Can the Church Great Again Outline -trump

In an era of declining church attendance, how practice yous abound your church building and advance your mission?

Well, one cardinal is this: yous plough ordinary attendees into passionate champions of the mission. Not convinced? I outlined 5 reasons why appointment volition bulldoze well-nigh all future church growth in this post.

For too long, besides many N American Christians have thought that sitting passively in the back row to get fed is what'south required of them, or that the primary goal of finding a church building is to attend ane you 'like.'

The goal of any Christian should never be to discover a church building y'all like and sit in the back row. The goal should exist to fully engage the mission.

Again and again, information technology'southward 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 plenty almost it to invite their friends.

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

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

Yeah, simply God can bring growth. Only he uses people who are engaged to do it.

So if you were going to drive engagement at your church building, how would you practise it?

Here are seven ways to grow appointment in-person: (If you want 7 tips to increase digital engagement, you tin can go them in the 2021 Church Leader Toolkit here.)

i. Challenge 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 rule) get the mission. They're on a mission. And they dearest the mission.

Our goal is to get everyone into a group, merely merely doing group can pb can feed into a self-centred agenda in the same style as sitting in the back row and not engaging the mission is a chip of a selfish arroyo to church for a long term Christian.

Groups can be nearly you, whereas serving is virtually never near you.

I yet think everyone should be in a group, simply if a group is all you do every bit a Christian, it can feed into the consumer frenzy that is N American culture.

If you need to better your volunteer culture, I outlined 7 questions volunteers enquire but never say out loud in this post. I besides devoted an entire chapter to creating a salubrious volunteer culture in my book, Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Can Help Your Church Abound. I teach this textile in depth (and much, much more) in my Church Growth Master Course, as well.

2. Provide a articulate path toward involvement

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.

Often during services we listing 12 things people tin do to get more engaged in their faith and in the mission.

Faced with too many choices, nigh people choose nothing.

The clearer and simpler the path is toward in appointment, the more people volition travel it.

At Connexus Church, where I serve, we reorganized our entrance hall a few years agone, ditching the 'Welcome Desk" for ii simple kiosks.

Now, we accept a "New Here" kiosk for new guests. And we have a "Next Steps" kiosk with trained invitee services people who act a chip like concierges who can assist people notice which next step is all-time for them (baptism v. serving v. joining a group v. Starting Point etc.)

At every level, we try to accept the confusion away and simply help people appoint.

Nosotros besides effort to make our linguistic communication from the front clear and direct.

3. Focus all programs around your mission

Years ago, we dumped a program-based model of church (if yous can dream it, we'll do it) for a much simpler model.

Why?

In role, we moved to a simpler model because when you requite people too many choices, people choose nothing.

Simply we likewise changed it because nosotros realized that what people are involved in becomes the mission.

And then if you accept lots of off-mission programs (like the Quilting Guild or the Men Who Swallow Bear Meat Fellowship), you will have a hard time focusing people on what y'all really want them to exercise.

They're passionate almosttheirministries, just nottheministry.

And that'southward the trouble. Besides many Christians get passionate about their mission, non THE mission.

If you want people to be passionate about the central mission of your church, only do programming that directly advances the key mission.

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

four. Make it uncomfortable to stay disengaged

People somewhen conform to expectations.

Tell a child he'll never amount to anything, and he'll probable give up on the dream of college. Tell a kid she can persevere and reach the tasks alee of her, and she likely will.

People both rise and descend to our level of expectations.

The same is true of congregations.

When y'all don't expect people to exercise more than than to nourish your church, don't be surprised if all they exercise is attend your church.

Arts and crafts a culture through your words, calls to action on a Dominicus, and in all your communications where you lot expect people to serve, join a group, bring a friend and give generously.

5. Preach action, not knowledge

Preachers have this incredible 20-xl infinitesimal window with which to speak into people'due south lives every week.

Y'all tin utilize it to give people information or you can use information technology to call people to action.

The second is far better.

Not that yous need to hammer people every week. But with your words you can make it clear that the goal of the Christian religion is not to know something, only to do something with what y'all know.

If you continue to talk about how to go involved and join the mission, providing clear action steps and opportunities to practice so, somewhen more people will appoint. If you don't, they won't.

And so do it.

6. Try using agile language

We've had a unproblematic model of church at Connexus since we started, but correct now we're irresolute the linguistic communication of date from more passive linguistic communication to active linguistic communication.

Hither's the background.

For years, nosotros've used these 4 single words to explain our unproblematic model of ministry and call people to activeness:

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

Next month, we unveil new linguistic communication to convey the same steps.

Nosotros've added a 5th stride considering nosotros're seeing so many unchurched people, and we're moving to more than active linguistic communication designed to drive action and engagement:

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

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

We imagine a twenty-four hours when hundreds more than people become Christians, bring together the mission, bring friends, choose community and give generously.

That kind of activity changes cities.

Whatever linguistic communication y'all use, brand sure information technology conveys the outcome yous long for.

7. Reward Progress

All the same y'all define increased date, reward information technology whenever yous see it.

How can yous do this?

a. Celebrate it publicly

Sometimes church leaders are swell at asking but not at reporting back afterward.

If y'all ask for volunteers and you get 75 new ones, make a bespeak a indicate of celebrating it the next weekend. Tell some stories. Shoot some video. Thank people.

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

Pretend information technology'southward baptism Sun…and celebrate.

b. Assert it privately

When y'all encounter someone spring in, give thanks them. Mention it when you talk to them in the foyer.

Give thanks them in the next email you send them.

Write them a hand written thank you card.

c. Celebrate with your key leaders

Senior leaders can easily fall into the trap of rewarding attendance, not engagement.

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

When y'all talk about steps and gloat when people take them, swell things happen in your organization.

Staff and key volunteers demand to know when they're winning. Help them see it.

Signing up is better than showing upward.

Remember, as a leader, what you celebrate matters.

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

How Exercise Yous Bulldoze Date?

Those are my current thoughts on helping churches bulldoze engagement.

If y'all want more, I wrote a serial of posts on omnipresence v. engagement that you can access for free below.

I besides outlined much of the strategy in my volume, Lasting Bear upon, designed for discussion you can have with your staff and elder board. If you're looking to walk through this material and dive much deeper into conversation, check out my Church building Growth Masterclass, open now.

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

5 Reasons Engagement Will Bulldoze Almost All Futurity Church Growth

x Reasons Fifty-fifty Committed Christians Are Attending Church Less Ofttimes

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

5 Ways to Cover Exceptional Church building Attendees

x Predictions About the Future Church building And Shifting Omnipresence Patterns

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

3 Things That Are Sabotaging The Church's Futurity

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