About Anderson SDA Church

Since 1884, Anderson SDA Church continues to work diligently to help families in their community to live more abundantly through Jesus.

Beliefs:

We believe that God Loves, Creates, Redeems, Inhabits, Transforms, and Triumphs.

Website:

https://www.andersonsdachurch.com/

Address:
1122 W 8th Street
Anderson, IN 46011

THE OPPORTUNITY

When COVID-19 struck with unpredictable devastation, it caught the world completely unprepared. Anderson SDA Church was no exception. When church leadership made the decision to pause in-person services to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, everything had to change ... and quickly.

The challenge of not meeting in person quickly surfaced a number of obstacles for staying connected to Anderson SDA Church’s congregation and the community.

Communication

When your primary mode of communication is through in-person announcements or a printed bulletin passed out during church service and then you suddenly stop meeting in person, staying connected becomes an enormous challenge.

Evangelism

How do you develop personal relationships with individuals who you can’t meet with or study the Bible with in person? “We were in the middle of several outreach programs that had been done in person. The Anderson SDA Church Board wanted to find a way to keep people engaged,” said Brent Schalk, Anderson SDA Church Head Elder.

Tithe & Offering

When you have previously collected tithe and offering in person and then must switch to a virtual world, it creates an obstacle.

We were in the middle of several outreach programs that had been done in person. The Anderson SDA Church Board wanted to find a way to keep people engaged.

Brent Schalk

Head Elder | Anderson SDA Church

THE ANSWER

“As we began to try to put all the pieces together, providentially the Anderson SDA Church Board began to work with Chris Dellen, a member who leads Rethinking Evangelism®,” said Brent Schalk.

Rethinking Evangelism^® quickly began mapping out a strategy to modernize the way Anderson SDA Church stays connected to its congregation and community in completely new and different ways.

As we began to try to put all the pieces together, providentially the Anderson SDA Church Board began to work with Chris Dellen, a member who leads Rethinking Evangelism®.

Brent Schalk

Head Elder | Anderson SDA Church

The Journey

The first step was setting up the right foundational technologies where needed. When it was impossible for Anderson SDA Church to meet in person or use printed weekly bulletins to stay connected with the congregation, the church had to switch from “analog” communications to “digital” communications. “I am not an expert on this type of technology, but the Rethinking Evangelism^® team is,'' said Brent Schalk.

Implement HubSpot CRM

This first step was to implement a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. This is a powerful, cloud-based database that organizes and segments all the individuals that Anderson SDA Church desires to communicate with. Rethinking Evangelism^® worked closely with church leadership to collect members' contact information and organize it in HubSpot. In addition, Rethinking Evangelism^® worked to collect all known contacts who had previously responded to Evangelism and outreach efforts and organized them in HubSpot CRM. Over time, HubSpot CRM has become Anderson SDA Church’s Modern Evangelism Engine.

Develop and Maintain a Consistent Identity (brand)

While often overlooked by churches, developing and maintaining a consistent identity is critical to long-term success, especially in a “virtual world.” In the corporate world, we would refer to this as a “brand.” Some think of this as simply a logo, but in reality, it is much more than that. Every piece of content that a church produces should reinforce and build upon everything an individual has seen previously from that church. Rethinking Evangelism^® has taken a very deliberate approach with Anderson SDA Church to build a consistent “look and feel” (logo, color scheme, fonts, word usage and more) into every piece of content that is produced (emails, webpages, Facebook posts, outreach efforts, ads, etc.).

Implement Integrated Digital Communication Channels with CRM

Modern Marketing Email Platform: Rethinking Evangelism^® developed a responsive, branded email marketing template that is being used twice a week as a personalized invitation to Prayer Meeting, Friday Vespers and Church Service for both members and every individual who has responded to previous Evangelism efforts.

Text Messaging (SMS)

Text messages are a personal and immediate form of communication. Rethinking Evangelism^® implemented a text messaging platform for Anderson SDA Church, which is used to invite individuals to weekly Church Service. In addition, Rethinking Evangelism^® integrated the text messaging platform with the CRM to store all past text messages within an individual’s database record.

Integrated Social Campaigns

With the guidance of Rethinking Evangelism^®, Anderson SDA Church launched a number of targeted Social Media advertising campaigns in the community. Every time an individual responds to a campaign, they are automatically added to Anderson SDA Church's CRM and enrolled in a number of continuous weekly outreach efforts.

