Tips on Attracting New Members and Promoting Sunday School a brief article from Neil MacQueen
Neil is a Presbyterian minister and CE specialist who has been involved with various movements and strategies to promote Sunday School across the denominations.
Learn more at http://www.sundaysoftware.com/whoarewe.htmIn my ministry, I'm often asked "How Can We Improve Attendance?" Occasionally I'm even asked about attracting new members! As a pastor, youth leader, teacher, and now pastor-in-the-pew, I have 30+ years of experience dealing in these issues from many points of view.
A few years ago, "Helen" --a fellow Presbyterian in Virginia, wrote asking me for my advice., and more specifically about "marketing Rotation-style Sunday School." Here is the response I gave her, which I've since expanded and turned into this article.
Hope it adds fuel to your thoughts. <>< Neil
Dear Helen...
You've asked some very important questions which I've been asked many times before, struggled with, and had to address in the various churches and church jobs I've held. And of course, I've also been asked by educators such as yourself about "marketing Rotation" to the congregation.
There are many books about "outreach" and "what works." There has also been a fair amount of research over the years. Statistics and Research ARE important because they challenge assumptions, --many of which I've found are false or self-serving. I would encourage you to read about new members/evangelism from a wide variety of authors (check with Cokesbury). But I would also challenge you to read my three articles that have STATISTICS in them... Start at www.sundaysoftware.com/stats.htm, and then go to www.sundaysoftware.com/stats2.htm which looks at what our kids are doing with their free time. It will open your eyes.
Now....Here's what I believe about attracting members:
I'm basing my opinions not only from my work as a pastor (successes and failures), but from my experience joining several churches as a "pastor in the pew" since leaving full time parish work and starting my software and rotation ministry.
1. What people on "the OUTSIDE" want in a church --is often different than what people on "the INSIDE" of the church want.
Example: visitors are often looking for a more dynamic worship experience. They are looking for folks to come up to them and strike up conversation. They want to join something in motion. Whereas many long time members tend to value consistency, familiarity, and regular but low-demand commitment. Question: Who is visiting your church and what do they say they are looking for? Asking visitor, especially those who didn't come back, can be an eye-opening experience. In many cases, they aren't sure what they're looking for, and may be looking for someone to simply ENGAGE them, which the after worship chit-chat didn't fully do. Reaching out to visitors beyond Sunday is crucial. How are you doing that?Sunday School Application: Ask your visiting kids by way of follow up.
2. Most people want a place that makes them feel at home, comfortable, and welcome.
But in my experience, churches can be rather foreboding or forlorn places to walk into. They can be sending a message to visitors which members no longer see or hear. I've personally dealt with this in my last two churches where my family and I chose to attend. So... Take a fresh and critical look at your facility, walk around your building, what is it telling folks? That is the first "sense of who you are" that they receive. Like our homes, church buildings are incarnations of how we feel about ourselves, what's important to us (or unimportant). Most churches are of ridiculously poor design. Many aren't clean. Many are in disrepair. Many don't have worship hours on display. They pick beige paint and dull tile as their decor. They have peeling paint, trash, cobwebs, and they smell. It's funny how members learn to look past all this, but not funny when visitors leave with the wrong impression.
Sunday School Application: Remember the first day of school? Sunday School classes can feel like that every Sunday to your visiting children. Something as simple as inviting a visitor to help you set up the room or a project or game, can help them relax.
Kids are also more honest than adults about what they want: They want something "FUN" (in adult-speak: "interesting and engaging"). They want something they will COME BACK TO. This is why I have devoted over 20 years of my CE professional life to making Sunday School fun, interesting and engaging to children. The Workshop Rotation Model is part of my answer to that need. (www.sundaysoftware.com/rotation.htm for more info). This is why I also got involved with teaching with computers. They are INSTANTLY understood as "fun and engaging" by all children.
It is UNFORTUNATE that children are built this way.
I blame God.
You can't teach a kid who isn't there, doesn't want to be there, or isn't coming back.
Now let's get to work making sure our Sunday Schools don't BORE yet another generation into membership oblivion.
