Posts Tagged ‘Church Growth’

Church Growth and Generation X and Y

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Generation X and Y are seemingly at the forefront of all industries recruiting efforts. As Baby Boomers, who are most likely the majority of your church’s members, grow settled in their respective communities and churches, churches are looking to younger generations to fill their pews. However, attracting this audience will call for a break from the traditional. Generation X and Y require a different approach that focuses on action and technology.

Generation Y’s (born 1980-1997), are referred to as the most tech savvy generation. They are the avid Facebook users, are constantly text messaging, and have their lives saved to hard drives. A survey by Forrester’s 2008 North America Technographics Benchmark reported the following statistics:

  • 90% of Gen Y own a computer
  • 82% own a mobile phone
  • 72% of Generation Y mobile phone users send or receive SMS messages
  • They spend more time online than they do watching television, with 42% watching online video at least once per month.

Generation X’s (born 1965-1979) share similar technological savvy.

  • During the past three months, 69 per cent of Generation X’s have shopped online and 65 per cent used online banking—more than any other group
  • 21% of Gen X are now reading a blog once per month compared to 15% last year
  • 61% of mobile subscribers text compared to 49% in 2007

Thus, technology carries over to ever part of their lives. Generation X and Y expect their jobs, politicians, and churches to be as technologically advanced as they are. In order to attract these generations, your church should evaluate its technological capabilities. Do you have a website? If so, does it work properly? Instead of the traditional mailed letters that you may have instituted during direct mail campaigns, have you set up a Facebook account? Can one download your church’s sermons? Generation X and Y find these types of strategies appealing. Increasing your technological capabilities will show the younger generations that they are welcome to your church.

In addition to technology, younger generations also want opportunities to make a change. Unlike, earlier generations that were content with providing financial donations to charitable causes, generation X and Y would prefer to take action. X’s and Y’s are passionate about social justice, have a burning desire to make a difference and donate more time to charitable causes than any other generation in history[1]. This group is responsible for the dramatic rise in volunteer vacations, spending weeks at a time building shelters for the homeless, preserving the nation’s hiking trails and mentoring at-risk children. Therefore, churches should focus on providing hands-on outreach programs for this generation. Allow them to put the Word to action.

Churches must consider the desires of the younger generation as programs are planned, sermons articulated, worship experiences created and marketing collateral developed. Responding to the needs of the younger generation should prove favorable to your church’s future growth.

[1] Johnson, Carol. Don’t Forget Your Gen X’s and Y’s. www.churchsolutionsmag.com

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Start Reaching Out!

Friday, March 5th, 2010

When developing a church outreach program, your church should first evaluate what it wants to achieve through its program. Is it to demonstrate love to your neighbor, show the community that you exist, or help your congregation meet their “required” community service hours? Developing a solid outreach program in your church can put enormous pressure on the staff and leadership to come up with activities that everyone is interested in and that all will participate in. Many church leaders feel that they are responsible to provide every outreach opportunity possible to their congregation so that their members always have opportunities to love, share, and serve the community. While this is a good objective, what about considering this: Instead of developing an “end-all” outreach program, why not develop a program that can act as a catalyst to encourage and demonstrate to your congregation how to serve and how to get involved. This in turn, can help your church goers get in the habit of recognizing needs in the community and then following up with service, instead of just looking to the church to organize an outreach event or program.

A great example of this being played out is at my local church, Summit in Orlando, Florida. I am a partner of Summit and have been attending for about a year and a half. One reason I was drawn to this church is because of their constant encouragement to be involved in the community and not rely on the church to spread the love of God for you. One of Summit’s outreach programs is an event called niceSERVE. NiceSERVE is a quarterly event that the church organizes that only lasts for one day (actually just four hours). The goal is to “mobilize people to serve locally. This event connects volunteers and local non profits by creating helpful service projects that are geared toward revitalizing neighborhoods and communities.” Four Saturdays a year, over a thousand individuals gather together and are then sent out to twenty or more local non profit organizations. For three or four hours, volunteers engage in activities such as facility clean ups, planting shrubs, sorting food, or playing with children. After, the volunteers come back to the church to eat lunch and then go home.

