According to a recent survey, less than 50% of Americans belong to a church right now. That’s down from 70% back at the turn of the century.
If you’re the head of a church, this should concern you in a major way. It’s starting to feel like people no longer value the idea of belonging to and, more importantly, attending a church.
But the good news is that it isn’t too late to try to turn this trend around. There are steps you can take to improve church attendance and church participation in no time at all.
Are you wondering how to boost church attendance and go through the process of improving church participation? We’re going to provide you with some great suggestions today.
Check out five ways in which you can increase participation in the church below.
1. Hold Church Services at the Right Times
Are you holding all of your church services at, say, 8 a.m. on Sunday mornings? This might seem like the perfect time for your church to meet, but it’s going to cause at least some people who might be interested in attending your church to stay home.
In a perfect world, you should hold church services at several different times to give people options as far as when they would like to attend them. You should also try to pick times that are going to be convenient for people.
You’re going to continue to see low church participation if all your services are at the wrong times. You should speak with some of your churchgoers and see what times they would prefer.
2. Create a Warm and Welcoming Environment at Your Church
When people arrive at your church, are they greeted by someone with a smile at the front door? Or are they left to fend for themselves when it comes to finding a seat and participating in your services?
If your church falls into the second category right now, you should do everything in your power to change that. You’re not providing people with the warm and welcoming environment that you’ll need to provide them with to improve church participation.
Each and every person who walks into your church should feel like they’re a part of your community. If you aren’t able to make people feel like this, you’re going to struggle to keep them coming back in the future.
3. Encourage Members of Your Church to Bring Guests With Them
Do you routinely ask the members of your church to bring their family members, friends, etc. along with them to your services? If you don’t, you might be passing up on a big opportunity!
Your church’s members should be the biggest advocates for your church. They should be ready, willing, and able to attract new people to your church.
You shouldn’t be shy about asking your church’s members to bring guests with them whenever they can. You might even want to go as far as to hold special services that are designed specifically for new people who have shown an interest in your church.
4. Provide People With the Option to “Attend” Church From Home
If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything over the last two years, it’s that people will “attend” events virtually when you give them the option to do it. So if you’re not doing it already, you should set up live streaming for your services so that people can attend them right from home.
This church live stream guide breaks down how live streaming church services work. It also touches on the many benefits of offering live streaming to your church’s members.
When you live to stream your church services to your members, they’ll be able to attend them when they’re sick, on vacation, etc. They’ll also be able to show these live streams to their family members, friends, etc. so that they can see what your church is all about without having to actually go to it.
You might be surprised to see how effective live streaming services can be for your church. It might not belong at all before you’re bringing in lots of new members because of it.
5. Ask Your Church’s Members to Give You Feedback (and Then Use It!)
If church attendance is way down at your church, you should bring together some of your most trusted members and ask them for their feedback. See what things they think are preventing you from boosting your church participation.
They might be able to provide you with a long list of things that they’re not too happy about with regard to your church. It’ll show you what you will need to improve upon to increase church participation.
You can begin incorporating changes into the way you do things right after meeting with your church members. You can also continue to consult with them so that you’re able to make more changes to the way you do things as you move forward.
You Can Give Church Participation a Boost by Using These Tips
Your church isn’t the only church struggling to get people through its front doors right now. There are many churches with church participation problems that are trying to come up with solutions to this problem.
Some of these churches have given up the good fight and come to accept that they can’t change church participation. But you should avoid doing this and use what you’ve learned here today to improve church participation.
With a little work on your part, you can increase church participation in a hurry. You can also build up your congregation over time and experience growth within your church community.
Would you like to get some great marketing tips that will help you spread the word about your church? Find them in our other blog articles.
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