People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
People Participation
by James W. Moss, Sr.I have been talking about four critical areas in a church that have the potential to be blockers to growth. They are: space in the sanctuary, small group base, parking, and people participation.
The first two (space and small groups) apparently remain constant in recent years. Parking has been changing very gradually over a number of years dropping from an average of 3 persons per car to 2.3 or less.
The fourth, people participation, is changing drastically. It took two people to average one for a year 25 years ago. What do I mean? It took two different people who attended a church over the course of twelve months to average one in average attendance. I believe that figure was a constant until about ten years ago. Then the change began and recently has been moving significantly. In mission churches and growing congregation it takes as many as three to average one for a year. For example, it takes 300 different people who actually attend over the course of 12 months to average 100. In more static congregations it takes 2.5 to average 1. For example it takes 250 people to average 100. The only real exceptions occur in the very small congregations with an average of 34 or less in worship.
I am constantly told, “Jim, that just doesn’t apply to us. Our people are more faithful than that.” I simply don’t believe it. Count the different people who have attended over the past year who count your church as theirs and actually attended. “But I counted,” you may say. My response is, “Do you have all the names?”
The modern myth of "perfect attendance"
In “ancient” times, perfect attendance pins were given for those who had attended every Sunday of the year. They are now history. One study revealed that the 20% of most faithful attendees 25 years ago averaged 50 Sundays a year. Now that same 20% are averaging 41 Sundays a year. It is taking more people to average the same number.
I’m not advocating more sporadic attendance as a recommended style. However, I’m stating that lifestyle in most churches is such that persons who are attending at least half of the Sundays are now among your more regular participants.
Some of it is because of the lifestyle we have established. We are so busy that we are running here and there. Affluence is responsible for some of it. We have the money to go places and do things and we do. Sunday is no longer a sacred day. All kinds of sports events occur on Sunday mornings hindering church attendance. Stores are open and people have to work. All of this has impacted the regularity of attendance.
Bringing them back/keeping them coming
Because of the above factors, I believe many contacts must be made with participants. Consider these possibilities:
 | Build an email list of all your people and on Friday morning sent them a brief message highlighting events for the weekend. |
| Send a bulletin with a hand-written note to each family totally absent on a given Sunday. |
| Make sufficient ministry telephone visits to contact each family in the church at least once a month. |
| Offer alternative worship times for persons who are extremely busy on Sunday mornings. |
I think we need to be very aggressive in reaching out to the people who God has already given us.
However, even quality absentee care can produce only minimal impact. My goal is that good absentee care alone could increase attendance by about 10-15%. But absentee care is very important because you want to slam the back door. There is no growth if one person comes through the front door and another goes out the back door.
Serious growth will occur only through the introduction of new people. Remember, to increase your annual average attendance by 10 requires 25-30 new attendees!
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September 23, 2003. Volume 6, Issue 11. 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 with proper credit. 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.