If you focus on the top of the funnel, you might be digging a hole

The Funnel Isn't Just a Cake You Get at the Fair

In sales and marketing circles, there is such thing as a funnel.

You know what the funnel is without having to follow the link.

We see the funnel when a ministry team member (the narrow end of bottom of the funnel) says: We obviously need to get more people involved or we have to get the word out there or hey the announcement wasn't in the bulletin.  These are ideas directed at the top of the funnel.

The top of the funnel is Attention.  This is the advertising end of the funnel.

In between is Interest.  This for us would be the Constant Contact clicks or the phone calls or emails we receive from the "for more information, contact ________________" part of the attention piece.

Then the next step is Desire.  This is when the person signs up or joins, or makes an appointment to pitch the fundraiser or collection drive.

And then there is Action.  This would be when the person buys something in the business funnel, so for us maybe this could be when they show up at the event or when they take on the chair position or in some way "own" the ministry.

So:

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

 This is a top down approach like pouring into a funnel.

The Flip Might Not Be Dead After All

There's been talk of flipping the funnel.

So what we would do is spend a much greater amount of time on the action.  We would focus on the ones in the leadership, active ministry phase.  We would have the 20% percent who do the 80% over for dinner to our house.  We would meet with them for no good reason.  Have coffee.  Send them handwritten notes.  Make sure the bulletin articles got in the bulletin for their sake.  To keep them engaged without regard to the attention thing.  And then these action groups would create desire in the interested and out of that would come lots of attention.
                                                                                    

This is a inside out approach like amplifying your voice through a flipped funnel (which would kind of be a megaphone).

We mostly go top down funnel instead of inside out megaphone.

This is the church.  Our stuff is important.  Come to it.

Rather than, Hey watcha doing?

Why is that?

What Does Oscar Wilde Know About Ministry?

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde.

There is only one thing worse than not getting anyone involved to the depths of your ministry:
Getting someone involved in the depths of your ministry.

We are afraid of what they will find out.

That really I don't know the answers or I'm really not that interesting or people don't really want to change.

It reminded me recently as I spoke about it of a guy who was given something important that he was to take good care of and that others were multiplying.

And he just dug a hole and buried it.

Not because the guy who gave it to him was a hard man or that he was afraid of losing it and being punished.

He dug a hole and buried it because spending so much time trying to get people who weren't interested in it kept the people who were living it from changing who he already was.