Reefgazer Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What activities or outreach programs does your church have or does your church do when trying to grow the membership? I'm particularly interested in what ideas other churches implement with respect to increasing youth participation, but would like to hear ideas for all ages. This would be for a mainline Protestant church. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Ours has a private school. They keep the tuition as low as possible, and consider it an outreach, not a profit center. They started with Pre-K and K and offered the older grades as those kids grew up. That not only gave them a chance to slowly get the school up and going but to get the administration going also. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms.Ivy Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Ours has a private school. They keep the tuition as low as possible, and consider it an outreach, not a profit center. They started with Pre-K and K and offered the older grades as those kids grew up. That not only gave them a chance to slowly get the school up and going but to get the administration going also. Our church has the same thing. ... excellent, affordable private school. They also have ESL classes for adults, ministry for college students at the nearby universities, and a sports camp at a public school during the summer. The biggest draw, though, is the preaching. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah CB Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Assuming you've got a great pastor, I know that two things that really influenced our old church's growth were having a nursery (even though when it started I think only the pastor had children) and having evening programs for youth. Our church ran a group for grades 4, 5, and 6 one night a week and then ran a youth group on another night. They had a youth pastor who was really passionate about what he was doing. I don't remember exact numbers but I'm pretty sure they were getting more than 100 kids in each group when we left. They had children's programs during services as well. The church went from almost dead (I can't remember numbers, but I think it was something like 30 members) to over 200 members although I think their attendance reaches about 600 between the two services. There were a lot of things going right in the church, but I do think the commitment to children and youth made a big difference. There are a lot of young families in the church. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Great preaching is #1 no matter what else is going on. We've been to churches that have tried many different things and they get visitors to come, but if the preaching is sub-par (puts people to sleep or just difficult to follow or offensive) those visitors don't stay. The church we attend has a preacher everyone loves and is easy to listen to. I know he'd still be offensive to some, so those visitors won't stay, but many others do. The church also has an active youth group and partners with a community (Christian - YFC) youth group giving kids many options. Then they offer the assorted other courses occasionally from financial advice to marriage (or divorce) advice or raising kids, etc. There are Sunday School classes covering a variety of topics and small groups that meet at other times. But without preaching... it wouldn't matter. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What Creekland said--preach the Word of God, and HE will grow your church to HIS glory. A church is not a business. You don't have promotions (programs) to grow the church. If your church is preaching the Bible (meaning no lame attempts by the pastor at being cool, no "porn and pancakes breakfast" billboards around town, etc.), the Holy Spirit will move through your church and prompt people to serve others in the church. Outreach comes as a result of God moving in your life. If outreach comes through man's attempts at growing the church, it will ultimately fail. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwickimom Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 We don't really focus on outreach but on being active in the community. We go out and give out popsicles in the park, did a free gas hour at the gas station, help fix up people's houses, handed out water on street corners when it was 100 degrees out, have a Christmas program where we buy families Christmas presents and have a party for them at the church, had a party in the park with bounce houses and food........ We do all this just to get out and bless the community, but people become very interested in the fact that we are doing that and come and check us out. I think churches just need to do what we are supposed to do and support and love on people. Show people God through the church. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
historically accurate Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What Creekland said--preach the Word of God, and HE will grow your church to HIS glory. A church is not a business. You don't have promotions (programs) to grow the church. If your church is preaching the Bible (meaning no lame attempts by the pastor at being cool, no "porn and pancakes breakfast" billboards around town, etc.), the Holy Spirit will move through your church and prompt people to serve others in the church. Outreach comes as a result of God moving in your life. If outreach comes through man's attempts at growing the church, it will ultimately fail. Porn and pancake breakfasts? :huh: I don't understand this comment; what is this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Porn and pancake breakfasts? :huh: I don't understand this comment; what is this? It's a reference to the outrageous titles of church programs in an effort to garner attention in the community. It's not uncommon; you can google the title and see that various churches have offered such seminars. My point was that you don't have to "do" things in a misguided effort to be relevant--in that same vein, your pastor shouldn't be up there greeting the church with, "What UP, church?!!!!!" and throwing wanna be gang signs unless that's his real way of speaking. False hipness and try hard attempts at relevance are not fruitful. (And yeah, we've been to a church like that.