Ministry Ideas | Reaching Our Apartment Community

When we started our church, we planted it in an area with a lot of apartment buildings. That created some unique challenges. In certain neighborhoods, we can still do traditional door-to-door evangelism. But in other parts of our community, secured apartment complexes make it almost impossible to knock on someone’s door and share the gospel the old-fashioned way.

Because of that, we’ve turned to social media, which I see as the new town square. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have helped us connect with people we’d never reach otherwise. We’ve even used some of our ministry funds to run targeted ads to introduce our church to the local community and get the word out about who we are and what we believe.

But I’ve found it goes deeper than just promoting our church. The sooner I can get someone into the Bible with me, the more likely they are to stay connected. That’s why we’re experimenting with different types of Bible studies for different people. For example, we’ve been reading through Job lately, and there’s a great set of questions at the end of each chapter. I realized these questions work really well for believers, but I think they could also help seekers wrestle with big questions about suffering and meaning.

So I’m exploring ways to offer Bible studies like that, designed specifically for people who don’t yet know Christ. If they can study the Bible with me before ever stepping foot in church, I think it helps break down barriers. It makes them more comfortable visiting on Sunday because they already know someone, and they’ve already begun engaging with God’s Word.

We’ve tried this with a few people, along with other outreach events, and it seems to be working. People who connect with us in a Bible study — even a simple discipleship conversation — before attending church are much more likely to come and stick around afterward.

Using social media has also been a huge blessing in showing off the personality of our church. People like seeing that we’re friendly, real, and active in the community. Over the last seven months, we’ve built up a good collection of photos from different events and activities, which really helps people get a sense of our church culture.

By combining meaningful Bible studies with a strong social media presence, we’ve been able to reach people who might never open their door to a stranger. It’s exciting to see God using these tools to help us build relationships, make disciples, and invite people into His family — both online and in person.