Website

Rethinking Evangelism^® integrated Anderson SDA Church’s website with HubSpot CRM. This helps provide insight on the topics, sermons and content that individuals are interacting with, which can be used to proactively reach out to interested individuals in the future.

Online Forms

Rethinking Evangelism^® helped Anderson SDA Church launch a number of forms on their website for individuals, including submitting prayer requests, contacting church leadership or even requesting specific information on an individual sermon. This information is automatically added to Anderson SDA Church’s database. Furthermore, if the contact is new, the individual is immediately added to future weekly communications and outreach initiatives.

Automated Bible Study Scheduling

In a virtual world, making it easy for individuals to schedule a Bible study was very important to Anderson SDA Church and their Bible Worker. Rethinking Evangelism^® helped integrate HubSpot CRM, Zoom and the Bible Worker’s calendar to allow individuals to easily schedule a one-on-one Bible study.

New Website

With the increased focus on “virtual engagement” and a desire to create an engaging experience online, Rethinking Evangelism^® created a new website that is optimized for both desktop computers and the mobile experience. It was created in order to host Anderson SDA Church’s online content in a way that is more engaging, immersive and optimized for search engines.

Follow-Up Tasks / Processes

It is challenging for any organization to keep track of hundreds of individuals and follow up in a way that is personal, timely and measured. This is especially true for church leadership who are constantly balancing a multitude of priorities. Rethinking Evangelism^® implemented a series of automated follow-up plans and communications for individuals who respond to different outreach efforts, making it easy for Anderson’s Evangelism team to efficiently and personally contact each interested individual.

Rethinking Evangelism® has revolutionized the way I track guest relations and has made connecting with guests easier and more efficient.

Pastor Anthony Nix

Pastor | Anderson SDA Church

★★★★★

Orchestrating the Weekly Cycle of Outreach

It’s never been easier to stay in touch with a large group of individuals in a personal way. Rethinking Evangelism^® has helped Anderson SDA Church implement a repeatable weekly cycle of outreach communications to its ever-growing database of contacts. This cycle includes specific emails and text messages, inviting literally hundreds of people to tune in to its livestream or even attend church–every single week.

Analytics

A familiar adage reminds us, “You can’t improve what you can’t measure.” This is even more important in a time when you can’t “see” if someone that you invited to church actually comes or not. Rethinking Evangelism^® has implemented a number of metrics that are reported to the Church Board on a monthly basis, detailing what is working and what isn’t. This helps improve and refine the overall impact of their modern evangelism efforts.

RESULTS

Within six months of Rethinking Evangelism^® working with Anderson SDA Church, the church’s database grew to over 1,000 contacts. Its social followership is growing at a rate of 8.8x faster than it was previous to working with Rethinking Evangelism^®.

Lastly, even after Anderson SDA Church resumed in-person service, its livestream viewership has grown 29x. “Rethinking Evangelism^® has revolutionized the way I track guest relations and has made connecting with guests easier and more efficient,” said Pastor Anthony Nix.

Anderson SDA Church is consistently reaching more people in its community more often and in more ways than ever before. And it’s working. Brent Schalk shared, “What looked like a big setback turned out to be a blessing, drawing more interest. If any church needs help in these areas, I would recommend a consultation with Rethinking Evangelism^®!”

What looked like a big setback turned out to be a blessing, drawing more interest. If any church needs help in these areas, I would recommend a consultation with Rethinking Evangelism!

Brent Schalk

Head Elder | Anderson SDA Church

★★★★★

Success Stories

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Success Story

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About Anderson SDA Church

THE OPPORTUNITY

Communication

Evangelism

Tithe & Offering

Brent Schalk

Head Elder | Anderson SDA Church

THE ANSWER

Brent Schalk

Head Elder | Anderson SDA Church

The Journey

Implement HubSpot CRM

Develop and Maintain a Consistent Identity (brand)

Implement Integrated Digital Communication Channels with CRM

Text Messaging (SMS)

Integrated Social Campaigns

Website

Online Forms

Automated Bible Study Scheduling

New Website

Desktop Website

Mobile Website

Pastor Anthony Nix

Pastor | Anderson SDA Church

Website

Website Traffic

RESULTS

Brent Schalk

Head Elder | Anderson SDA Church

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Why is a Consistent Online Identity Crucial for Churches?

A Rethinking Evangelism^®