The Best Ways to Increase Church Attendance
- Create a "house of worship." Making everyone that enters your church feel welcome is a wonderful way to ensure they return. Set up coffee and donuts, fruit or danishes after Sunday school and before worship. People love food and this is a hospitable way that can say "Welcome to our home." Also, be sure the greeters literally greet people and welcome them to church, not just pass out programs.
- Establishing prayer leaders within the church deacons and elders is a way to enhance a person's experience and make them want to come back. This can improve church attendance because people will begin to develop relationships with one another. Instead of asking people to come up front for prayer, go to the person requesting assistance or send a prayer leader out to speak one-on-one with them. Sometimes people are more willing to accept Jesus into their hearts if they don't feel like they are on display.
- Creating an interactive website or social media page is a way to improve attendance. With the world wide web and social media driving the center of the average person's week, it is easy for them to keep up-to-date on the Internet. Websites and social media sites can advertise for special occasions, Bible study, remind people of service times, help with charities and keep missionaries in touch with the whole church.
- If you win a guest or visitor over, send someone or even go yourself to visit them before the following Sunday. This is a great way to strike up rapport among new members and even old members who haven't been to church in a while. Visitation can also give members a chance to know and trust their pastor or preacher and promote attendance.
- Establishing connections among your congregation outside of Sunday worship is a way to increase attendance. Schedule potluck dinners where everyone brings a dish. Hold vacation Bible school to recruit new youth members or plan annual picnics in the summer to celebrate the end of a scheduled revival week. Create weekend retreats for couples that can enhance relationships and promote return for weekly guidance. Movie nights are a family event that can be centered around a religious-themed movie and enjoyed with popcorn and soda for attendance during the week. Weekend bake sales can help raise money for charities or church projects and are appealing to all members, whether they like to bake or eat goodies.
- Everyone loves a joke or a laugh and letting people know you have a human side to you as a church leader can ease tension among new guests or visitors. Entertain people with the message of God using props to aid in your sermon and help relay a message. Place a fake shark fin in the baptismal, scare the sleeping sound booth guy or play a practical joke on the pianist or choir director by switching out the music but let the choir in on it. After creating laughter amongst the congregation, you can then preach the word of God around your joke or prop while enhancing your lesson. To improve weekly attendance, try hosting Christian mystery parties to include the whole family for entertaining worship.
