{"id":98,"date":"2010-11-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/2010\/11\/how-to-get-me-to-come-to-your-church.html"},"modified":"2010-11-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T05:00:00","slug":"how-to-get-me-to-come-to-your-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/11\/how-to-get-me-to-come-to-your-church.html","title":{"rendered":"How To Get Me To Come To Your Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a phone conversation recently with a sweet old lady (I meet a lot of sweet old ladies out here) and discussed a subject which seems to be on the hearts and minds of a great deal of people in older churches.
\n\"\"<\/a>These old churches are universally in fear of closing their doors, as their congregants get older and die their membership shrinks and if no new blood enters the church goes up for sale. So the question becomes \u201chow do we bring in young people\u201d with the answer inevitably being \u201cwe need to become more \u2018modern\u2019\u201d which leads to all sorts of discussions about PowerPoint, and cool music as if those were the essential elements of the ubersuccesful churches like Saddleback and Willow Creek
\nI worked at an old church for 2 years where I planted a successful young adult ministry, meanwhile attending a popular young church after having been raised in a much emulated Megachurch\u2026 And I\u2019m in my 20s\u2026 so I figure I\u2019m about as much an expert as anyone on how to get 20 somethings into your churches. Here\u2019s my advice:
\nDear Old Churches,
\nStop it! You\u2019re going to ruin everything.
\nThere is one thing you have going for you, and it\u2019s that you are a cool old church with a rich history and stained glass windows, We 20 somethings might not understand what the heck you\u2019re doing with a \u201cPaschal Candle\u201d but we\u2019re willing to learn\u2026 Seriously, most of us are Professional Students, learning is one of the only things we\u2019re good at.
\nThat might not seem like much, but if you trade that in to become \u201cPurpose Driven\u201d you\u2019ll have nothing. You suck at being purpose driven.
\nI know old churches don\u2019t like terms like \u201csuck\u201d but that's the technical term. I can\u2019t count the number of ways I don\u2019t want to hear your choir trying to sing \u201cEvery Move I Make\u201d when I can hear it done better at the church up the street, but more importantly, even if you did do it well, I wouldn\u2019t want to come. You know why? Because the 90s ended, and I\u2019m not 10 anymore!
\nAt best, If you managed to catch up with the times and become an exemplary modern church (which you won\u2019t) you would manage to attract my mothers generation.
\nPeople in their 80s like what you\u2019re doing, people in their 50s like what you\u2019re trying to do. They like PowerPoint, and acoustic worship bands with three point sermons that alliterate, they think that\u2019s neato.
\nBut people in their 40s are already starting to yawn
\nIf you want to attract people in their 40s you can\u2019t read books on what churches did 10 years ago to become successful you have to do what churches are doing right now. And if you want people in their 30s you have to look at what churches are just starting to do.
\nBut what you want is the people in their 20s, the EchoBoomers, the Up And Comers, the folks that can meet at your church and have babies and stay for the next 100 years.
\nTo get people in their 20s you are going to have to do what churches are going to start doing 10 years from now.
\nSorry.
\nSo if you haven\u2019t given up and decided that I must be wrong because what I\u2019m proposing is too hard, you\u2019ll be asking \u201cOkay Hot Shot, So what\u2019s that?\u201d and you\u2019ll get the obvious answer \u201cWell I don\u2019t know of course, It's not here yet\u201d but if I were you I would take refuge in Solomon\u2019s declaration that there is \u201cnothing new under the sun\u201d you\u2019ve been around for about a century, you know the trends always come back. Kids my age are wearing Horn Rimmed Glasses and Fedoras again. Do you really believe that the Organ has less staying power than Hush Puppies?
\nNow that\u2019s not to say you can keep doing what you\u2019ve always done (that\u2019s clearly not working) but doing that would be better than doing megachurch badly. What I am saying is leverage what you know, and invite us to experiment with you.
\n-So you do hymns, that\u2019s chill, We know like three of those that have been transposed to guitar. What if we brought some of the music that was added there back into the choir? Would that be horrible? I have no idea.
\n-What does \u201cA Mighty Fortress\u201d sound like in electric cello?
\n-This call and response business is kind of interesting, Like a football game right? Except why does everybody who\u2019s doing it sound like their cat just died?
\n-Say what ever happened to what was cool in churches 20 and 30 years ago? What\u2019s with the gap, between the 60s and the 90s? Doesn\u2019t anybody in church still know how to rock the tambourine?
\n-I get that there\u2019s a church calendar. But other than the fact that Melba brings different flowers and everybody thinks about wearing red on Pentecost\u2026 What\u2019s it for<\/em>?
\n-Wait Lent? Seriously? I thought that was a catholic thing…
\n-I came to check out your church and there\u2019s all sorts of cool old people here. Before I came here to college I went to a church that had nobody over 40. It would be awesome to get mentored by some old Myagi-like dude! Why won\u2019t any of them talk to me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a phone conversation recently with a sweet old lady (I meet a lot of sweet old ladies out here) and discussed a subject which seems to be on the hearts and minds of a great deal of people in older churches. These old churches are universally in fear of closing their doors, as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Get Me To Come To Your Church - A Fear of Whales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2010\/11\/how-to-get-me-to-come-to-your-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Get Me To Come To Your Church - A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had a phone conversation recently with a sweet old lady (I meet a lot of sweet old ladies out here) and discussed a subject which seems to be on the hearts and minds of a great deal of people in older churches. 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