One of the preliminary questions that I ask when developing a marketing campaign for an organization is, "Who is your targeted audience?"  If this question is asked to a secular corporation, 9 times out of 10, they, immediately, are able to identify their targeted market.  Unfortunately, however, this is not true with churches.  With the general exception of recent church plants, most seasoned churches are lost when trying to identify the audience they are trying to reach.  Newer church plants are started to reach a specific people group - the target audience is the reason for the plant itself.  In other words, if the audience didn't exist to begin with, the church plant would have never been established.  Older churches have the aging mindset, "To simply exist will attract visitors."  And, I do mean "aging" - not derogatory, but classification under an old marketing model. These seasoned churches are now diminishing in congregation size and community impact to newer, more rapid growing churches.  This is especially true concerning the protestant churches that were planted, beginning with the years of the Industrial Revolution up to the mid-1900s, in the North-Central and New England states.  As factory development continued to rise, missionary agencies such as the Southern Baptist Convention, sent missionaries to these northern states with hopes of converting Irish Catholics. Today the northern protestant churches are loosing its membership due to various factors such as increases in migration to southern states, the Catholic church fighting to regain appeal, loss of community amongst believers (largely due to the Internet-accessible church), older members are dying, or, simply, individuals losing an overall interest in religion.

NETWORK MARKETING = DISCIPLESHIP 
I can't stress enough, in today's market you must target an audience.  Please do not think this is limiting God in His capacity to reach your community.  I'm not saying for a church to only be opened and accepting to/of one people group. I am saying target a specific group.  In Scripture, Christ neither simply existed nor tried to appeal to the crowds; Christ targeted twelve common men.  Those individual men, themselves, had gifts and positions in society that allowed them to be effective amongst their peers.  In other words, Christ chose to pour into Peter and Andrew to empower and equip them to reach fishermen.  Matthew could reach other tax-collectors. Luke, the Gospel writer, was able to minister to fellow doctors.  I doubt if Peter would walk in the same circles as Luke, much less have the same influence.  Paul too ministered to specific people groups at various times in his ministry.  This is the church's definition for discpleship; its society's definition for network marketing. Its all about training, teaching and raising up individual leaders within the church and then sending them out to reach their spheres of influence.

FLASHLIGHT OR LASER?
No church has infinite or unlimited resources. Whether you are a church consisting of 50 members attending with one or two on staff, or 20,000 with 300 individuals on staff, every church has limits. Obviously, however, larger churches have the luxury of reaching more people groups than mid-sized to smaller churches.  Regardless of your size, (let's state the obvious) you're not going to have 100% participation amongst your members.  So, how do you use the members who are willing to be active and serve?  Again, the answer is to define one target audience and go after it.  You must define an identity for your church that will set it apart from other churches.  By establishing an identity, individuals can better identify and relate to where your church is headed.  If you continue to be "one church for all," you will see small, if any, growth or, worse, diminish as the membership dies or moves away.  You will have the greatest impact in your community as you narrow and intensify your focus.  A flashlight is handy, but a strong, intensive laser can cut through steel.  Develop a laser in your outreach initiative and empower those who the initiative attracts to reach your community for you.