Change in attendance offers new opportunities

Church attendance patterns are changing, with more people attending less often. So, how are we to respond?

For many years, the church has used average congregational worship attendance as a quick and easy measure for congregational health. Th e theory is that if your average attendance at worship services is going up, more people are joining you to worship God each week, so things are going well. Conversely, if your average attendance is going down, less people are coming and so something must be wrong. But there’s a second variable at play: how often people are attending.

There’s a growing realisation that even in the most vibrant and healthy churches, an increasing number of regular churchgoers are attending less often. Many people who used to attend every week are attending three times a month. People who were around twice a month often now show up once a month. And attenders who used to come once a month are showing up half a dozen times a year.

Why is this, and what should we do about it?

According to Carey Nieuwhof, Pastor of Connexus Church in Canada, there are at least 10 reasons why even committed church attenders attend church less often. Carey lists a few obvious ones, like more Sunday sports, blended families and people having to work on Sundays, but also identifi es some additional reasons that are less obvious but more insightful.

For example, the impact of affl uence means that now people have more opportunity to travel, to head away for weekends and to be involved with activities for their children. Or how 20 years ago, if you wanted to hear great preaching, you had to go to church, whereas now you can listen to podcasts of arguably better preaching whenever and wherever you like.

However, Nieuwhof suggests that perhaps the biggest factor in less frequent church attending is that few people today actually feel guilty for missing church.

Do we fight or embrace this obvious trend? Can I suggest it depends whether your ultimate goal is to develop church attenders, or fully devoted followers of Jesus?

If you want church attenders, you’ll probably want to try to make the church experience so good that people won’t want to miss it (or you could work on actually trying to make them feel guilty about not coming, but who wants to go to a church with a culture like that?!). However, if your goal is to develop fully devoted followers of Jesus, can we look at this whole issue differently?

Nieuwhof suggests seven ways to respond as people attend church less often. As his church has a lot more resources than a typical Salvation Army corps (church), I’ve simplified these to be relevant in our context:

1. Make sure that people can stay in touch with you when they’re not there. Don’t judge your people for not being there, help them stay connected instead. Use Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, your website, or a blog—anything to help people stay connected during the week. Even a simple thing like emailing or posting your newsletter will keep people informed and let them know they were missed.

2. Elevate personal relationships. Facilitating a personal relationship is easier and more eff ective in person, so encourage connections in groups. Share meals together. And offer a nice morning tea—it’s a great way to help people connect, so it’s well worth the investment.

3. Love people. Can you truly express care and interest without being fully present, face to face sometimes? Love can be expressed online, but its fulfi lment happens deepest through personal contact.

4. Create an irresistible experience. Something happens when you are in the room that doesn’t happen ‘watching church’ online. A song on YouTube is never quite the same as a live concert. Church is more than the sum of its parts. If your church is boring, Nieuwhof would say you’ve already lost the battle, so you should start there.

5. Offer offline surprises. The idea is to do things in church that when people hear about later, they will be disappointed they missed— like a fun surprise in the car park as people arrive, letting off helium balloons as a church family, or someone sharing their personal story.

6. Create a culture of serving. Online church doesn’t allow many serving opportunities. When you help set up for a morning tea, teach in kids church or a small group, greet people with a smile, serve on the production team, or serve meals to the homeless, you find a place in service of a goal that is greater than yourself. Make serving guests and others outside your community part of your culture.

7. Prioritise kids and teens. Parents can catch a podcast or watch online, but kids really miss out when parents miss church. Being at church allows kids to be with friends who are running in the same direction, and to have a small group leader who cares and speaks into their lives. The more you prioritise families, the more families will prioritise Sundays.

The shift in our culture is probably irreversible, at least to some extent. But we still have something unique to offer—online and offl ine. We may just need to change our approach a little.

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by Alastair Kendrew (c)'War Cry' magazine, 11 July 2015, p19.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.