3. What is it like being new in your church? Go ask some new people. Go ask people who joined in the last year or so. Ask them for the dirt. Ask them what grabbed their attention, and what turned them off. There might be something you never thought of that is bugging people, such as, no juice for their kids after worship. That really bugged me in a church I attended. They had water for the kids and coffee for the adults. THEN.... go ask people who visited and DID NOT come back. I've done this. It's scary, but very informative.
ASIDE: View my resource blog where I discuss the "front and back door" to your congregation.
http://sundayresources.net/neil/2008/04/20/the-wide-open-backdoor/Sunday School Application: When a family comes through your door wondering where to send their kids... who is there to guide them, and make them feel welcome? Will they arrive at an empty room? Will they be able to FIND the room? (signage) Will they feel comfortable leaving worship with all the kids not knowing where they are going? (Probably not). Will parents feel comfortable sending their kids off to some strange room? Who is following up on your visiting KIDS?
4. Worship is the primary experience. It is a welcome mat.
What does your service say? Does it appeal to only those who understand its old fashioned form and language? Are your volunteer worship leaders less than good? Is you pastor's demeanor unfriendly and cold, (or equally worse: plastic and forced). Does the message seem flat? Is your music out of date? (Even 60 year olds were raised with a rock n roll beat.) Churches need to bring in a variety of styles of worship. They need to bring in some quality worship talent on occasion. They need to diversify their music styles. Few things touch the soul like music. Thus, it must be done well. And btw...what happens to your visitors after worship? If you don't have people ASSIGNED to make a bee-line for visitors, and are just leaving up this important "after-welcome" to the believed-goodness of your members, then it is likely not getting done.
Little things mean a lot... During the summer, does your sanctuary turn into a ghost-town? Nobody likes to sit in a sea of emptiness. Is the lighting bad? (In one old church I used to attend it was awful, but everyone had grown accustomed to it).
Sunday School Application: Does the pastor or worship program give clear instructions to visitors? Do they address visiting children before the worship service and during the children's sermon. Can you create special Sundays when visiting children are expected? If so, then you can roll out the red welcome carpet for them with special activities/lessons.
Note: "Warm and Familiar" is over-rated as a tool for evangelism. For one thing.... few visitors BY DEFINITION feel warm and familiar when they first attend your church. It's new and different and a bit scary. This is why "the follow up" is so important. Going to a new church is a bit overwhelming for most people, even if you throw one friendly face at them after another. Inviting them to come back, and more importantly, inviting the person who BROUGHT THEM to bring them back, --that's important. Getting them to a picnic or fellowship event is crucial. Yet many churches have too few of these events.
The Survey Says that visitors feel like coming back when the sermon speaks to them, and their condition in a personal way. Indeed, many visitors come back to the church seeking answers. Yet many preachers I know seem UNWILLING to get too personal in a sermon. They talk a lot about "grace" and "forgiveness" and shy away from talking about the specific things we need forgiven for! As one preacher put it, we need "more chalk talk" and fewer "half-time exhortations".
5. How good is your preacher? What are the sermons like? "How good the preacher is" -is the #1 indicator of whether people will come back. If your preacher is mediocre, you need to seriously look at other areas of worship to improve -and overcome lackluster preaching. "Average" preachers need to keep their messages to 15 minutes. But it seems the more average they are, the more they drone on. Most preachers I've met who claim that preaching isn't about "being interesting" would give their eye teeth to be a dynamic preacher. (Quick tips for preachers: Make it shorter than you think, and tell more stories. Bring in outside preachers more often and don't feel threatened! Invite members to preach. Everyone has at least one sermon in them. The less pressure you feel to produce sermons, and the more variety people experience, will help your sermons stand out in contrast.)Sunday School Application: How good is your teacher? ...visiting children are less likely to give a mediocre teacher the benefit of a doubt. At the very least, train your teachers to make a big deal over visiting children. (This is another reason I like computer labs... visitors focus on "how cool was that!")
