Do you remember those Charles Atlas ads in the back of comic books? My favorite was the one about “The Insult that Made a Man out of ‘Mac'”? Poor Mac is sitting on the beach
with his date when a bully runs by and kicks sand in their faces. When Mac offers a feeble protest, the bully says, “Listen here. I’d smash your face—only you’re so skinny you might dry up and blow away.” Well, if you do remember that ad, you are probably, like me, around the average age of a Unitarian Universalist. And if you don’t remember it, you’re probably wondering what was up with my generation’s anxiety about getting sand kicked in their faces. Either way, if you’re a member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation (or an “oldline” Protestant congregation) that hasn’t seen very much growth in worship attendance over the last few years (or even decades), you might be feeling a little bit like Mac as you watch people drive by your little fellowship every Sunday, heading to the more “popular” churches in town. You may even be asking yourself, “What have they got that we don’t?”
Well I’ve got a few ideas about that. I’m thinking that any church that’s holding it’s own in this time of declining church attendance is probably doing one or more of three things: they’ve built and are making full use of a robust online platform; they’ve engaged their members in service projects that help make their community and the world a better place; and/or they’ve moved toward a worship style that’s both innovative and contemporary while managing to keep most of their longtime members. And if you’ve got a congregation in your community that bursting at the seams, my guess is that they’re doing all three. Now I’m prepared to hold forth on the importance of any one of them, but for this post I’m going to concentrate on the one says the most about a congregation’s self image: worship.
Worship...it does a congregation good!
As I mentioned in a recent post, “increasing worship attendance [is] the number one strategic move any congregation…can make.” Why? Because you can’t increase your worship attendance without also increasing your congregation’s leadership capacity. And while offering contemporary and innovative worship may be the preferred way of increasing attendance for many congregations, there are plenty of things a congregation can do to increase attendance right now without making any changes to the actual style and content of their services.
One of my favorite congregational resources is the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. One of my favorite parts of the Lewis Center website is their 50-Ways Series for Strengthening Congregations. There you’ll find a fistful of PDF’s with tips on everything from 50 Ways to Build Strength Caring for Children to 50 Ways to Communicate Effectively. As you might have guessed, one of those PDFs is called 50 Ways to Increase Worship Attendance. Only one of those 50 suggestions talks about offering “a different style of worship and music” (which would be a big part of being contemporary and innovative). The other 49 tips are things any congregation can do now to increase attendance. They’re divided up in to six areas:
- Improve the Attendance of Current Members
- Invite New People to Attend Worship
- Make Your Church Visible and Attractive
- Welcome Worship Guests Warmly
- Make Worship Accessible to Newcomers
- Follow Up with Visitors
The tips run the gamut from keeping a record of attendance and monitoring it to developing a systematic plan for following up with visitors after their first, second, and third visits. If you are the least bit concerned about your congregation’s ability to face the challenges of “drops in financial health, continuing high level of conflict, an aging membership, fewer people in the pews, and decreasing spiritual vitality”—the challenges almost every congregation in the United States must face, according to the most recent Faith Communities Today survey—then you should seriously consider developing a plan to increase your congregation’s worship attendance. There are a least 50 ways to start doing it. Now.
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October 29, 2011 at 10:53 am
Alan Coffey
Thanks for the links. We are in transition and shaking things up a bit. Its nice to see most of what we are doing is “recommended ” and even better to see how much more we can do. Wow, we better get to work.
Alan
October 29, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Phil on the Prairie
Thanks for the comment, Alan. Yes, this can be a lot of work! The good news is that even if a congregation chooses to work on, say, only two or three areas, they’ll still be building capacity. And that’s what it’s all about.
November 10, 2011 at 1:20 am
liberalreligiongetsloud
Good article — if we’re worried about our future and our finances, it’s because we’re not doing things that are irresistible to people who aren’t already members — worship, outreach, music, whatever.
Actually, Phil, I see three places music is mentioned (nos. 13, 45 and 46), and they all say, in effect, “make sure your music is appealing and accessible, and change it if necessary”. Nos. 13 and 44 have similar implications for worship/sermons.
I see two parallel themes here: one is to let people know they’re important to you; the other is to make your worship and community activities meaningful to people who aren’t already in your church. In other words, when someone comes in your door, make sure you show them they’re welcome, and that what they experience in worship is also welcoming. Though the focus of the article is not on reforming liturgy or music, I see those reforms as an implicit assumption. Continuing ancient and hermetically sealed liturgical traditions is not a big draw for many people, it’s a barrier.
One of our ministers spotted a comment on the web site of a non-denominational church recently that said (paraphrased) “we’re not going to spend much energy on you members. It’s the people who aren’t here yet that we’re focusing on”. Pretty much the diametrical opposite of the cozy little circle we see in so many churches, a circle that’s often impregnable to newcomers.
November 10, 2011 at 7:38 am
Phil on the Prairie
Yes, in addition to being a little more attentive to who’s coming to your worship services and reaching out to those who you haven’t seen in awhile, a lot of the tips are about music and worship. And I totally agree. In fact, I’m finding “ancient and hermetically sealed liturgical traditions” not very appealing myself at the moment. Part of the problem may be our conception of what constitutes a successful worship service. It’s either EVERYONE, or if you have two services, half of EVERYONE at one service and the other half of EVERYONE at the other. A church with of worship attendance of, say, thirty, could increase their attendance by 25% if they offered a small alternative service at a different time with different music and liturgy that drew ten more people. The planning and implementation of such a service would build capacity. So would making sure that there were plenty of opportunities for people to gather in community. But this takes some desire, some intention, and some attention to detail. Most small fellowships don’t have that kind of physical and spiritual energy I’m afraid. Thanks for the comment, Vance!