Make the Church Great Again Outline

In an era of declining church building omnipresence, how do you grow your church and advance your mission?

Well, i fundamental is this: you plough ordinary attendees into passionate champions of the mission. Not convinced? I outlined five reasons why date will drive almost all hereafter church building growth in this post.

For also long, too many North American Christians accept thought that sitting passively in the back row to get fed is what'southward required of them, or that the main goal of finding a church is to attend i you 'like.'

The goal of whatsoever Christian should never be to find a church you like and sit in the back row. The goal should be to fully engage the mission.

Again and again, it's engaged Christians who advance the mission.

Engaged people are passionate people. They know what the mission is, they serve in it, and they live it out.

They're passionate enough about it to invite their friends.

Over the long-term in a church building, you can achieve more with 300 engaged Christians than with 3000 disengaged attendees.

The disengaged grouping volition dwindle. The 300 engaged Christians volition advance the mission and never stay the same.

Aye, simply God tin can bring growth. But he uses people who are engaged to do information technology.

So if you were going to drive date at your church, how would you lot do it?

Here are vii ways to abound engagement in-person: (If you lot want seven tips to increase digital date, you lot can get them in the 2021 Church Leader Toolkit here.)

i. Claiming people to serve

People who serve in the mission are people who are engaged in the mission.

I know this is near heresy in some circles, but encouraging people to volunteer may be more of import than encouraging them to join a grouping.

At Connexus, where I serve, we're finding that our healthiest people are not those who are in groups: they're those who serve. People who serve (as a dominion) get the mission. They're on a mission. And they dear the mission.

Our goal is to become everyone into a group, but simply doing group can lead tin can feed into a self-centred agenda in the aforementioned way equally sitting in the back row and not engaging the mission is a bit of a selfish approach to church for a long term Christian.

Groups tin can be about you, whereas serving is about never well-nigh you.

I still think anybody should exist in a group, but if a group is all you lot do as a Christian, it can feed into the consumer frenzy that is N American culture.

If y'all need to improve your volunteer culture, I outlined vii questions volunteers ask but never say out loud in this mail. I too devoted an entire chapter to creating a healthy volunteer culture in my book, Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Can Help Your Church Grow. I teach this material in depth (and much, much more) in my Church Growth Master Course, as well.

2. Provide a clear path toward interest

The challenge for many people who participate in a congregation is that they don't know what to do to get involved.

Church websites tin be fuzzy about next steps. And so can church leaders.

Ofttimes during services nosotros list 12 things people can practice to get more engaged in their religion and in the mission.

Faced with too many choices, most people choose aught.

The clearer and simpler the path is toward in date, the more people will travel it.

At Connexus Church building, where I serve, we reorganized our lobby a few years ago, ditching the 'Welcome Desk-bound" for two unproblematic kiosks.

Now, we accept a "New Here" kiosk for new guests. And we accept a "Next Steps" kiosk with trained guest services people who act a scrap like concierges who tin help people notice which next step is best for them (baptism v. serving five. joining a grouping v. Starting Point etc.)

At every level, we try to have the confusion away and simply assistance people engage.

We too effort to brand our language from the front articulate and direct.

iii. Focus all programs around your mission

Years agone, we dumped a programme-based model of church (if you tin can dream information technology, nosotros'll practise it) for a much simpler model.

Why?

In office, we moved to a simpler model because when you give people too many choices, people cull nothing.

Only we as well changed it because nosotros realized that what people are involved in becomes the mission.

And so if you have lots of off-mission programs (similar the Quilting Guild or the Men Who Eat Bear Meat Fellowship), you will have a hard time focusing people on what y'all really desire them to do.

They're passionate abouttheirministries, merely nontheministry.

And that'southward the problem. Too many Christians get passionate virtually their mission, not THE mission.

If you want people to be passionate near the central mission of your church building, only practice programming that directly advances the central mission.

When you say 'no' to a hundred other missions, you say 'yes' to the most important mission.

iv. Brand it uncomfortable to stay disengaged

People eventually adapt to expectations.

Tell a child he'll never amount to annihilation, and he'll likely give upwards on the dream of college. Tell a kid she can persevere and accomplish the tasks alee of her, and she likely will.

People both rise and descend to our level of expectations.