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 We don't try to grow our church. We introduce unbelievers to Christ and provide a place for them to grow in the faith. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Outreach comes as a result of God moving in your life. If outreach comes through man's attempts at growing the church, it will ultimately fail. This, exactly! Church is not a numbers game. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 We don't try to grow our church. We introduce unbelievers to Christ and provide a place for them to grow in the faith. This is the key. If you don't preach the word, it just becomes a social club. That said, look at how each member is treating others Monday through Saturday. Are they reaching out to their friends and neighbors? Open to those in their community? I know that the church we currently attend was a dying church. They had alternative ed students that would use the parking lot at breaks for smoking and skate boarding. One day the board had a meeting to discuss what they should do about these teens..............and they decided to bring them pizza and start building relationships with them. That was the first small step to taking the church from a struggling ministry of under 100 to one of about 1000 people over 3 services each week. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livetoread Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I used to attend a large liberal Presbyterian church that is doing well. It has a beautiful building, high church liturgical service with a concert worthy music program, and lots of community service. It is an urban church and though most of its members come in from the suburbs, its service is focused on helping the area around it. One program that has been extremely helpful is helping people who are missing documentation as they tackle the system. Another is adopting a nearby school and providing supplies, tutoring, and outings for the kids. The biggest draw for youth, strangely enough, is the youth choirs. The music director is amazing and he has a huge high school youth choir that sings beautiful classical music. They have a lot of fun while getting excellent musical training. The church does a good job of looking at its members (mostly well-educated, liberal professionals) and figuring out their strengths and how to use them for service. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanabug Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 The church I attend has about 600 members. We have the following ministries for outreach: -private Christian school (beginning next year) -prison ministry -clothing pantry -food pantry -weekly low-cost lunch for high school juniors and seniors -parenting classes for the community -toy give away at Christmas for needy families -community garden -allow many groups to use our building and property for activities (meetings,elections, sports practice, etc) -vacation bible school -provide back to school supplies for underprivileged -youth groups for k-12th grade -marriage counseling on a "pay what you can" basis -foster parent support group -mental illness support group Our church tries to build relationship with people by meeting their physical needs first. Only then can we begin to build spiritual relationships and lead them to Christ. Lana 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 In our church, we focus very much on being welcoming to visitors if it's their first time. We have a greeter, we have someone come up at the beginning of service to give a brief intro about what our mission is, we invite everyone to social hour. During social hour, we have special visitors mugs people are welcome to grab if they want people to come talk to them. We put cards and pencils in each pew so people can 'sign in' - if they do they get a letter from the minister welcoming them to come again. We also have a website geared towards visitors more than members (members log in to a more detailed site). In other words, we work hard to reach out to 'church shoppers'. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I can think of two things. 1. Loving your neighbors. Any church that is not loving its own community/surrounding areas isn't taking part of the Great Commission, IMO. You might be surprised how often people join a church that has SERVED them in some way. I also think this can also be a means of helping multiple generations work and struggle and serve together which is a wonderful way to build community. For example, a food pantry ministry tends to draw older volunteers. Pair them with teens and watch some very cool conversations start and relationships blossom. (Obviously, they can try to build relationships with those they are serving as well! Just seeing a strong, loving community is very attractive to people!) 