People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Touches, Touches, and More Touches
Even members today need regular contact from their church to remain active participants in the life and ministry of the congregation.
by James W. Moss, Sr.
The climate in the culture and the church has changed greatly. It now appears that lots and lots of touches are required to generate and sustain regular attendance. Life is so complicated for most people and families. Job pressure is growing for many in the workplace. Keeping up with children’s activities can be a nightmare. These changes require the church to make a lot of very soft touches reminding the people of the church and their need to be there.All kinds of interests are screaming for the time and energy of your people. Many of the screams represent good and quality interests—maybe not the "best" interest but good interests nevertheless. The good interests sound even better when the church does not provide meaningful ministry opportunities for people. Many people today want to feel as though they can make a difference in the lives of people. The limited traditional assignments in the church frequently don’t provide life-changing impact opportunities. New avenues of ministry expression are required.
I find there are those in the church who believe it inappropriate to "chase" our own Christian people. I’ve been told regularly, "They ought to be here without being prodded." Ideally, that is true. But, we don’t live or minister in an ideal world. So there needs to be constant touches to gently remind people that the church is still here and they need to be a part of it. Remember, at this moment I’m talking about ministry to your own people. This is ministry to the people who have already actively affiliated with your church.
There do need to be house calls. A pastor friend called house calls "paying the rent." Sometimes, my presentations and writings are interpreted to mean that I don’t recommend house calls. Nothing is further from the truth. I made house calls in my own ministry. I make "house calls" in my current ministry as I visit local churches. I would regularly make house calls if I were serving a parish today. I recommend pastors continue to use house calls. However, I do encourage appointments. I also recognize that it is more difficult to visit in homes because of the stress of two income families, the complications of the children’s activities, and prime time TV which begins at 8:00 o’clock. There are some families who just don’t want a visit in their home.
But even when a church is aggressive in house calls by clergy and lay visitation teams, it can’t make enough touches in a week to accomplish the needed ministry.
Let me suggest the following less invasive touches, which are easy to multiply:
Bulletin ministry for families totally absent. Send a bulletin with a handwritten note to any family totally absent on the previous Sunday.
Thank you notes to people who did something well. Many words of affirmation should be shared.
 | Birthday cards to each of your people having a birthday. One fine pastor calls each participant on his or her birthday and sings "Happy Birthday." |
| Anniversary cards to each couple celebrating an anniversary. |
| Special occasion cards should be sent to anyone celebrating a special occasion such as the birth of a child, a death in the family, an illness, a promotion, etc. |
| Have someone watch the local papers for mention of the names of members. Clip the articles and put them on a bulletin board with the names highlighted, or laminate a copy and mail to the person mentioned. |
| Take pictures of new people and put them on the bulletin board with their names so others can identify them. |
| Telephone visits. Visit briefly by telephone with regular attendees. |
| Construct an e-mail address list of all the families who will share their email addresses. Regularly send an e-mail note to regular attendees. Each Friday drop an e-mail note of a few paragraphs to everybody on your list. An ever-growing number of people have e-mail addresses. |
| Attend events in which children of the church are participating. Try to obtain a list of all the children of the church who are participating in special activities. See that someone from the church attends at least one of the activities of each child. |
| Regular contacts need to be made with legitimate shut-in members. |
Do you have some other methods of providing touches? Please let me know. Such ideas will be shared later. Write me at churchconsultants@eudoramail.com
Everything mentioned above could be done by a series of different lay people. In fact, unless a church is very small, a pastor can’t make all of these touches alone. Others need to be involved. Sue wrote to Mary expressing her appreciation for the ministry Mary provided this past Sunday. Mary pulled the card from her purse and expressed her gratitude to Sue with tears running down her cheeks the next time the two met. Mary said, "I’ve been in the church a long time, but I’ve seldom gotten so much as a thank you and have never gotten a card of appreciation from the church. Thanks so much." Sue received the motivation to write many more cards.
Is it right or wrong? That isn’t the issue. Does it work? Does it communicate that the church cares about its people? Those are the important questions. We are living in a different world. Ministry techniques have to adjust. Complicated, diverse, intense, and full are the schedules of our people. It is so easy to lose focus and misplace good priorities. The church needs to care enough for its people to touch, touch, touch, and remind them of the rightful place God has in their lives. I’m convinced ministry has gotten much tougher. It doesn’t appear it will let up anytime soon.
John and Mary Swartz, a young couple, began to attend Christ Church. A serious illness occurred involving six weeks of hospitalization. No one from the church visited. There was no personal contact from the church at all in their year of attendance. The couple inquired about membership. They received the letter of another couple describing the membership class in their envelope. Because of a perceived lack of concern by the church, John and Mary did not attend the class. There was no personal contact from the church to inquire about their absence. John and Mary no longer attend Christ Church.
Tragically, this story has been repeated too many times. Unless there is a specific, intentional ministry of touches, it will be repeated far too often and probably in your own church.
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May 31, 2000. Volume 3, Issue 7. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.