? We’ll guide you in discovering your vision for the website, help you with the communication role, then completely cover the technical skills and user interface. We’ll give your website a fresh new look that’s mobile-friendly. Plus, we’ll include features specifically for members and leaders, too.

If you were to hire a website company to create this type of site, it would run you $5,000 or more, and it would require you to help them understand the unique needs and vocabulary of a Seventh-day Adventist church. But we work with Adventist churches every day, and we’ll build this website for you as part of our program.

Hosting

Plus, because of our partnership with Adventist Church Connect, you’ll save money on website hosting. Quality, high-uptime hosting will cost you $500/yr or more, but the North American Division covers this cost for all Adventist Church Connect websites. Because our solution is built on ACC, your church doesn’t have to pay for any hosting costs.

Content management

With ACC, you’ll have access to make updates to your website anytime you want. But we’ve heard from a lot of churches that they don’t want to have to deal with this. So we’ll take care of content management for you. If you have a change you want to be made on the site, just let us know and we’ll do it for you. Send us your weekly bulletin, and we’ll put it on the website each week. Content management is included in our program.

Email management

On top of that, we’ll manage your email, too. We’ll set up your website domain to work for email, so you can have email addresses like pastor@oasislive.org, or secretary@oasislive.org. We’ll set up G Suite for Nonprofits for your church and manage your email system on your behalf. Need to add an email address for someone? Just let us know and we’ll take care of it for you.

Hiring a company to handle your email management could cost $3,000 or more per year, but we include it with our solution.

If you hired an employee part-time to do all this, it’s going to cost your church $15,000 – $20,000 per year, and even more if they’re proficient at it. You’ll have to manage them and direct their time usage, which can be a distraction for you.

Working with web agencies to handle this, you would pay $14,500 minimum for the first year, plus at least $9,500 per year after that. Besides this, you’ll have to manage the contractors and help them understand the unique needs of a Seventh-day Adventist church.

With SermonView’s Complete Plus Church Solution, we’ll handle all of it for less than the cost of hiring basic SEO services: $2,495 for the first year, then $1,995 each year after that. In addition, we’re focused on Adventist churches, so you don’t need to explain what Sabbath means, or why you want “Bible prophecy” as a keyword.

You’ll get Google advertising for your church name and churches near me, you’ll get advertising on Google maps, plus you’ll get additional keywords pointing to specific pages on your website. You’ll get a brand new, beautiful website focused on your guests, designed to reduce their uncertainty and draw them through your church doors. You’ll get free hosting through our partnership with Adventist Church Connect. Plus, we’ll handle content management for you, so you just send us the changes and we’ll handle it. And we’ll also manage your email system, so you can use the same domain for email as the church website.

All that for $2,495 for the first year, then $1,995 each year after that.

It’s a great program that we’re excited to be able to offer your church, and I hope you’re able to take advantage of it. To sign up, or to request more information from one of our campaign managers, visit EvangelismWebsites.com. Or you can call us at 800-525-5791.

I have a heart for the local church, and I’ve worked on hundreds of websites over the years, including many church websites. I’m just so excited that our crew has been able to put together this comprehensive solution for your local church that covers everything you need. Visit EvangelismWebsites.com, or call us at 800-525-5791.

Wrap up

That’s our webinar for today! The SermonView crew would love to help you turn your church website into an evangelistic engine that helps propel your mission forward. If you’d like to talk with someone about our church website services, please contact us, and someone from our team will reach out to you soon.

References

Brashers, D. E. (2007). A theory of communication and uncertainty management. Explaining communication: Contemporary theories and exemplars, 201-218.

Your website is the online welcome mat for the community. According to a recent study, 59% of church attendees say they browsed a church’s website before picking that church for a visit. And 36% decided not to attend a church because of what they found—or didn’t find—on the church’s website. So it’s not enough to simply have a website for your church. It needs to speak to your guests, those you want to attract through the doors of your church. 

First off, there are 3 things your church website must do to be most effective:

1. Reflect your culture. The design of your website, the photos, and the written content should all work together to reflect the culture of your church. The photos of your pastor and key ministry leaders should show some personality.
   
   
2. Encourage engagement. Remember, the purpose of your website is to draw people through the doors of your church. So make your calendar of events easy to find and accurate. Give people a way to contact you online. Point to your Facebook page. Help people know what to expect when they visit, to reduce some of the anxiety brought on by going someplace new.
   
   
3. Answer questions. When someone visits your website, it’s intentional. They have a reason for going to the website: to get directions, to see what time Sabbath School starts, to get the phone number of the church. So anticipate these questions and make it easy for guests to find answers.

So what questions should you answer on your church website? Think about the “5 W’s”:

Who are you? The website should reflect your church culture through the design, photos and written content. This should be 80% reflection and 20% aspirational, describing who you want to be.

You should also include photos and short bios about the pastor and key ministry leaders.

What do you do? Describe your ministries, both how you serve the community and how people serve the church. Make it clear how someone can get involved if they want.

Also include a section on what you believe.  Write a simple summary of your core believes, then link to the official 28 Fundamental Beliefs on the NAD website. Keep in mind, though, that guests care less about a statement of doctrine and more about who you are and why you do what you do.

When do you do it? Your website should have an event calendar that is kept up to date. Highlight public events where guests can engage with you church, in addition to internal meetings like church board. Make your website the central, authoritative source to communicate the church schedule.

Where do you do it? Put a map prominently on the website of where your church is located, along with a link to something like Google Maps so people can get directions. If a particular event is happening elsewhere, make that clear in the calendar event listing.

Why do you exist? You should have a short statement that describes your purpose. Whether you call it a vision statement or mission statement, make it prominent on the website.

There are people just like Laura in your community looking for a spiritual home, and your website is how they’ll find your church. So don’t let your church website be an afterthought, because it’s important for attracting guests. A little effort up front will make a huge difference in reaching people in your community.

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SermonView now offers a service to turn your church website into a powerful evangelistic tool. We’ll help you create a site that feels relevant, personal, and welcoming. Then we can help you get that website seen by people in your community searching for a church near you.

Ready to turn your church website into an evangelism engine? Call us today at 1-800-525-5791. We’d love to help!

Larry Witzel is founder and president of SermonView Evangelism Marketing.