"For seven years I was pastor of a 500-member congregation, and we had two dozen high schoolers in our youth program," reflected a minister who now serves a 1,200-member church. "Now, with over a hundred on the youth group rolls, we have only 30 to 35 involved. I guess we should make youth ministries the top priority for our new associate minister."

"We have nine circles in our women's organization," complained Molly Adams, "but attendance at our monthly general meetings is 35 to 45. Once in a while, for a special program, as many as 70 may turn out, but that's not many considering we have over 200 active members."

"When we moved into our new building, we had a huge room available for a new adult class," said the director of Christian education in an 1,100-member church. "We decided that since none of our other adult classes averaged more than 35 attenders, we needed one big class with an excellent teacher to be an easy entry point for newcomers. Six weeks after it started, the class had ...