“At our church, I find our most engaged people—people who serve, give, invite and who are in a community group—are our most frequent attenders.” – Carey Nieuwhof, Connexus Church
Bottom line:
Focus on next steps – and attendance will follow.
What is The Central Hub strategy?
Now it’s time to show you exactly what The Central Hub strategy is…and how to implement it at your church.
Here’s how most churches promote next steps:
Most churches confuse their congregations with chaotic messaging.
Just think about all the different connection points churches will use on a weekly basis:
Check the bulletin!
Call the church!
Talk to the pastor!
Visit the table in the lobby!
Download the app!
Check out the website!
Email the ministry leader!
Sadly, messy communication like this is complicated and results in fewer next steps.
The solution?
The Central Hub strategy consolidates every connection point into a single destination – for every next step…
…always.
The Central Hub strategyeliminates congregation confusion once and for all by merging every next step into a single destination.
The results?
More next steps in your church every single week!
Don’t believe me?
It’s not just Forefront Church seeing huge results with The Central Hub strategy. Thousands of churches have begun adopting this model:
“Before our central hub, people at my church had so much trouble knowing where to go to find information. Email addresses were constantly forgotten. Bulletins were thrown away. Our connection desk was cluttered. But with the central hub, our members know exactly where to look.” – Chris Taylor
And don’t be discouraged into thinking this is only for big churches or young, trendy churches – because that’s simply not the case:
“We’re a church of all ages. Our first event using the central hub strategy was our summer baptism & picnic. We had an overwhelming response! More registrations than we have ever received vs. the old “see Patti at the table after the service” method. We now use our central hubexclusively for all registrations.” – Patti Dowling
The 3 rules of The Central Hub strategy
Here are the three rules you need to follow to properly implement The Central Hub strategy at your church:
Rule #1: The Central Hub must be accessible 24/7
Consider this:
Your week has 168 hours. If Sunday service is just 1 hour – how is your church reaching people in the other 167?
This is one of the biggest downsides of using bulletins or your church’s lobby to next steps.
Sure, it works on Sunday, but about the other 6 days of the week? What about the other 167 hours in a week?
This is why The Central Hub at your church needs to be available at all times – 24/7.
Rule #2: The Central Hub must be accessible from every device
The Central Hub needs to be accessible from any device – so that means phones, laptops, tablets, and desktops.
Because an app is only accessible after downloading it – and you can’t access it at all from laptops or desktop computers!
So you’re immediately losing half of your access points – which is not good at all.
Bottom line: Your Central Hub should always be a website. A website is accessible 24/7 and is also reachable from every device.
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Rule #3: The Central Hub must be able to capture, store, and distribute information
Remember, the purpose of The Central Hub strategy is next steps – people in your church taking action:
Signing up for baptism
Joining a small group
Giving of tithes and offerings
Registering for events and ministries
Signing up to volunteer
Submitting a prayer request
Etc.
As it turns out, every next step requires a certain level of submitted information.
Knowing this, The Central Hub needs to be able to capture that information, store it in a database, and then distribute that info where it needs to go.
For example:
Imagine a person signs up to join a small group. That information should be stored in The Central Hub, and the leader of that small group should be automatically notified that a new person is wanting to join.
Because most church websites are essentially digital versions of a Yellow Pages listing. Sure, they have information about the church, but when it comes to next steps, the options are limited.
Here’s the good news:
We’ve taken the initiative to build from scratch the world’s first and only central hub platform for churches. We call it Nucleus.
Nucleus can be the software that powers your church’s central hub because it was built for that precise purpose and comes with all of the features that The Central Hub strategy requires.
Most importantly, the Nucleus drag & drop editor is incredibly simple and straightforward to use. In fact, it was specifically designed to be used by the everyday church staff member or volunteer – so no coding skills are needed.
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The science behind The Central Hub strategy
I’ve seen The Central Hub strategy work in countless churches.
But why is it so effective?
Simply put:
Fewer options equal more action.
Here’s the proof:
In 2000, psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper published a remarkable study. On one day, shoppers at an upscale food market saw a display table with 24 varieties of gourmet jam. Those who sampled the spreads received a coupon for $1 off any jam.
On another day, shoppers saw a similar table, except that only 6 varieties of the jam were on display. Those who sampled the spreads also received a coupon.
Here’s where things get interesting:
The large display attracted more interest than the small one. But when the time came to purchase, people who saw the small display were 10X more likely to buy than people who saw the larger display.1
Fewer options equal more action.