2. In terms of youth, yes, interesting and sometimes fun programming is good for *drawing* people in, but once they get there? ANSWER their questions. Have a culture of openness towards serious questions, doubts, and reasons why the church believes what it does. Teaching Bible stories and using Christianese along with a "just have faith" message are extremely unsatisfying. I know it seems as if teens and young adults can be intellectually passive and aloof, but they are NOT! Introduce some tough questions--and allow them to ask, too--and then actually answer them. Finally, stop acting like a business. (Not *being* a business in areas where you must be, like finances, of course.) People know when they are being herded into membership to up the numbers. I do NOT like this feeling. This is not how we love people. I'm actually opposed to announcing numbers in most areas of growth. Celebrate people coming into a relationship with Christ, marriages, births, baptisms. Numbers? Nope. Keep your tallies for logistical reasons. (This one is just my personal opinion and preference. I hate sitting in church and having half the sermon time taken up with announcing numerical "success" and applause for ourselves. Blech.) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 We attended an awesome Episcopal church for a few years where the priest had basically been sent to close it down. He was a very funny, smart, older gay man originally trained as an Eastern Orthodox priest. Instead, he managed to entirely revive the church... starting with a music program. He hired an amazing music director and began hiring musician to put together a choir, organizing first regular candlelit compline chants and later concerts. Then they began growing a choristers program involving free piano lessons and voice lessons for kids (it was a low-income area with no music programs in the schools). Parents would come to church to support kids. It was very high church and in a beautiful old stone building and it became a beautiful, diverse, welcoming church -- traditional and engaged in social concerns of the community. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3 ladybugs Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Be strong in the word of God and they will come. I know this sounds easy, but it isn't. So often we get side tracked by being PC or whatever and the word of God gets muddied. We belong to a church that is 30 minutes driving distance from where we live. And we are not even the ones that live the farthest that are active, come every week members! There is a family that comes from 45 minutes away! This church is in the middle of the country that you have to purposely know it is there to get to it. Yet we are growing and I believe it is because of a couple of things. 1. Our pastor makes no apologies for being a conservative Lutheran pastor. (I should mention that we are Lutheran and attend a LCMS Lutheran church) 2. When families come, we welcome them. We don't say we welcome them then say that we wish their children would be quiet in service, we really mean we go out and welcome them! We have an active Sunday School too for ages 3+, and an older teenager "hang time" that meets once a month. We have been to churches that don't welcome families and yet wonder why their membership is down. Oh and we have a cry room where you can still hear the service yet let a child be a LOUD child. We also have a nursery school, do church get togethers (easter breakfast, summer picnic, lenten suppers) and other things, but I think these are the 2 biggies. Our church isn't perfect, I know it has problems and the elders are always worried about the bottom line, but I know it is growing. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umsami Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 DS3 goes to a Mainline Protestant churches preschool. It's VPK, but their additional fees are very low and they provide all supplies as part of outreach. Once per month they sponsor a parent's night out. This seems to be extremely popular with young couples. They also hold two of them leading up to Christmas so parents can shop. (One is a Saturday afternoon, I believe.) The Methodist church near us houses a lot of Scout groups. They even gave the Scouts an old garage which is called the Scout Shack. The big church that my Mom goes to has so many things going on. I've known many to do young adult social type groups....so some are 20somethings who go rock climbing, play paint ball, etc. Teen groups do similar things. You might be able to get some idea here; http://calendar.northlandchurch.net 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kharisma Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Our family recently joined a local church after being out of the church for many years. When we brainstorming where to visit, churches with a nursery went to the top of the list. We checked church web sites or Facebook pages to learn more about them prior to visiting. Being a visitor with young kids, its important to me to have an escape route if things got bad. My older son really likes the Sunday school and our church has a coffee social after the service. My kids love it, but it also gives us a regular opportunity to meet and form friendships with the other members. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What Creekland said--preach the Word of God, and HE will grow your church to HIS glory. A church is not a business. You don't have promotions (programs) to grow the church. If your church is preaching the Bible (meaning no lame attempts by the pastor at being cool, no "porn and pancakes breakfast" billboards around town, etc.), the Holy Spirit will move through your church and prompt people to serve others in the church. Outreach comes as a result of God moving in your life. If outreach comes through man's attempts at growing the church, it will ultimately fail. AMEN. I really think growing church membership is an insidious trap many pastors fall into, that distracts them from the true purpose of their service to the Lord. The numbers game is such nonsense and doesn't reflect the quality of the preaching or dedication of the body - I've seen amazing churches stay small and horrific, barely religious groups explode at the seams and