THE MODEL
The Vision The vision of ItsJesus.com is to saturate an entire area with the good news of Jesus. A series of 6 different flyer designs clearly communicate the gospel around the theme ItsJesus.com (please see example in this pack). Local churches across an area (be that a village / town or city) distribute these flyers into their local community over a 6-month period. Not only does this communicate the gospel message, it gets our churches out in their locality, praying and being a visible witness. Churches may choose to work independently or alongside other churches in their locality to cover a particular area. The flyers work best when supported by church roadside posters, advertising billboards, adverts on buses, car stickers, and newspaper adverts. The ItsJesus.com website is a place people can explore Jesus further and be signposted to local participating churches. The whole initiative is usually launched at a celebration event in the area taking part. This initiative will benefit your church as members are mobilised for evangelism, and it has been proven to engage those currently beyond the reach of our churches.
Costing We have worked hard to keep the costs to run ItsJesus.com as low as possible. The costs below are to give you a guide we can give you a more accurate price when you know the details of what you would like to do. Item Per Design Total Cost 1,000 A5 flyers 30 180 1 A0 poster 20 120 1 2x8ft Outdoor banner 30 180 15 Bus adverts for 1 month 2,000 In order to keep costs as low as possible and to maintain the standards of branding, publicity must be ordered through MJK In order for the project to be as fruitful as possible you will need a team of people committed to the initiative. To give you an idea of time commitment it takes an average of 4-5 hours to deliver 1,000 leaflets. You will also need an area co-ordinator to administer the project and liaise with those taking part. We suggest this will take one day a week of your time.
Tried and Tested From October 2014 through to Easter 2015 Churches in Oldham partnered together to run the ItsJesus.com initiative. 30 churches took part in the initiative Over 350 came to the launch event 280,000 leaflets were delivered into homes during the 6 months 60 buses carried the ItsJesus.com adverts 2 billboards displayed the messages 3 adverts on the front page of the local paper (daily readership of 16,000) 89 Posters displayed each month around the Borough 6 large scale banners outside churches each month 250 came to the outreach event at the end of the project 35 made a response (including 18 first time commitments) 18 people called the ItsJesus.com office during the initiative and were linked up with local churches 2,400 people visited the ItsJesus.com website over the 6 month period
How could it work for you? Each area is obviously very different, below are some scenarios that may be similar to your situation to give you an idea of how the project could look. In order to have maximum impact we would suggest you consider the following forms of advertising in these circumstances: A single church Banner Outside Church Posters in church members home windows Flyers through local residential areas A small town Banner Outside Churches Posters in church members home windows Flyers through local residential areas Advert in the local newspaper Billboards A large city Banner Outside Churches Posters in church members home windows Flyers (depending on capacity to get them delivered) Advert in the local newspaper Billboards Bus Adverts Car Stickers If you are interested in running the ItsJesus.com initiative we suggest you contact us to discuss it in more detail: Email: info@itsjesus.com Phone: 0161 6332421
Stories from Oldham There were many great stories from the Oldham initiative, below is just a sample: Exterian Bus Advertising Company: Responding to the many emails from Oldham residents. Wow, Incredible, We have never had anything like this before! I just cried in my weetabix! Can't believe the positive response to this campaign, it's unreal! Local Oldham church: Last Night we joined Oldham to start the God knows You campaign and have already had a lady get in touch with us and is coming to church!! John Rosedale, Saddleworth team vicar: I visited a lady who you put me in contact with. She desperately wanted to know that God did know her, that was her question Does God really know me more than I know myself? I guided her through creation into Psalm 139 to Jesus. She has promised to read Psalm 139 in her own Bible and to read the booklet Why Jesus that I left with her. I would not have had this contact without Itsjesus.com. Mark, All Nations Church: When we delivered the leaflets, we had 5 teams of 2 people, and we had a great time. Within the first minute my wife and I were praying for one lady with high blood pressure, and had a wonderful time talking to a couple on their doorstep later on. The mother said she believes in God, but the father wasn t so sure. This was because he had survived cancer and 3 strokes (the last one only a few months ago). But after I gave a testimony of some miracles and asking him whether I could pray for him, he stood up and said if you think it will help. Prayed for full recovery of speech, full mobility and full health. I will definitely contact him again to see how he is doing. Overall we distributed about 1,000 leaflets and covered about two thirds of the area we volunteered. Tonight I will be mobilising some people to complete it in the next few days. Gordon Roscoe, East Oldham Methodist: It has been great, most of the people in our church taking part have never been involved in evangelism before.
Local businesswoman: One Friday afternoon I had a rubbish meeting with Oldham Council, totally dashing my dreams for a vision I believe God had given me for a new community project. Standing outside the building with tears running down my cheeks, questioning if God really does get me, and what I want to do for him really came from him, I looked up and saw a double decker bus drive by. On the side in the brightest yellow I saw the words God knows YOU. My fiance and I literally had to take a double take. What an answer to a prayer I hadn t even managed to pray yet. God was with me in Oldham Council, in fact he was with me and he knew my heart right from the get go... It s human to need a reminder sometimes I think, I m just lucky it was right in front of me on the number 22! Local residents who phoned the ItsJesus.com office: A man called asking for more details. We arranged for the man to meet with the local Christian who had dropped the leaflet through his door. They had a good time discussing faith and prayed with him. They have since seen him several times for ongoing spiritual discussions. A lady rang wanting to find out more. We arranged for her to meet up with a local church member for coffee. She went to church that week and has started going to the weekly small group. A man called after he had seen a poster and was desperate to meet someone as feeling suicidal. Two local church members met with him that night and he surrendered his life to Jesus. A few days later he text it s incredible, I feel great it s a miracle. I look forward to the future with the plan God has got for me. A man rang who used to go to church. He and his mum had cancer but lost their faith. We directed him to meet with two local Christians they reported that he is clearly on a journey towards God. He has since been to church with one of the guys he met up with. A man rang the office wanting to know more about the initiative. He had recently been released from prison and had met Jesus whilst serving time. He said he had been radically transformed and is looking for a local church. We were able to put him in contact with a local church who met with him and have connected him into church life.
Comments from volunteers: One of our volunteers rang the office and said that last month she visited a house to post a flyer and an ambulance was there taking away the husband. She stayed with the wife and offered to help in any way and pray for the situation. The next time she delivered the following flyer the husband answered the door and said that the condition had cleared by the time he was taken to the operating table. The volunteer shared about God s healing power and both the husband and wife are very open. An opportunity which would not have been there if it wasn t for the flyer distribution. One of our volunteers told us they had a great conversation at the bank when paying money in. The clerk had asked about the bus adverts and then said it s everywhere, I see the billboard each day and I got a flyer through my door today. This opened the conversation up to who Jesus is. I have had about five conversations with people I wouldn't usually get the opportunity to speak to about my faith. I've prayed with one neighbour. I've discovered that one neighbour I don't know is a believer. I've had several conversations with friends who were prompted to think about God by the leaflets giving me opportunity to share about what Christians really believe. Many conversations with people who had seen the bus adverts, great as a way in to conversation The neighbour I prayed with is now going to church regularly with his girlfriend, who is already a believer. I can see God's hand moving him into a place where he can grow from enquiring to faith.
Oldham in Photos www.makejesusknown.com 0161 6332421