Here’s another example:
Whirlpool (the appliance manufacturer) conducted a test by sending two different email campaigns.
In the first email, multiple links and calls-to-action were offered. In the second email, just a single call-to-action was included.
(one option vs. multiple options)
The results? The email campaign with just one call-to-action link saw 42% more clicks than the campaign with multiple links.2
Again, fewer options equal more action.
But wait, there’s more:
Neil Patel, a highly-regarded marketing expert, saw a 26% boost in conversion rates on his contact form simply by eliminating a single form field and reducing his overall number of fields from 4 to 3.3
Similarly, ImageScape saw a 120% increase on their form submissions after condensing their form from 11 fields to 4.
Moreover, ImageScape also saw a 160% increase in form submissions after reducing the number of fields all the way down to 3.4
Bottom line:
The Central Hub strategy is low-hanging fruit.
Simply by consolidating every connection point at your church into a single destination – you can see an increase in next steps and engagement.
Don’t overcomplicate things for your church. Make it simple. Make it easy.
Less is more.
Fewer options equal more action
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Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions about The Central Hub strategy?
I’ve helped thousands of churches implement this strategy – and below, you’ll find answers to the most common questions I hear.
Question: Does The Central Hub website replace our existing website? Or is it a different website altogether?
Answer: Whichever you prefer! For example, Forefront Church has their main website here and their Nucleus central hub here.
Similarly, Church on the Move has their main website here and their central hub here.
My recommendation? If you’re a smaller church, use The Central Hub strategy as your main website AND central hub. And if you’re a larger church, consider using The Central Hub strategy as your “insiders-only” site.
Question: Does The Central Hub strategy mean we should eliminate our physical connect card and/or printed bulletin?
Answer: Not necessarily. Of course, you can make the switch to a completely digital strategy if you choose. But, if you’re feeling internal pushback, print media can still play a role in The Central Hub strategy.
Here’s how:
The Connect Card:Using the single-click template within Nucleus, you can create a digital connect card with a full visitor follow-up sequence in minutes. Nevertheless, offering a physical connect card can also be helpful. Need help? We have a downloadable visitor card template that is meant to be used alongside The Central Hub strategy at your church – click here to download our connect card template for free
The Bulletin: We asked more than 100 churches how much it cost them to print bulletins and the average price (for a church of 100 people) was $65/month. The Central Hub strategy allows you to reclaim all of that money because The Central Hub can serve as your digital bulletin! On the other hand, if your church is still clamoring for a physical bulletin, we have a downloadable template for that as well. This bulletin template is meant to be printed only monthly (or even quarterly) to cut costs – and it works in partnership with The Central Hub strategy as well.
Question: How do I promote The Central Hub within my church? How do I get everyone on board with this new strategy?
Answer: The best thing you can do is be persistent and consistent.
Here’s what Jason from Forefront Church said about this:
But that’s just part of the story…
The 2-Part Church Announcements Formula:When presenting announcements at church, The Central Hub should always be the next step you promote. How can you do this? I’ve personally presented more than 30,000+ church announcements and I’ve developed a 2-part formula that works extraordinarily well – click here to discover the formula
Another great promotion strategy for The Central Hub is to configure an inexpensive lobby kiosk:
The Super Church Lobby Kiosk:Using tablets and inexpensive stands available on Amazon, you can construct a full lobby kiosk to promote The Central Hub at your church. Of course, every person in your church with a mobile device is walking around with The Central Hub in their pocket. But for those more resistant to change, the lobby kiosk will work wonders – click here to learn how to build your own lobby kiosk
On-Screen Graphics: The final piece of The Central Hub promotion puzzle is to use your screens to point people to The Central Hub website. Every Nucleus user gains access to the promotional Photoshop graphics displayed below for free.
Question: Will this strategy work for smaller and/or older churches?
Answer: The Central Hub strategy works in churches of all sizes and ages.
Consider this:
According to Google, those ages 50+ spend an average of 19 hours online every week.5
Bottom line? Don’t fall for the misconception that older people don’t already use and love digital media. It’s simply untrue.
And don’t just take it from me! Hear it from churches that have already done it:
Question: Where can I find real examples of churches that are using Nucleus and The Central Hub strategy?
Answer: Below you’ll find a list of our favorite Nucleus central hub websites to inspire you and show you what’s working for real churches using this strategy every single week.