ASIDE: See my article at my blog about advice to preachers...from a preacher in the pew.
http://sundayresources.net/neil/2008/07/09/the-view-from-the-pew-what-every-pastor-needs-to-know/
http://sundayresources.net/neil/2009/10/17/the-pastors-personality/
6. Evangelism will only thrive in an environment when these aforementioned items are addressed.
But it's also so much more. Here are more thoughts and observations for you:
The research says that you must ORGANIZE to welcome people to join you in worship, and make it a regular effort. It's not a one shot announcement to "be more friendly" or an announcement from the pulpit. It is a program that needs leaders. It is a constant message aimed at all your leaders, but also reinforced to the membership: "invite" and be inviting. Many growing churches report that their members are their own best recruiters.
The two most logical groups to invite are:
(1) Your neighbors and friends who don't already have a strong church affiliation. Attending a church with a member you already know is the best way to feel welcome the quickest.
(2) The parents of your kids' friends. They are people like you who are looking for help raising their kids. In fact, YOUR CHILDREN may be the greatest UNTAPPED EVANGELISTS in your congregation.
Over the years, I had wonderful success attracting new members via the children of our members, and through things like the men's softball team... where the men and wives invited their friends. Softball teams are outreach for sure. But I also once read a statistic (wish I could remember where) that said "the workplace" is where many adults often talk about their church and faith, so it's a logical place to invite people to your congregation.
Note about the idea of the "neighborhood church." In most cases that's not how memberships are built. People will drive 20 minutes past ten churches to get to the one the fits them.
"People want to go where everybody knows your name."
After a second visit to the church we now attend, I was impressed how many people remembered me. Nametags are a great idea --not for visitors (they tend not to like them) ...but for everyone else! btw...I put my money where was mouth was... and built a nametag software program that's easy to use, and prints out nametags one at a time. Why? Because Norm's handwriting is TERRIBLE. www.sundaysoftware.com/namebadgerSunday School Application: In addition to nametags, take photos of your visiting kids "with their church buddy who brought them". Print and post them in a "Special Visitors" wall. They will be a reminder to the kids, and to the teacher the next week to follow up on.
KIDS can do a lot of inviting of their friends to Sunday School. (And most kids have parents!) When my daughters have sleepovers, we bring their friend to church --it's part of the deal. And make sure every visiting kid goes home with something special --a goodie bag that has a quality brochure about the church and Rotation, some candy, and some trinket of appreciation --and a little Bible booklet for young children. Put stuff in kids hands that say "here we are" and "we're glad your kid came." In my house we are always in need of rulers, notepads, pens, pencils and one more good refrigerator magnet. All these items can be printed with information about your church at a minimal cost.
Sunday School Application: Reward in some way the visitors, and the children who brought them. Dairy Queen coupons given quietly after class make an impression. On a bigger scale... always ask the visiting child whether or not they have "ever been given a Bible". Come up with a plan to give return visiting children their very own Bible. Check with parents on this. You might also look into other Bible resource giveaways, such as Bible comics and "first time visitor Bible videos" for young families. GIFTS say a lot and are a great reminder.
The "answer" is really "answer-s" ...it's not one thing, it's many, consistently attended-to over a long period of time.
The problem is that so many churches have attention deficit disorder. They no sooner launch a great idea than they abandon it in favor of the next great goal. Word to the wise!
btw....Makes no sense to waste your time recruiting if you're driving people to the back door. You need to address what you do with people to connect them and nurture them once you get them through the front door. I've written about this "WIDE OPEN BACKDOOR to the church" over at http://sundayresources.net/neil/2008/04/20/the-wide-open-backdoor/
You might also enjoy: "What's Your Church's Interface?" at http://sundayresources.net/neil/2009/02/16/whats-your-churchs-interface/
_________________________
Others Promotional Ideas --Some of which are very specific to "marketing Rotation-style Sunday School" which Helen asked about ...
--Get your local newspaper reporter to write about your Rotation program. Supply them with background material and quotes from parents and kids. (It's a fact, most reporters are always looking for new stories).
--Create a small color brochure explaining rotation, mail it to your members, then make it available to your visitors. Put it in MORE than one place around the church. Keep it brief. Rotation is a simple set of concepts.