have multiple overflowing services. I want to encourage ANYONE in ministry to focus on pleasing the Lord and let Him be the one to bring his sheep to a shepherd, not for the pastor to lose time and sleep trying to increase his church's member rolls. Faithfully preach the word, in season and out of season. Love the body, and encourage humility, evangelism, and service as attitudes of worship among your flock. That is enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raptor_dad Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What Creekland said--preach the Word of God, and HE will grow your church to HIS glory. A church is not a business. You don't have promotions (programs) to grow the church. If your church is preaching the Bible (meaning no lame attempts by the pastor at being cool, no "porn and pancakes breakfast" billboards around town, etc.), the Holy Spirit will move through your church and prompt people to serve others in the church. Outreach comes as a result of God moving in your life. If outreach comes through man's attempts at growing the church, it will ultimately fail. Personally, that hasn't been my experience. We've regularly attended 5 churches over the years all in different states. The largest were the 2 loosely university affiliated churches with good music and children's programs. The 2 community church were smaller but vibrant The smallest most marginal church was by far the most Christian community, we've ever been in. All the churches were open and affirming and relatively activist. One of the university churches sponsored a homeless tent city,etc etc... The small church had good preaching and was so engaged in good works. It could be a welcoming community and an uncomfortable place to be a parishioner at the same time. It was so radically generous that the more comfortable members found themselves bailing out the church for basic bills. It is the only church we've attended where I feel the whole community had jointly "put their hands in the Hand of God and gone forth into the unknown" to paraphrase. I think there are lots of different kinds of churches. A "good" church needs to preach the Word of God, but God is willing to meet people at a variety of points on their journeys. Large churches or small churches can move people further on their spiritual path. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 We don't think that way. We don't think it's Biblical.We simply focus on being friendly to visitors, high quality preaching, a quality worship service, a quality children's ministry during the worship service for those who choose to not worship as a family and ministering to those in need (foster kids, Feed My Starving Children, an orphanage in Africa that a missionary friend runs, care packages for the homeless, meeting the needs of those in our congregation, etc.) We don't believe teens need to be entertained-they need to serve along with their families. We don't have debt (we rent an elementary school cafeteria on Sunday mornings) and don't plan on incurring any debt. We don't have high expenses either. ( I personally think this is the #1 reason churches get into pushing "growth programs." ) We have weekly small group time (Bible study and prayer.) We also have a regular women's activity and men's activity (sometimes teaching and sometimes serving) that run at the same time so as to not intrude too much on family time. We expect members to be diligent in their own private daily Bible study and prayer time during the week too. We're not interested in attracting people who aren't interest in those kinds of things. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xahm Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 This is the key. If you don't preach the word, it just becomes a social club. That said, look at how each member is treating others Monday through Saturday. Are they reaching out to their friends and neighbors? Open to those in their community? I know that the church we currently attend was a dying church. They had alternative ed students that would use the parking lot at breaks for smoking and skate boarding. One day the board had a meeting to discuss what they should do about these teens..............and they decided to bring them pizza and start building relationships with them. That was the first small step to taking the church from a struggling ministry of under 100 to one of about 1000 people over 3 services each week. This is awesome! The church we are leaving has about 30 members in attendance each Sunday, mostly age 70 plus. The church keeps up its membership by a revolving number of old people growing disenchanted with their church, joining this one, and staying there until death or time to get angry and move on to the next church. Obviously, we didn't realize how bad the situation was when we joined. The thing that let us know was when there was a meeting about how homeless people were using the church's water hose to bathe. Quickly they decided to plant briars in the area where this activity was taking place. A few weeks later, I saw the church budget for the first time and realized that this accidental shower ministry to the homeless had been the church's ONLY outreach. And an end had been put to that! (I'm very sorry that I didn't speak up during either of the meetings, but everything happened fast and I was new and distracted by small children as my husband couldn't be there, and by the time I figured out what was happening, it was done). All that to say, simply proclaiming the word through biblical preaching is not enough. Proclaim it through the life of the church, through your ministry to the community. Follow the example of Ottakee's church, not mine. