ServiceUniverse

What’s the true purpose of hosting special church events — to spiritually feed the congregation, or to entice new visitors to come to your church to spread the gospel?

The answer is both.

Church events have many purposes. They encourage existing members, draw inactive members into the Body of Christ, help develop new Christians through worship, and attract new people to your church to share the gospel and save souls.

One goal you can be sure your church isn’t trying to accomplish, however, is frustrating ticket buyers by taking up too much of their time getting the tickets in the first place.

Many church leaders mean well when planning and holding events like Christmas productions, drama programs, youth auctions, concerts and more; unfortunately, they often don’t consider that the process of standing in line after church on Sunday to purchase admission might be sending people home early instead of selling more tickets.

If you’re like me, you have lots of responsibilities on a Sunday morning — you’ve got to pick up the kids from childcare, work a shift in the nursery, drop off a bag of canned goods in the lobby for the homeless shelter, and maybe even pick up a copy of the sermon on CD to listen to during the week. I rarely have time to stand in line to buy tickets for an upcoming concert advertised from the pulpit, even if I wanted to.

A Virtual Solution

Online ticketing is one of the best ways to overcome this hurdle. Sure, it’s important to still set up a table in the lobby, or to put a notice in the church bulletin; but if churchgoers like me could order tickets online, it would provide greater flexibility and more access to ticketed events.

Many church leaders are realizing that online ticketing is the way to go. With so many services being offered on the Web for churches and their members — management software, donation tools, event registration and more — technology tools are once again making all things church-related more efficient.

For First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., online ticketing has been a way of life for the past year. “We use a strategy — Partners on Purpose [POP] — to seek people with intentionality,” explains Toni Hamilton, minister of community involvement. For example, FBC Lauderdale held its Women’s Connection Conference in January and used online ticking for this event for the first time.

“By making it possible to purchase tickets online, our members can invite friends at the last minute and still purchase tickets easily and print them out at home,” Hamilton says. “This makes outreach much for possible because people can be invited at the last minute.”

At the women’s conference, Hamilton ran into dozens of people who came with friends because they were able to register online. “The whole online ticketing process makes people feel like they’re going to a very professional event,” she says. “The tickets look very legitimate and give the impression that you don’t want to miss this event. Overall, online ticketing is a huge support to all our outreach efforts.”

Perhaps the most dramatic development has been for the church’s heralded Fort Lauderdale Christmas Pageant.

During the first years of the pageant, patrons began lining up overnight so they could be first in line to purchase tickets at the opening day. In addition to the inherent difficulties of purchasing tickets in person, the process excluded many participants who just weren’t able to wait in line all night.

Now, however, potential audience members simply access the church’s ticket database at www.christmastickets.com and select their seats from the comfort of their homes. Last year, more than 50,000 people went to the Christmas pageant, and the vast majority bought and printed their tickets online.

When Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir performed two worship concerts at the church last year, audience members came from all over the world. Whether concertgoers lived in New York or New Delhi, they were able to purchase tickets for the event via the Web.

It used to be that if you waited until the last few days before a church event, either you couldn’t get there in time to get the tickets, or the church office was closed, or the event was sold out. Online ticketing remedies each issue by allowing people to buy and print e-tickets from any Internet connection anywhere.

“Our seniors are also benefiting greatly from the ability to purchase tickets online,” Hamilton says. “For some of them, getting out of the house just isn’t possible. Many of our seniors have access to the Internet and purchase tickets and register for events online.

“We’re finding that our seniors are becoming more interested in technology tools than we thought they would be,” she adds. “Now they’re getting out more and able to come to more events.”

Online ticketing can even cut costs by reducing postage fees to mail tickets. It can also reduce the need to have volunteers on hand to sell tickets on Sunday, and it cuts down the administrative load of manually processing payments.

But Wait — There’s More!

Another great aspect of using online ticketing for outreach is the follow-up capabilities your church has once someone buys a ticket. For FBC Fort Lauderdale, this is one of the main ways leaders communicate with new people and encourage them to attend worship services and other events.

When people buy tickets online, they enter their e-mail addresses and check whether or not they would be interested in other events. At the event, the church hands out survey cards to further determine interest levels and is able to communicate with the visitors according to each person’s needs and wishes.

“Because of the way the online ticket engine captures data, we have the ability to download new people into our system and increase the size of prospect database,” Hamilton adds. “This is a truly valuable feature of online ticketing that we didn’t have before.”

Churches might also consider selling reserved seating for larger events. While tickets can be a powerful tool for outreach, a general admission ticket is anonymous. A prospect might accept tickets to be polite, with no intention of attending.

A reserved seat, on the other hand, creates a deeper commitment: the prospect knows that that seat will be empty if he or she doesn’t attend. Reserved seating also eliminates the hassles of finding a seat or meeting a friend.

Many online ticketing programs offer the ability to allow buyers to choose a delivery option — e-ticket, mailed ticket, will-call or on-hold. For reserved seats and general admission, some systems show color-coded seating charts online that make it easier to choose seating arrangements.

Another important component of an online ticketing program is a Web-based program that easily integrates with your church website.

Overall, providing a way for event-goers to buy tickets online is a surefire way to increase traffic to your website and generate interest in your church — not to mention sell out the event and attract new people through all your outreach efforts.