East 91st Street Christian Church has almost 5,000 members and is growing. They can’t seem to build new buildings or shuttle people in from off-campus parking lots fast enough.
E91’s services are great, but the preaching is not so dynamic that it can draw 5,000 on its own. So what is causing such a population explosion in this congregation?
Community foundation expert, Brian Payne, told me that to create leveraged growth, your business must serve a bigger purpose within the context of the community. He used to run a community theater in LA. Instead of just putting on high quality theater productions, he hosted summer camps, neighborhood meetings, acting classes, and after school classes. As soon as he added these extra offerings, ticket sales climbed, and the revenue of the theater skyrocketed, because they had more value to the community than just a hum-drum play.
The same thing is happening at E91. This church has become an integral part of the community though childhood education, marriage counseling, after school care programs, music education, and a litany of other programs that have nothing to do with directly spreading the gospel – which is a good thing.
If you would like your business to grow through exponential leverage, think of what ways you can offer services to the community that makes what you do bigger than your basic product offerings.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a business development strategy and implementation expert, and the President of Rainmakers Marketing Group. Click to learn more about Creating a Word of Mouth Marketing Machine.