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Here is part of our church's mission statement: Life Stream Church is a community of people who are simply called to live and share the story of God. We do this by actively engaging with our local community and world through the arts, athletics, service and personal interaction while trying to be the hands and of feet of Jesus wherever it is needed most. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milovany Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 For background, we're Eastern Orthodox. Similar to above, we don't really focus on church growth specifically as a goal. We focus on ourselves and our own repentance (as one of the saints of the church said, "Acquire peace and thousands around you will be saved"), and we also just focus on Church and all she gives us -- liturgy, sacraments, daily prayers, icons, yearly cycle of feast days and fasting periods, etc. It's how people meet and commune with the Holy Trinity -- If people want to come be a part, they can. All are welcome. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Let the kids grow up and become adults within the church. A lot of churches have child/youth programs but then completely drop the ball as the kids get older. The kids just "age out" of the church and no one thinks it's a problem. And then they wonder why membership is shrinking. Because when those kids leave, they tend to take their families with them. Don't age segregate activities. Activities where families (even grown children) can work on something together is going to keep families coming back. Children's and youth choirs are definitely a big draw for some people. There's nothing wrong with social activities. They bring people together. A bunch of disconnected church members aren't going to hang around long enough to care about the word of God. Don't do outreach at the expense of current members. Everyone needs to feel valued. Just because someone's been sitting in a pew for years and paying their dues doesn't mean they won't up and leave if they're not getting supported or listened to or the message of the church is no longer meeting their needs. I'm no longer going to a church we were very active in -- because outreach efforts were taking over the church. The programs we'd been active in got taken over by strangers (who had no intention of actually joining the church) and we were not welcome in them anymore -- because we were not part of the "outreach" demographic the church was hoping to appeal to. When I tried to start a few new programs that more people could participate in, I was discouraged from doing it (well, discouraged is sort of mild word for what I was told). And the things that were really special about this particular church have been dropped. I don't know that their outreach has accomplished much. While they've brought in new families, they've lost others BECAUSE of the outreach. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MFG Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 There is an expression, "What you win them WITH is what you win them TO". This saying has been used to criticize a perceived entertainment culture in the church, but I think it can have a broader and more positive application. A church needs to be true to its own beliefs and priorities. There is nothing wrong with trying to make your group and its activities known to a wider audience, but launching an artificially adopted marketing scheme could prove counterproductive. Even if people come, they may well not stay long if they do not continue to receive what they expect. Or the character of the church changes and the original members no longer feel welcome. No one likes a bait and switch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 We try to differentiate between inviting people to church and inviting people to Christ. At the same time, we know if they come to church, they will be exposed to Christ. Up to them how far they want to take it. Our community is Christ's hands and feet--the Body. So we try to be kind and loving and helpful to each other, and take that love outside the walls, knowing that our main ministry is not what happens at church, but what happens in the places we spend the most time--with work and family, for most of us. We also have a great Sunday School for the littles (Godly Play), a really balanced and deep youth group, great choirs, and excellent teaching. Our preaching is good, too--but we are liturgical, so our sermons are much shorter than non-denoms or the like. I know when most of you say, "YOu need good preaching" you are probably referring to teaching sermons that last longer than our traditional 12 minutes! lol So we cover the teaching in adult Sunday School--dh is an excellent teacher and a true biblical scholar, and I'm going to brag a bit and say he is a fine, fine, teacher. The kids need to see the adults walking the walk, though. And they need adults involved with them--our youth advisors are pretty special. Some need more training, but we have a couple really strong faithful Christians, and it is amazing the influence they have. Finally, with the youth, I'd say a youth group has to offer something that the youth can't find anywhere else. So not just entertainment, not just trips or social action, but all of it, and infused with the Gospel--with Jesus! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasperstone Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 This, exactly! Church is not a numbers game. Try telling Hillsong that. