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By John M. De Marco
PORT ORANGE — In an age when residents are more fed up than ever
with telemarketing and solicitation calls, one church here has beaten
the odds through the use of such a communications medium.
Covenant United Methodist Church has welcomed numerous visitors
during the past month through use of a short, automated telephone
survey that engages a person’s spiritual interests without
proselytizing or pressuring. Seventeen out of 217 individuals who
responded to the full survey attended the church at least once, with
some coming back and bringing other visitors.
The surveys are supervised by church member Mike Ellis, whose
Ormond Beach-based company, The Broadcast Team, provides computerized
telemarketing services for a variety of industries, including churches
spread across the country. Covenant’s senior pastor, the Rev. Paul
Pollock, learned of The Broadcast Team’s efforts and became curious
about whether Covenant could utilize Ellis’ skills.
“Once we saw the possibilities, he [Ellis] said he felt God laid
it on his heart to do it for us for free,” Pollock said. “They did
it as a test program. So far, I’ve done absolutely zero except for
provide encouragement.”
Pollock said Ellis asked him to describe the demographic group the
survey should reach. They decided to target 30- to 55-year-old married
individuals and came up with 13,500 phone numbers. The Broadcast Team’s
computers then dialed each of these numbers across four hours using an
automated voice. Call recipients are asked to respond by pressing one
for “yes” and two for “no.”
“The nice thing is that people respond only if they want to in
the first four seconds of the phone call,” Pollock noted. “They
ask if you want to participate in a survey regarding your attendance
at church.”
If individuals respond affirmatively to this first question, the
caller then asks if the person currently attends church. The automated
caller then asks if the person is interested in finding a church in
his or her area. Finally, further information on a church in the area
is offered. A total of 4,000 individuals began the survey, and 217
responded to all three survey questions.
“It’s very efficient. It just sort of cuts to the chase,”
Pollock added. “What that would take for us to knock on doors or do
direct mailings would be time or cost prohibitive.”
Ellis and other laity did personal follow-up with the 17
individuals who attended Covenant after taking the survey, even
meeting them at the church once they knew who would be visiting. Two
of those individuals surveyed were Paula and Doug Fike, who three
years earlier had attended Covenant, but had not been to any church
since then. Before the phone call, Paula Fike said she had been
thinking about returning to Covenant.
“We were having dinner and the phone rang,” she said. “It was
a survey, and the survey did not say it was Covenant…my family could
not believe I was doing a survey during dinner time—I’m the one
always saying solicitors should not bother us during the dinner hour.
This was no coincidence; it was amazing.”
Fike said she has been impressed by the diligence Ellis has shown
in following up with those who were surveyed and helping them become a
part of Covenant. Fike visited the church by herself the first Sunday
she returned, and a woman immediately noticed that she was alone and
introduced her to an elderly couple close by.
“When you walk in there, you can just feel the Holy Spirit in
that church. When God really moves, I think it stirs people. It stirs
people physically and mentally,” she said. Fike then returned with
her husband, and the couple has brought a friend several times and
invited others.
Part of Covenant’s efforts to assimilate visitors includes a
welcome class that takes place five times per year and incorporates
the Network spiritual gift assessment designed by Willow Creek
Community Church near Chicago. Near the end of the class Pollock
emphasizes that Covenant is not seeking new members, but disciples.
“We spend 70 percent of the time talking about who Jesus is, and
what it means to accept him as Savior and Lord,” Pollock said. “By
the time they go through this class, most people decide whether to
stay or go.”
Pollock is the founding pastor of Covenant, which launched 14 years
ago and averages 400 individuals in worship. The church currently
plans to build a new sanctuary.
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