Whether you're a pastor or elder for a church, a principal or teacher running a school, or serving as a volunteer for the website, growing your community is about more than strategy — it's about connecting with people and helping them feel welcome and invited in. Think of it as a path/funnel that guides someone from "just visiting" to "part of the family." With Frame as part of your digital ministry, here's why walking alongside people matters:
Reaching the Right People: A little intentionality helps ensure your message reaches the families, students, and neighbors most likely to engage.
Making the Most of What You Have: Once you know what's working, you can spend your time and outreach budget on the things that make the biggest difference.
Building a Sense of Belonging: Every step someone takes toward your church or school is a step toward belonging — whether that's a church family or a Christian education for their children.
Growing a Community
1. Say Hello (Awareness Stage)
A Welcoming Website: Your Frame website is often someone's first impression of your church or school, so it's worth making it a good one. Keep it easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and clear about who you are.
Share Your Story: Blog posts, photos, videos, and social media are great ways to show your community's personality — sermons, events and ministry moments for churches, or classroom stories, Bible focused studies, and student life for schools.
Help People Find You: A few thoughtful keywords (also called SEO, SEO Basics) go a long way in helping families searching for "church near me" or "Adventist school enrollment" find their way to you.
2. Spark Some Interest
Offer Something Helpful: A devotional guide, an event invite, bible studies, VBS, an enrollment packet, school tour schedule, or open house details. Adding forms for "prayer request" or "Contact Us" are great ways to say "we'd love to connect" while gathering contact info along the way.
Show Up and Engage: Replying to comments, joining a livestream, or sending a personal message builds trust over time.
3. Nurture the Relationship
Stay in Touch with Email: A short series of emails sharing good news, upcoming events, and ways to get involved keeps your community feeling included.
Speak to Each Audience: New visitors, prospective parents, alumni, and longtime members all have different needs — a little personalization shows you understand them.
4. Make It Easy to Say Yes
Give People a Clear Next Step: Clear, visible calls-to-action like "Join Us This Sabbath," "Schedule a Tour," "Enroll Now," or "Donate Today" make it simple for people to act.
Keep It Simple: Whether someone's signing up, donating, registering, or enrolling, the fewer steps involved, the better. Nobody should feel discouraged by a complicated process or struggle to find the information they are looking for.
Multiple Opportunities: Add visible calls-to-action across different pages to guide visitors to where they need to go next (for example, link on the Welcome page to your Contact Us page to fill out a form, then do the same from "About Us" to "Contact Us"). Buttons or photos both work great for this!
Provide Context: When creating these interactions make sure to have context for each one to give a clear reason for that call-to-action.
Checking In and Growing Together
A little reflection helps everything grow better over time:
Check the Numbers: Tools like Frame's secure, built-in analytics can show you how visitors are finding and using your site. (For now, to access this, please contact support.)
Ask and Listen: Check in with your congregation, families, or students from time to time — their feedback is valuable in helping you improve.
Keep Growing: Stay open to trying new things based on what you learn. A little flexibility goes a long way toward serving your community well.
Keep Content Current: Visit your site often to make sure everything stays up to date and relevant.
Takeaways
You website is the first impression that a visitor has of your church or school. Consider making that first visit welcoming, purposeful and inviting one. It's about connecting with people and helping them feel welcome and invited in.
Using the techniques can help build and create friendships between your community and your church or school.
Your website can be a tool to engage people through call-to-action that are easy to use for a visitor.
Keep your content current and relevant.