So here is something I'm wrestling with. I've noticed in my local church setting (both with students and families) that there is a relationship between regular attendance and how much contact the pastoral staff has with people. While this may sound like a "well DUH" type statement, let me explain what I am getting at. I realize that as ministers, it is our job to build meaningful relationships with people, however, should one's committment to regular worship be drastically affected by the amount of interaction (or lack there of) with the minister that week?
Example: My senior pastor has said on a few occasions, "If I were to call every single person this week (which would take days to do) and tell them I was thinking about them and praying for them, I guarantee attendance would be up a little bit that week... But if I did not make the calls the following week, attendance would go right back to where it was." Weird.
Another example: If I contact every single student in our youth database (which would also take a very long time) my guess is that a few students would show up to youth group or Sunday church... But if I don't call the following week, chances are they would not be there.
The reason why this question is bothering me is because last night we had our 'Youth Group Christmas Party' and I spent a ton of time calling and inviting students who we haven't seen in a long time and many of them showed up... But if history repeats itself, they won't be back next week.
So is it the job of the minister to constantly 'run after people' who have a very loose connection and committment to the church? Is it our job to convince people that regular worship should be a priority in there life (again, and again, and again)? I would love to hear your thoughts!
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Pastor Jay,
ReplyDeleteI believe a good amount of both is indeed necessary. I believe we are supposed to run after those because if we have to run after them, they most likely haven't fully encountered and experienced the Love of God, which creates a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and a desire to be at Church. Sometimes, those people need us to go way out of our way for them, and once they have the knowledge we have in Christ, they will look back and realize the level of love that was shown to them by our constant and consistent follow up and care for them, and it may just inspire them to do the same with their friends and/or family. I have a bible study that meets in my home on Wednesday nights, and we average about 18 people every week - and at least one time per week, I make sure to say hey via text, email, call, face to face, etc. Not just because I want them there, but because I want them to experience a real, Acts 2 type of community. Where we are all caring for each other, helping each other, etc. Jesus calls us to love as He did, which means a lot of sacrificing of our own time, to reach out to them. I definitely believe that is in incredibly important to teach people why they should be in Church - but they have to be there, consistently, before we really have the chance to teach them. As I am sure you have seen, eventually, the core people come consistently, and don't need many follow ups, but i still believe even following up with those regulars is still important, and helps create that meaningful relationship.
Being bi-vocational in ministry and in business has helped me greatly - mostly in learning how to systematically keep in touch with people. I would love to share a few things with you about how I stay in touch, let's grab coffee sometime soon my friend. Hopefully you have an iphone or android phone and if so, oh man, do I have some cool things to share with you. Hope all is well brother, I appreciate your sensitivity to this issue, and really enjoyed reading your post. I have been wrestling with the same thing lately, but every time I see a non-believer walk into my Wednesday or Sunday night ministry, or a believer take new steps in his or her faith, it reminds me that alllll those calls, texts, emails, facebooks, etc, are all worth it. Soli deo gloria! Thanks for doing what you do man - I know that God makes the seed grow (1 cor 3) but you are def. planting a lot of them, and I am thankful for you and your impact you have on your teens and their families!
Grace & Peace
Austin
aholt@nccbluesprings.org
816.536.9315
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ReplyDeleteI don't know if i am convinced we are supposed to, or should, run after people. And maybe I am just caught up in the wording, but to me it's all about the framework you set up in your community. If you are a one man show/talking head--attendence rests on you.
ReplyDeleteBut, when church (or a small group or youth group) is truly about relationship, leadership becomes a blurry line. As the pastor or leader, you aren't the only one that should be reaching out. I have found the strongest communities don't have one dynamic person that controls the outcome of attendance..
Instead, it is about encouraging others to engage in community. That means that everyone in the group should be a part of the "Hey we missed you tonight"s (Note: I believe we are working toward that at Fort Osage. While attendance would go up if Pastor called every single person, it would also go up if one of 20 or 30 different people in our church did the same thing. And if one of our youth sponsors mentions something to a teen on facebook, they stop by youth group..etc. It doesn't all rest on you. That's community.)
I think a leader's main focus should be less on a phone call or text message to every single person--you've said yourself there isn't really a lasting impact with that--but a focus on the development of a community of people who are committed. Then they share in the "running after."
One more thought- by sharing in the "running after" you avoid falling into the "look at what I did" pattern. "Look how many teens came because of me." "Look how big the group is because of my personality." It eliminates that and makes the focus what it should be, Christian community.
ReplyDeletePS. (Last one I promise) I don't think you will ever have that problem. You are one of the most humble men I know. That's why I married you ;)
ReplyDeleteI use to think it was the pastor's job to contact people and do lots of leg work and basically hold it all together, but lately I have changed my mind.
ReplyDeleteIn the instance of a death in the family, a divorce, depression, something where a person needs a little extra care for a short period of time-I believe the pastor should be able to focus on that without having to worry that the whole congregation will fall apart without his gentle hand guiding them like toddlers to the potty.
I agree with Rachel that it is the community's job to love and care for one another, not the pastor's job alone, but as a part of the community-he takes his time to do some calling also. But this is where I find that bigger churches fail in this area. Most churches are too big. I know this because I attend one and with the exception of 1 church, all of the churches I have ever attended were too big. As soon as the church is big enough that people can become attenders and not engage-the church is too big IMHO. We all have a job to do. Pastor is a verb, not a noun, in the Bible. The pastors job today is the same as the job of the elders in the Bible-to keep order, oversee, keep things biblically correct, basically. The church; the bride of Christ, is responsible for taking care of each other. Just think how much more effective the church would be if there were many smaller churches where everyone had a job and loved doing it-preaching, teaching, leading people to Christ, healing, feeding the hungry, clothing the homeless etc. thousands of small churches all over the cities! Instead we have big churches where 10% or less do all the work. Sad....but just the natural consequence of big churches.
But I feel what has happened over time is that pastors have become this almost God-like position in the eyes of the attenders and they find it to be an excuse to put all the burden on them. If the congregation got back to reading Paul's letters and Acts, they'd quickly see they have jobs to do and being a Christian means-doing the work of Christ. If we feel comfortable doing nothing, we probably need to reexamine why we are calling ourselves Christians.
One more thing...setting up a community of people who stay engaged at church also involves everyone being a part of the community worship, leadership, scripture sharing, preaching, practicing the gifts of the spirit etc. It has occurred to me as I have been reading the new testament again-from Acts forward, that we have created a completely different church than was originally set up and this "running after" is a direct outcome of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen we look at the original church, they were ALL engaged (1 Cor 14:26) and people tend to take a more active part in the church when they feel they are a vital part of the church ministry and community.
Let God lay those on your heart that he wishes for you to give extra attention to. The Holy spirit will fill in the gaps too. And church for some people is once a month and for others it's 3 days a week. We are to come together as a community to edify one another and to confess our sins, pray with one another, but is that really what we do today at church anyway? Maybe if we got back to the basics more people would WANT to come without prodding. The greatest place to be should always be in the presence of God. So if we could help people embrace the idea of openly sharing our sins, praying for each other, healing, prophesying, sharing knowledge, not gossiping, taking care of each other with food and clothing etc....there would be no need to chase anyone and the Holy Spirit would pour out all over the cities. I can only imagine...