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umsami Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Oh, I'm going to add this. I grew up Presbyterian. Bibles were in the pews, but I knew of very few people who actually brought their own Bible to church. There was no concept of taking notes in one's Bible, etc. It was a totally different experience when I joined an Assemblies of God church later in life. Everybody brought their Bibles.....they took notes on them....the church bulletins actually had fill in the blanks/outlines for notes, etc. I always left feeling like I had not only been spiritually nourished, but also having learned something. It was a wonderful feeling. I don't know if it was just the church I went to growing up, or if it is common in all mainline denominations, etc. But, I think if you do not do so, having notes/outline on the sermon in the bulletin might be a good place to start. Encouraging people to bring a Bible....learn the books and where to find things...might be a good step. Maybe do a series on Bible Literacy 101 or something like that? (I realize that this is not an activity/outreach...so see the post above for that.) :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Thanks, all! Our church has a nursery with a paid child care worker, a preschool ministry, as well as VBS, a homeless ministry, and various other community outreach and services. For a small congregation, we're pretty busy, LOL! We are looking for something that would attract youth to the church. We have 2 issues: One is that we have such a small congregation with so few youth that we can't have a youth "group" in the traditional sense of the word. This means many of our members are older and we would like more youth to join us; they add energy and vitality and are crucial for the next generation of the church. Second, we have a very hard time getting volunteers for our programs; the same people volunteer all the time and it can really lead to burnout. As for the preaching...well, we don't really have much choice; our pastor is assigned to us and rotated out every so often to another church. Not only that, but "good preaching" is in the eye of the beholder; what I see as good, another will not, and vice versa. So that's something we don't have control of. Thanks for all your replies; they were very helpful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umsami Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I wonder if there might be another small church that perhaps has a young congregation that you could somehow partner with? Not sure how that would work....but I think there are benefits from having interactions with more seasoned Christians as well. Hosting Scouts might help. Where we go, the Scout leaders just have a key....so it doesn't require a volunteer from the church to be present. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Yes, this is one idea I have been thinking about - combining youth from a few other very small churches in the same denomination. I suggested that a while ago and no one warmed to it, but with new church leadership, I'll suggest it again. We do already host Girl Scouts, but only one girl is a current church member. it I wonder if there might be another small church that perhaps has a young congregation that you could somehow partner with? Not sure how that would work....but I think there are benefits from having interactions with more seasoned Christians as well. Hosting Scouts might help. Where we go, the Scout leaders just have a key....so it doesn't require a volunteer from the church to be present. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Eastern Orthodox. We aren't concerned with expanding/growing. We are concerned with those already in the Church and how we can help those in our parish grow and make sure our children know our faith. If people visit, we are friendly. Some in our parish may have cultural/language barriers and so we don't do the "love bombing" you'll find elsewhere. However, it's more honest in that you are there for you, not because we've bribed, conjoled, or made you feel suddenly in the in-crowd. Our parish has grown with immigrants that are already Orthodox, converts, and those that have simply moved from one area of the country to this area...and babies. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 We also don't really take the approach of trying to grow for the sake of numbers. However, I do think it is legitimate to ask why a particular type of person that you might expect isn't coming, or whether you are meeting the legitimate needs of people. My parish has services signed for the deaf, for example, because those people can really benefit from that support, and it does bring people to us that might not come otherwise. I think in a small church, teens can sometimes feel like they don't have a lot of peers and miss that intereaction - most people like to have some people who are in a similar place in their religious life to talk to. It's something my parish struggles with a bit because die to some demographic quirk, we have a small group of teens at the moment, and they are almost all girls. The idea of joining resources with another group might be worth looking at. In the past our parish has helped send parish kids to a denominational summer camp as well, which gives them some opportunities to talk about spiritual and theological subjects with really good teachers and other teens. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Some of our jurisdictions have summer camps. If a parish is in need of an ASL interpreter, one would be found, I'm certain. However, most of our service is not taken up with sermons. Our sermon is about 10min. Our services are full of things that touch all senses. Scent, touch, sound, taste, sight. Each parish reaches out how it's capable (cultural fest with tours of the parish, city food pantries, provisions for shelters or transitional homes, etc). Generally, we are encouraged to live what we are taught. It's not about actively trying to shove our religion down another person's throat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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