Creating Direction
How to spark growth this fall in your congregation
by David Collins
Congregations that are stuck have many things in common with each other. The externals are obvious: declining membership, lack of energy, majoring in the minors, etc. But they also share many internals, beliefs and attitudes, which keep them from growing.
One of those beliefs is that they think they need to trick people into coming to church. Sitting around a conference table, they create complicated trails that new people will need to follow to end up in worship on a Sunday morning…always without being directly invited.
“We’ll get involved in this mission project, or do VBS, or start a mid-week program, and then people will see how much good we’re doing and then they’ll want to know about us, and then they’ll ask us what time worship begins on Sunday, and we’ll tell them, and then eventually they’ll come, and then they’ll be OURS! MUA-HA-Ha-HAAA”
I’m not sure if they create these trails because they are scared of inviting people to church, or maybe because that’s just too obvious a solution, but the result is the same. They don’t directly invite people to worship, which is exactly what they need to do.
I think it might help to change the way that we think about invitation. It’s not about going door-to-door selling Watchtower pamphlets. It’s more like giving directions.
Remember driving before GPS? When I would get lost, and stop and ask directions, I could never remember any of the directions after the first one. I would hear the person say “Go down to the second light and turn left,” and after that their voice would turn into Charlie Brown’s teacher’s.
I’ve found that the same thing happens when you invite people to church. They will only remember one direction. By inviting them to six different events, you might think you’re increasing the chance that they’ll come to whatever sounds best, and then eventually, they’ll come to worship. But you’d be wrong.
What actually works is giving direction. Or even better, creating direction through the intentional use of Big Sundays.
What would that look like in your congregation this year? It’s June now, and most churches go into a form of hibernation over the summer. So let’s look at the fall.
Most families feel like they need a month to get life back to normal again after the back-to-school rush, before they will try out going to church. So a good day to start a new outward focused sermon series is about a month after school goes back into session after summer break. At my church, we do the week after Labor Day, and call it Homecoming Sunday. Many churches do the same.
To spread the word about this big Sunday, we get hundreds of invite cards printed. One month before the big Sunday, we start including them in the bulletin, handing them to people as they leave worship, encouraging them to hand them out to friends and neighbors, and mailing some out, too. This year, we’re also going to make a promotional video to share on Facebook. But the direction that everything will be giving is to come to worship on that big Sunday, how to get there, when to arrive, and why they should come.
There’s even a way to use the big ideas that we often think of to “trick” people into coming church to actually create direction towards Sunday worship. Things like VBS, and Block Parties, and Movie Nights can be scheduled strategically so that they can serve as signposts towards the big Sunday. If you put these events a week or two before the big Sunday, and remember to invite everyone who comes to them to come back next Sunday, you can create direction towards the service that will actually do what the church is called and created to do: share the gospel in a worshipping community.
If you start planning today, you’ll be right on track to see real growth this fall. Be swell!
David R. Collins is the co-pastor of Maitland Presbyterian Church near Orlando, Florida.