Stop hating, Yelp loves Jesus

I won!  I Won!  what did I win you ask?

• Dad of the year?
• Jesus worker of the week?
• Cafe Hanger-Outer of the City?

While all would be bring sweet medals to hang around my neck, alas all pale in comparison to today's [July 26, 2007] Review of the Day from Yelp.  Yes, if you click on over to Yelp today, yours truly has the ROTD for a stunning review of Bruno's Club and Restaurant in the Mission.  Now other than the huge cheese factor and slew of Yelp Complements that accompany this honor, the other thing that happens is that folks interact with the church in new ways.

While some may mock and dismiss some of these new fangled ways that the church may share its presence in the world, I respond with a healthy "Neener neener neener" to you all!  We have seen a great number of people use Yelp when searching for a church.  After all, many of the important things in their lives are found there, why not church. 

Not only are our visitor numbers on the rise, but our website hits mainly come from Yelp along with traditional search engine results.  This unconventional "outreach" happens in two distinct ways:

one, I am a pretty active reviewer so folks who check out my reviews often read my bio and click on my favorite sites.  I often get notes from folks commenting on my job as Pastor so I know that folks are intrigued by the religious tone/content
two, folks write reviews of MBCC and then others click on them to see what all the "hype" is about.  If they may not be looking for a church then, we are now in their conscience.

So I will accept this award on behalf of the one who created us with a word of challenge for you to explore new ways to get the word out about your church.  Find out where people for your context search for and find information such as doctors, eateries, etc. and then get your church plugged it.  If nothing else, go ahead and review it yourself or ask others who have been there to review it for your. And while this is a bigger service in urban settings, getting out in small areas, why not be on the cutting edge?  I even did this with some friend's churches in Pennsylvania and Cleveland among others.

Comments

[Trina]

That is a great review! i love it.

I haven't been to Bruno's in a few years, but I do remember liking the food, atmosphere, etc., I'm right with you on the noise level, though: I simply can't enjoy myself if I can't hear the people that I'm with. My tolerance for loudness (and stupid people, for that matter...) seems to have diminished over the years.