Outreach.
Churches agonize about it. Well at least this one does. But listen and observe carefully how people talk about it and attempt to engage in it.
Spend thousands of dollars on slick postcards to the community. “There’s a place for you here!” Where we are. Little map. Schedule of worship and other activities. Colorful picture. Actually quite well done.
Debates about whether and how often to advertize in the local newspaper. Cutting back just a bit. About whether to continue shelling out enormous sums for a presence in the yellow pages.
And oh yeah we got yellow “visitors’ bags”. Full of papers and brochures about different ministries within the church. All very informative. And maybe boring at times.
Recently the discussion has shifted to administration and procedures. How do we handle visitor information? How do we follow up with visitors? Letter. Phone call – not too many or they feel harrassed! Dare we visit?
And recently significant changes in our primary software suite for membership management. Automated Church Systems aka ACS. Not longer hosting it locally but now with their server – we access it remotely. Costs more – but now they are responsible for installations and upgrades and backups. Frankly this represents a dramatic improvement.
Leverage a module within ACS we have never used before. So that an “outreach coordinator” in each Sunday school class can enter visitor information. Coordinate follow up. Report results.
Do you see where this is going?
I have been struck by this curious emphasis on the mechanics of outreach – where outreach means “letting people know about our church such that they come here… and then they want to come back… and join and/or participate… and it would be nice if they contribute financially”.
In a way – evangelism as marketing.
Let me throw something else on the table. Recent discussions about Sunday school. Deep concern about how the numbers have been dropping steadily for the last several years. Meetings with parents of children and youth to find out what they want. Because – and I am sure you have heard this plenty of times – “they are the future”.
Parents with children – and those children/youth – are the “future of the church”.
My ministerial colleagues chafe somewhat against the “the young are the future of the church” talk. Because what does that say about our seniors? They are the past? They are obsolete? And what does it say about our children and youth and hey throw in the youngish families or the pre-seniors? That if they are the future they must by implication not be the present?
I am deeply troubled when churches talk about “outreach” (growing the church numerically) as a marketing/mechanical problem. “If we have the right tools and mechanisms… if you use this software… designate these people to implement certain procedures and processes… if we put together just the right mailings and website… then people will flock to us and join”.
My seminary teacher (yes professor but “teacher” strikes a more affectionate tone) Isam Ballenger taught that there are centripetal as well as centrifugal forces in Christian mission. What does that mean? That yes the church “goes out” to say and do things. We go and tell people about Jesus. We go and serve others in the name of Jesus. This is the centrifugal movement. “Go get them!”
But we often overlook the centripetal movement. To what extent do we evangelize simply by being the church? By our prayer our worship our life in communion with each other and by holy living? Such that people are drawn into the Christian church because they are attracted. And/or – in tension with the centrifugal – once we have “gone out and gotten them” they actually want to stay and be a part of this? This is the centripetal movement. “Bring them in / they will come”.
Congratulations! You have spent thousands and successfully gotten twenty people to visit your church on that groovy Sunday when you have a special worship service. You greeted them. Gave them bags. Got their information. Called and wrote and maybe even visited them.
Why should they come back?
I am not convinced that growing the church numerically is necessarily or always the product of mechanics and marketing and procedures. Because the church is not – or at least it jolly well should not be – another social service agency or another religious social club. “Come join our organization! We are nice people who do nice things! You should be part of this too!”
{WILL FINISH THIS LATER WHEN I GET HOME AND HAVE ACCESS TO A CERTAIN RESOURCE}