So what is accomplished in these few hours? Well, initially, there are some benefits to the organization or individual that was served, such as a cleaned yard, encouragement from a stranger, etc.; but that is not the overarching goal of niceSERVE. While initial benefits to the community are great, it is only through constant follow up that an outreach program becomes successful. The goal of niceSERVE is to introduce people to these organizations and individuals in hopes of follow up being completed by the volunteers who participated.

Now something of this magnitude may seem hard for you to pull off. For example, the hours that go into contacting local non profit organizations to discover present needs, organizing project leaders, and gathering supplies are just some of the activities that need to take place before a niceSERVE type event can be accomplished. However, my goal in explaining this project to you is not to have you replicate it, but to understand the premise behind it. Your church’s outreach programs should be the spark, catalyst, or “kick in the rear end” to mobilize and equip your congregation to a discipline of service. So before you organize a parent’s night out, vacation Bible school, or a potluck meal, consider two questions: “How can we improve our community through an outreach program?” and “How can we improve our congregation through an outreach program?”

Be sure to check out our short video on Church Outreach.

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Strategic Planning for Churches

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Churches, like all organizations, must map-out how they plan to grow and/or sustain themselves over a period of time.  This can be accomplished through a strategic plan. Strategic planning steers an organization on the path to success. It is the framework that determines where an organization is going over the next year or more; how it””s going to get there; and how it will know if it got there or not. More specifically, a plan identifies the mission, vision and/or values of an organization; goals to work toward the mission, strategies to achieve the goals, and action planning (who will do what and by when)[1]. It increases effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, and accountability.

6 Steps for Church Strategic Planning

  • 1. Assemble a Team – Gather a diverse team of 5-7 church members to spearhead the strategic planning process. For example, choose congregation members of different ages, races, men and women, as well as church leaders to ensure that the voice of the entire congregation is heard. Be sure to pick team members that are grounded in their faith and are committed to seeing the church grow or thrive.  

Explain the team””s roles and responsibilities and provide a timeline for completion.

  • 2. Identify the church””s mission and vision- The mission of a church summarily states the purpose of the church given its activities and constituents. The mission statement should answer the questions, “Why are we here?” and “What are we supposed to be doing?”.[2]  

Vision statements create commitment and understanding by articulating how the organization sees the future. Vision statements answer the question of “What is being built?” It paints a clear picture of what the church will look like in 1 to 5 years.

  • 3. SWOT Analysis – A SWOT Analysis examines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an organization””s internal and external environment. Strengths and weaknesses of the organization as they relate to achieving the objectives of the organization are identified in addition to external/environmental opportunities and threats.

The SWOT analysis will help guide the remainder of the strategic plan by identifying what objectives are or are not feasible given the internal and external environment. 

  • 4. Identify Measurable Goals and Objectives – Goals and objectives are the big steps that it will take to achieve the church””s mission and vision. More specifically, goals can be seen as “micro-missions”. They are components of your church””s mission in that they also state what you plan to do.  

Each goal should have at least two objectives that are the stepping stones to achieving that goal. These objectives should be SMART. S.M.A.R.T refers to the acronym that describes the key characteristics of meaningful objectives, which are Specific (concrete, detailed, well defined), Measureable (numbers, quantity, comparison), Achievable (feasible, actionable), Realistic (considering resources/SWOT) and Time-Bound (a defined time line). 

  • 5. Create an action plan – Create a plan that clearly outlines how each objective will be achieved. The actions plan should not only have steps that need to be accomplished but it should also have a timeline (when should each step be completed?) and indicate who is responsible for making sure that it is completed.  

Each member of your team can be assigned a goal and create a task force consisting of other congregation members that will responsible for meeting the objectives under the goal. Specific action steps can be disbursed among the task force. 

  • 6. Present the Plan – When the strategic plan is complete, present it to the entire congregation. Make an event out of the presentation so that the congregation is excited about the direction the church is going. Use this time to get additional feedback on the plan and to gain more volunteers for the various task forces.

Strategic planning pushes your team to focus on the future and the commitment that it will take to make the church a success. It shows those who read it that the church is committed to a plan of action that is both sustaining and growth-oriented; one that will allow the organization to better serve its constituents.

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[1] Thompson, Anthony C. Anchoring Your Mission. Conference Presentation at the University of Central Florida Capacity Building Institute. March 2008.  

[2] Saint, Roy Lee. Florida Baptist Convention. Strategic Church Planning.

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