--Write about Sunday School in every church newsletter --not just what's coming up, but what has past --how it went, and what the kids and teachers said about it. Put pictures of class happenings in your newsletter. At every opportunity, remind people of WHY you are doing things a certain way, not just the fact that you're "being creative." Most church newsletters are poorly written. They tell the "what" ...not the "why." And yet the "why" is what's on people's mind when they think about their church. WHY should I do/go/give more. Wish it weren't that way, but it is.
--Once a year, put your adult classes through a Rotation. Most of them will enjoy the break, and enjoy being like a kid again.
--Have a semi-annual neighborhood blitz. Walk the neighborhood around the church twice a year handing out pamphlets and PENS that have your church's worship and Sunday School hours printed on them. If you have a good neighborhood around your building, do things that impact that neighborhood. Clean up trash, look in on shut-ins, put on a free kids carnival.
--If you have the grounds and weather, get your program outside as much as possible. Hold classes on the lawn, have special coffees outside. Let the community SEE and HEAR who you are. Most people want to be part of something special. We had two older boys join our Sunday School because they saw us running around outside one day and wondered what all the fun was.
--What do businesses do to improves sales?
1. They provide something people recognize the need for.
(some churches provide things people stay away from)
2. Inviting appearance. Gets you to take a good look. Doesn't turn them away.
2. Intriguing, constant and noticeable advertising
3. Quality Customer Service - Customers feel the 'company' cares about them as individuals.
4. Feedback and Follow-up Rather than guessing, they ask people what worked and what didn't.Some might wince at the suggestion that we need to consider how to "sell" church. But get over it. Every sermon I've ever heard was trying to convince me of something. Every lesson is an attempt to sell the student on a belief or value they should "buy" from the teacher. Ever since we stopped preaching hell, fire and brimstone, mainline churches have lost members because we lost the ultimate motivational tool -do this or go you might end up in hell. In the mainline church, we are focused on the "what" of our faith and programs and not enough on the "why" ...as in WHY they should do/believe/give/attend. To test the WHY emphasis in your church, read the next church newsletter. See if it is full of "what" and lacking in motivational "why" emphasis. The only time we get around to "why" is stewardship time. Then, it's too late.
I've convinced we have lost generations of youth because we didn't address the "why." Imagine if just half of all confirmands stayed active as teens and beyond. We'd be building more churches. "Why" involves explaining, but it also involves personal challenge --asking people to step up to the commitment of faith and membership.
--Last but not least, I am developing an understanding of "who" Sunday School kids are that might help you understand your "marketing." This understanding is quite different than the understanding I was raised with. I was raised to think Sunday School was for everyone. It was like some grand public education. But when everyone did not attend, I wondered, "what's wrong with them, don't they know this is for everyone?" Well, maybe it isn't. Maybe Sunday School is discipleship training and not a place every one should or has the gifts to plug in to. Maybe it is for the few -so that they might go out to the many.
I'm wondering out loud what would happen if we elevated the status of those who did attend by calling it Discipleship Training. Such students that are engaged in this elevated understanding would also be recognized as different by the congregation. I don't think this is about changing the name, or throwing in the towel on marketing. There are Bible verses and stories all over to support this concept of conferring special status and training on "the 70" or "the twelve." I can ALSO see the "psychology of elevation" that people would respond to --because it is a strong answer to the WHY question, -why am I coming/studying/doing/giving. (I have not fully developed this set of ideas --but my instincts tell me that there is something powerful here. Some time ago I asked a group at this website to help me differentiate Sunday School from other children's ministries and experiences in the church. What makes Sunday School different? special? What is its unique role and status? I continue to mull this over.)
Hope this helps.
<>< Neil MacQueen
Copyright 2002 and updated since. Neil MacQueen. You're welcome to copy this article. It's not meant to be an all encompassing thesis, just helpful.
If you have really good suggestions that have worked for you, email me at neil@sundaysoftware.com
See my other articles about CE, including "7 Tips for Better Children's Sermons," and "Tips for Hiring a Christian Educator" at www.sundaysoftware.com/articles
Church Stats www.sundaysoftware.com/stats, and my Ideas for Changing the Church over at www.sundayresources.net/neil
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