We recently connected with Kevin Greene and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

We know taking God’s next step for your life is not easy. We also know that sometimes a church is the last place you look for support. We want to change that.

Sometimes churches want to share their mission with you and give you enough information for you to decide if the church is the best place for you to join. We created a church that wants to get to know you and partner with what God is already doing in your life. We realize you are in a situation that is unique to you and we believe that God has something next specifically for you. As we get to know you we want to help you:

* Find faith
– Help you grow in your faith in community
* Help you discover and use your gifts
– Help you make the difference in the world that only you can make.

Don’t worry, we realize this is a process, and we want to walk with you one step at a time.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born in Canada and grew up in Wilmington, DE. I moved to central PA in 2009 to attend college and studied Digital Communications. It was during that time I felt called to be full time in pastoral ministry and start a new church. I noticed a lot of my friends and classmates were disconnected spiritually. They didn’t have anyone who could walk with them through the spiritual things of life and didn’t have a church that would help them do that. I felt called to change that.

So we started ConnectUs Church because we believe that God has a next step for your life no matter who you are or what you believe.

We started a community that focused on personal relationships centered around the truth of God’s word. We believe the Bible is the most relevant and helpful book for everyone today and we want to bring that to as many people in as personal a way as possible.

I also believe that the church is the best place to really make an impact on people’s lives and in our community. Where else do people from all walks of life come together? Where else do people feel safe enough to share their deepest regrets and at the same time experience genuine love and acceptance?

Over the last one and a half years of ConnectUs Church we’ve walked with hundreds of people through all sorts of life situations and helped people take their next step. Marriages have been strengthened. People have been encouraged. Children are making friends and finding their faith in Jesus. Addictions have been broken. Generational dysfunction has been turned around. Those are just a small handful of stories that have happened in our new faith community.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of the most important and most difficult things to get for a new church is a great location. Because you are in the process of raising financial resources and you want to build a stable congregation before investing large amounts of money into a facility, sometimes the best place for a new church to get started is somewhere portable. A portable church is a church that sets up and tears down their supplies to host a worship service in a location like a school auditorium, theater, or movie theater. These are some of the best places to launch a new church.

When starting ConnectUs Church I had my eyes on a new movie theater in a well-known location in our county. I started trying to get in touch with the owner of the movie theater. He replied to my email and was interested in working with me. Then Covid hit. I didn’t hear from him for another 7 months. Those were some crazy waiting days. One day in those 7 months I went around to every other location I could think of and gave them my best offer. Even though I did that I was still hoping for the movie theater. Finally, the movie theater opened, albeit very slowly. But I showed up and introduced myself and the manager said he would be in touch with me.

A few days later I was having lunch with someone dreaming about our new church in the movie theater and I got a phone call from the owner. I almost fell out of my chair. We were able to start as soon as we wanted. What an answer to prayer.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Connecting with spiritually disconnected people was always a hard task. It’s even harder now after Covid. Every church is learning to navigate this new world and trying to understand the new habits of people. One of the trends that was happening before Covid (and then Covid accelerated it very fast!) was that people were engaging with a church online well before they ever made themselves known in person. Today, we see this happen every day.

People are engaging with our online content long before they ever show up to a physical church gathering. We post to facebook, twitter, and Instagram every day. We also have content on tik tok, youtube, and our website. It’s important to understand that every platform is different. You can’t just copy and paste content and blast it out there. They are also designed to interact with people differently. Knowing this and actually doing the interacting is key. Treating these platforms like bulletin boards for events doesn’t work. Using them as tools to interact with people and build relationships does.

We’ve done our best to do that. And it seems like when we meet someone new at church they have already engaged with us online in a variety of ways. They feel like they are a part of our church and know me even though I have never met them before.

One of the best things we did was I made a selfie video asking people through facebook if I could pray for them. People responded via messenger with various prayer requests. I filmed a short prayer back to them and it was a special opportunity to connect with people. One of those people requested a Bible. After praying for them, I dropped the Bible off at their home. They later started coming to our church and a couple months later they got baptized! This was such a great example of engaging with someone online first. Actually interacting with them. And seeing God do incredible things in their life over time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.connectuschurch.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectuschurch/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connectuschurch
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-greene-b193a425
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnectusChurch
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMXXWt7KQJXzsMvQpCsFwHg
• Other: audio podcast – https://connectus-church-audio-podcast.sounder.fm/