The aforementioned is true of congregations.

When y'all don't expect people to practice more to nourish your church, don't exist surprised if all they practise is attend your church.

Craft a culture through your words, calls to action on a Sun, and in all your communications where you wait people to serve, join a group, bring a friend and give generously.

v. Preach action, not knowledge

Preachers have this incredible 20-forty minute window with which to speak into people'southward lives every calendar week.

You tin employ it to give people data or you can use it to phone call people to action.

The second is far ameliorate.

Not that y'all demand to hammer people every week. But with your words you can get in clear that the goal of the Christian faith is not to know something, but to do something with what you lot know.

If you lot continue to talk well-nigh how to go involved and bring together the mission, providing clear action steps and opportunities to do so, somewhen more people volition appoint. If y'all don't, they won't.

So practise it.

half dozen. Try using active language

We've had a simple model of church at Connexus since nosotros started, only right now we're irresolute the linguistic communication of engagement from more passive language to active language.

Here'south the background.

For years, we've used these four single words to explicate our simple model of ministry and phone call people to activity:

• Connect (for groups)
• Serve (to volunteers)
• Invite (to invite a friend)
• Give (to donate)

Next calendar month, we unveil new language to convey the same steps.

We've added a 5th step considering we're seeing so many unchurched people, and nosotros're moving to more active language designed to drive action and engagement:

• Become a Christian (new)
• Join the Mission (was "Serve")
• Bring a Friend (was "Invite")
• Cull Community (was "Connect")
• Give Generously (was "Requite")

The idea is that these phrases whorl off the tongue more naturally and paint a clearer outcome toward deeper engagement with the mission than the old language did.

We imagine a day when hundreds more people become Christians, join the mission, bring friends, choose customs and give generously.

That kind of activeness changes cities.

Whatsoever linguistic communication y'all use, make sure information technology conveys the outcome you long for.

seven. Reward Progress

All the same you ascertain increased engagement, advantage it whenever you come across it.

How tin you practice this?

a. Celebrate it publicly

Sometimes church leaders are dandy at asking merely non at reporting back afterward.

If y'all ask for volunteers and you get 75 new ones, make a betoken a point of jubilant it the next weekend. Tell some stories. Shoot some video. Give thanks people.

Ditto when people give generously, or bring a friend, or when 100 new people join customs grouping.

Pretend it's baptism Lord's day…and celebrate.

b. Affirm it privately

When you lot see someone jump in, thank them. Mention information technology when you lot talk to them in the foyer.

Give thanks them in the next email you send them.

Write them a hand written cheers card.

c. Celebrate with your key leaders

Senior leaders tin easily fall into the trap of rewarding omnipresence, not date.

To increment engagement, start celebrating how many people signed up rather than how many people showed upwardly.

When you lot talk about steps and celebrate when people have them, great things happen in your organization.

Staff and key volunteers need to know when they're winning. Help them meet it.

Signing up is better than showing upwards.

Remember, as a leader, what you celebrate matters.

As Andy Stanley has said so many times, what you celebrate gets repeated.

How Do You Drive Engagement?

Those are my current thoughts on helping churches drive engagement.

If you desire more, I wrote a series of posts on attendance v. date that you lot tin access for gratis below.

I also outlined much of the strategy in my volume, Lasting Touch, designed for discussion you can have with your staff and elder board. If you lot're looking to walk through this material and dive much deeper into conversation, check out my Church Growth Masterclass, open up at present.

Here are some blog posts and Leadership Podcast episodes for additional reading, listening and context:

5 Reasons Engagement Will Bulldoze About All Hereafter Church Growth

10 Reasons Fifty-fifty Committed Christians Are Attention Church Less Often

CNLP Episode 23: Why People Are Attending Church Less Frequently—An Interview with Will Mancini.

five Ways to Embrace Infrequent Church Attendees

10 Predictions About the Hereafter Church building And Shifting Attendance Patterns

CNLP Episode 24: Churchless: Why and How America is Learning to Live Without The Church building—An Interview with David Kinnaman

3 Things That Are Sabotaging The Church'southward Future

alexanderbrestiong79.blogspot.com

Source: https://careynieuwhof.com/7-ways-grow-church-attendance-increasing-engagement/

Share this post