People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Understanding Churches of Choice
and the Implications
by James W. Moss, Sr.
Churches of choice in a community are quite unique. They are dominant churches in a community. They are so visible that when people in a community think of going to church, they are one of the obvious choices. They get a flow of visitors that only other churches of choice receive.
There are several problems. Only 1-2% of churches are churches of choice in the community. The size of the church of choice is dependent upon the population of the community. They would be the huge churches in metropolitan areas. A church of 500 in average attendance could be a church of choice in a mid-size community. A church of 200 could be a church of choice in a small town. A church of 100 could be a church of choice in a rural community.
A church of choice is not necessarily the largest church in the community. It is also not necessarily the church offering the highest quality program. The most spiritually mature congregation may not be the church of choice.
As a young pastor, I believed that spiritual maturity and quality programming would serve as magnet to attract people. I had bought into a myth. Please realize that spiritual maturity and quality programming and care alone doesn’t generate a flow of people. It helps to keep people but not attract people.
What are the characteristics of a church of choice? It is very visible in the community. It advertises. Prominent people of the community attend there. It is physically visible. These churches are so dominant that they receive a flow of visitors. On many occasions they get more visitors than they can handle. I have had several pastors of churches of choice correctly say to me, "We don’t need an outreach program, because we can’t follow-up on the people who are already walking through the door."
A church of choice may or may not be the highest quality church with the greatest spiritual maturity. Occasionally, the church of choice has grown beyond its current capacities to provide high quality ministry and growing spiritual depth. Please don’t take these words to be a criticism of churches of choice; they are, rather, just a statement of fact.
Keys to Growth
The normal attrition of a church is 10-15% of the worshipping congregation. A church of 50 will loose an average of 5-8 people each year. A church of 100 will loose 10-15 people each year. Normal attrition is relentless. It occurs every year. Growth doesn’t occur until more people are brought in than those that have left. Normal attrition is the very normal losses that occur apart from conflict or division. What happens to those people? Some die. Others become incapacitated so they can’t attend. Some members get job transfers from the community. Others drop out. A few transfer to other churches. Normal attrition happens.
David Williams is a good pastor. He serves the Roaring Spring Church of God. He has worked hard with the church to bring new life to the church. David came to me several years ago. During a seminar he was very pleased as he shared with me that 28 new people began attending Roaring Spring Church of God the previous year. I explained about normal attrition in the next session. During the next break David came with a frown to explain that 27 people had left in the same time frame. In the years since, David and the church have brought in more people than were consumed by normal attrition.
Why talk about normal attrition in this context? It is very important. Churches of choice normally get enough people walking through the door to cover normal attrition and provide growth. The pastors of churches of choice are frequently the persons who are the ones doing the seminars the rest of us attend. Sometimes they just don’t understand that the other 98-99% really have to work hard to get people to walk through their doors.
My oldest son is a pastor. We constantly talk about church. We are convinced that the other 98-99% of churches are having to work harder than at anytime in the past 20 years to get people to walk through the doors.
Strategies for getting people through the door include:
- Give 10 nicely prepared invitations to each family having a child dedicated, each person being baptized, each person joining the church. Ask them to hand or mail these invitations to their friends and neighbors for these special events.
- Have a special Sunday morning. Prepare a nice invitation to give to participants so they can invite their friends and neighbors for a specific Sunday.
- Honor a secular group in the community and invite them and their families to attend your church on a specific Sunday so they might be honored and appreciated by your church. Groups could include Boy and Girl Scouts, the volunteer fire company, police, etc.
What additional strategies can you think of?
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Read about Jim's seminars and books.
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March 26, 2001. Volume 4, Issue 5. 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.