A few times every year an invoice passes across my desk for t-shirts and I cringe a little bit. We spend a lot of money every year on t-shirts. We give them out to our first time guests, our volunteer teams, our community outreach participants, people who get baptized, our family ministry has t-shirts … it seems like every time we’re turning around we’re purchasing more t-shirts for people at our church.

But why?  Is this really a good a way to spend kingdom dollars? We are choosing to spend on t-shirts over other areas and I wonder if it really is the best investment in our limited resources.

Here are some of the reasons why I’m a believer in well designed t-shirts as a tool for our ministry. (Or maybe … these are just the excuses I tell myself every time we sign those big invoices!)

• For Our Guests // Last year we switched our “first time guest gift” to a t-shirt … our response on our connection cards for first time guests immediately jumped. It’s hard to follow up with guests if we don’t have their information and giving away a t-shirt gets us more information our guests!
  
• Helps New Comers // When people arrive our campuses they are confronted by our guest services team wearing the same shirt. This creates an implicit invitation to walk up to our team and ask questions if they need help.
• “I’m a part of the tribe!” // Teams wear uniforms and by giving our teams a t-shirt we are inviting them onto our team! It is a way to show appreciation to the people who make our church happen every week.
• Higher Perceived Value // There is no doubt that t-shirts cost a lot of make but their perceived value is higher to the people we give them to. It’s cheaper to make t-shirts than the people who receive them think they are to make!
• Walking Advertising // We have done some designs over the years that people actually wear around in “normal life”.  When we are able to do that we create a walking advertisement for our church.

I’d love you hear from you! Are t-shirts a vain waste of kingdom resources or a strategic communication tool? What are your thoughts?