Podcast Episode #447
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Jim Sheppard, CEO of Generis, joins us today to talk about a new, free eBook (The Big Shift) and to discuss how your church can best adapt to the changing patterns in church member attendance.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- When church members attend less frequently, you have to maximize every minute they do attend.
- Inadvertently, most churches send the message that they’re only open from 9-12 on Sunday mornings.
- Live streaming of church services is available to almost any church.
- Attendance and giving are not the only scorecards to measure church member engagement.
The seven steps we discuss today are:
- Take full advantage of every minute.
- Consider flexibility in worship times that you’ve never thought of before.
- Make the sermons easily accessible.
- Put more emphasis on those who serve.
- Develop consistency in small groups.
- Employ all giving options.
- Teach a proper view of church and Sabbath.
About Jim Sheppard
Jim Sheppard is CEO & Principal of Generis, a consulting firm passionate about helping Churches inspire and cultivate generosity through giving development, coaching and strategy. For the last 23 years, he has devoted his life to coaching pastors and understands the financial challenges that churches face today-annual giving, debt, capital projects and planned giving-and is a positive force in bridging these needs with the power of spiritually motivated stewardship. Cumulatively, Jim has partnered with his clients to raise over $1.3 billion for local church ministry. Jim and his wife Nancy live in the Atlanta, GA area and they have two daughters.
Episode Sponsors
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If you’re interested in joining, visit vanderbloemen.com/coaching for more information.
Feedback
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Excellent Podcast and information for the church. Thank you for your continuing investment in to the local church.
Wow!–Congrats to Jim Sheppard and his team for serving so well from their talents in aiding Christian congregations to become all for which God gave them/us the potential using the tools that can be acquired via fund-raising/stewardship endeavors. (See that firm’s bio.)
Some other “adapt to changing attendance patterns” ideas with potential:
1. Communicate, communicate, communicate (CANNOT over-communicate) with the congregation about attendance and its patterns. Reward, reward, reward (verbally, etc.) often everyone attending for “choosing to improve themselves, their families, their spiritual lives by participating in eternity-shaping activities every time they can” (follow-up with those who miss via some relevant means to express, “Hey, it’s just not the same when you are away!”). Encourage, encourage, encourage folk to take time off and travel away–and to bring back home super ideas seen when attending other churches’ activities and/or interacting with other faithful believers. (Church members won’t mind so much if paid ministry staff vacations, if those staffers have encouraged them to be gone sometimes–like, “Go, Bro. Jones; we got this greeter duty covered till you come back!”)
2. Hire an experienced Minister of Education (or equivalent title with exact same traditional duties) to address those/these kinds of things–because, as we all know: If doing it is EVERYBODY’S job then actually it’s NOBODY’S job–and that’s who’ll do the job: NOBODY :-)) Hiring MoEs grows churches–always has, always will (when MoEs can get hired by churches; during the past 10+ years, the trend has been to hire other staffers with less such experience–but some slight increase lately . . .).
3. Make it the main aim to: “Reach the neighborhood and grow the church through the ministry of the Sunday School (or equivalent title), to the glory of God.” Then, make it the main aim to: “Reach the quadrant/zip code and grow the church through the ministry of the Sunday School, to the glory of God.” Then, make it the main aim to: “Reach the city and grow the church through the ministry of the Sunday School, to the glory of God.” And use a tried-n-true plan for helping the congregation do that intentionally, strategically, and relationally–through the ministry of the Sunday School (or equivalent title for a Bible study fellowship with the same 6 traditional, historic, Southern Baptist, grows-churches-directly tasks assigned to it; after all, it’s not what we CALL Sunday School that matters–it’s what we DO with it that matters!).
4. Learn to fish for different fish. Zip code/neighborhood demographics will change. So what? God planted our churches where they are and hasn’t chosen to move most of them yet–but He does let people of different sorts move in and out of the surrounding houses so that they can meet on-mission churches serving them and sharing the gospel. A stable church on-mission with God probably is the best stabilizer of a neighborhood–a better one than even the neighborhood’s schools.