Visiting EVERY Household

By: Gregory Holt

What impressed me most about the JDK&A method of fundraising is the importance of visiting every household during the Capital Campaign. Trained volunteer visitors select the households they wish to visit. Most of the time this will be fellow church members who they call their friends or recognize by name and wish to get to know the family better. Late into the campaign, volunteer visitors select households that have not yet been chosen and this provides an opportunity to meet new families who attend the church.

It all starts with the volunteer visitors selecting up to 10-12 households that they will:

Call
Schedule a time to visit
Make the visit and share information
Ask for their consideration in making a pledge
Follow-up promptly if necessary to obtain their pledge
Turn in the pledge card

Each Capital Campaign develops a Campaign Brochure that answers the who, what, why, when, where and how of the Capital Campaign Goals. When visiting a home, the Volunteer Visitors share from the brochure and tell the story. Everyone in the church hears the same story and in this way every household is receiving the same information. This can eliminate speculation and the spread of false information.

Home visits are simply friends sitting down with friends and exchanging conversation. It should be a comfortable and relaxed experience. Visits can take place in someone’s home, at a restaurant, over a cup of coffee, or even in a room at the church before or after a worship service. Visits usually take 30 minutes to an hour, depending upon how much small talk there is.

Once the EVERY home visitation gets rolling, it creates an excitement and unity within the congregation as they come together to reach a common goal. As testimonials are shared, new relationships are developed, there is a genuine caring and sharing for one another- it’s almost like having a revival. Worship services are a time of celebration not only in the Faith but in the unity of spirit knowing that the church is moving toward what God has called it to do.

For most churches, having a goal of visiting every household within a relatively short period- of- time would be looked at as an impossible task. But with a JDK&A resident campaign consultant organizing and coordinating the visitation program it will and can be accomplished. Visiting 100% of the households is an achievement that many churches have never accomplished in the history of the church.

A wise minister once told me, “If you want something you have never had, you have to do something you have never done.”