We have a wonderful preacher,” reflected a long-time member of First Church. “We enjoy a superb choir, we have a good Sunday school, and our people really love one another. How come our church isn’t attracting those baby boomers who are supposedly returning to the church?
“I’ve always been told the four keys to church growth are superb preaching, inspiring music, an excellent Sunday school, and friendly people. We have all four, plus an excellent building that we remodeled six years ago, and nearly a hundred spaces of off-street parking. Why don’t we grow?”
Fair questions. Why does this congregation with its many assets not attract new members? A central reason may be a shortage of entry points for new people.
Opening the closed circle
Most long-established churches resemble a large closed circle. Most of the resources are allocated to meeting the needs of the members already within that circle. This includes the priorities on the pastor’s time and energy, the use of the building, the ministry of music, the priorities in the spending of money, and the use of the time contributed by volunteers.
If that congregation is to grow, it probably will have to change the nature of that closed circle.
One way to do that is to bring in a new pastor who will introduce a different approach to ministry, transform the culture of that congregation, and attract new people. Pastors who can accomplish that are rare!
Far more often the culture of that congregation turns out to be more powerful and molds the new minister into the tradition of that congregation.
A more productive alternative may be to open up the closed circle by creating new and attractive entry points for newcomers. Rarely is this easy. Powerful pressures exist to make the number-one priority the finding of new members who will help perpetuate the status quo. This may be expressed as “Before we talk about a second service on Sunday morning, let’s fill the pews at one service.” Or, “Instead of talking about a new staff person to expand our program, let’s first find someone who will visit our shut-ins, or who can strengthen our youth program and maybe build up our Sunday school.”
New entry points
One 97-year-old congregation in Ohio that had been on a plateau with an average attendance of 145 at worship for the past 12 years doubled in size in five years. This followed the arrival of a second staff member who was asked to expand the entry points. During her first year, several important things happened:
She identified a dozen volunteer allies who would help her create new entry points.
She began to build a list of prospective new members, most of the names coming from those who attended the special events she scheduled.
She scheduled nearly 100 new events and activities to which non-members could be invited. Here are some of them:
- An after-church picnic for everyone in the community who had been reared in Pennsylvania, with subsequent Sundays for other states.
- A four-session divorce-recovery workshop.
- A new adult Sunday school class that was started every year for those first five years.
- An appreciation day for all teachers employed in the local public school system for the first Sunday in September.
- Three father-daughter roller skating events.
In addition, she took that congregation out of the cooperative inter-church vacation Bible school held in June in previous years and unilaterally organized one scheduled to be held in August.
Most prospective members prefer to help pioneer the new rather than join the old.
She enlisted a 63-year-old grandmother to organize a ministry for new mothers.
She persuaded the leaders to expand the Christmas Eve schedule from one to two to eventually four services.
She convinced the minister to teach a new Tuesday evening Bible study group if she would recruit the members for it.
She supported two mothers in creating a Mothers’ Morning Out cooperative child care program every Tuesday morning.
She found a person who could lead a series of marriage-enrichment events.
She identified a non-member couple who agreed to teach a Sunday morning class for developmentally disabled people.
She persuaded the governing board to add an early worship service to the Sunday morning schedule.
She found someone to organize and direct a young adult choir for that new worship service.
She talked the minister into working with a planning committee for six weeks before that first early service—and six of the nine members of that committee came from her list of prospective new members.
She worked with two couples to organize an after-school youth club every Wednesday.
When necessary, she presented her plans to the governing board as announcements rather than requests, followed by “unless, of course, the board objects.” During the first five years, she spent $9,000 on advertising and $3,400 for outside leadership, all of which she raised outside the budget.
Secrets behind the success
For most of these new entry points, this productive staff member enlisted others to help her. And with few exceptions, she always included at least two or three people from her list of prospective new members. In several cases a majority of the committee were non-members.
She followed the basic principle that most prospective members prefer to help pioneer the new rather than join the old.
In addition, she followed a highly redundant approach to issuing invitations. Most events were publicized via several channels, such as direct mail, stories or advertisements in the local newspaper, posters, flyers, radio spots, the local grapevine, and telephone calls.
She recognized that while many people born before 1935 made their initial contact with a church on Sunday morning, a large proportion of the churchgoers born in the 1940s and 1950s made that initial contact other than on Sunday morning. Therefore she scheduled entry points for every day of the week.
Finally she understood the difference between approval and the withholding of a veto. Instead of seeking approval from the appropriate committees and the governing board, all she sought was the withholding of a veto, sometimes expressed as, “Well, let’s try it one time and see what happens.”
Equally important, she did not wait for the boards and committees to take the initiative to tell her what to do. For the most part she functioned outside the existing committee structure. She wanted help, not arguments. She understood and affirmed the value of ad hoc groups and single function task forces.
She recognized that every one of the program committees had a full agenda of largely member-centered concerns. Rather than compete with that agenda, she concentrated on creating new entry points for future members. Rather than burden the nominating committee, she enlisted her own allies. Rather than ask the finance committee for budgeting, she raised the money needed through designated, second-mile giving.
This staff member’s methodology illustrates the value of having one staff member (who may be part-time) concentrate on a single responsibility.
It also illustrates that circles don’t have to be closed.
Lyle Schaller is a church consultant and advisor of Leadership iving in Naperville, Illinois.
1998 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or contact us.
