Overflow: Increase Worship Attendance & Bear More Fruit

Half-Title Page

Also by Tom Berlin and Lovett H. Weems Jr.

Also by Tom Berlin and Lovett H. Weems Jr.

Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results

To subscribe to the Lewis Center for Church Leadership’s 

free online newsletter, Leading Ideas, go to 

www.churchleadership.com.

Title Page

Nashville

Copyright Page

Overflow

Increase Worship Attendance & Bear More Fruit

Copyright © 2013 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, P.O. Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801 or permissions@umpublishing.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Berlin, Tom.

   Overflow : increase worship attendance and bear more fruit / by Tom Berlin and Lovett H. Weems, Jr.

        1 online resource.

   Includes bibliographical references and index.

   Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

   ISBN 978-1-4267-7488-1 (epub)—ISBN 978-1-4267-6751-7 (print)

1. Church attendance.  2. Church growth.  3. Public worship.  I. Title.

   BV652.5

   254'.5—dc23

2013031197

All scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the Holy Bible, TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of the International Bible Society.

Scripture marked (NRSV) is from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Pages 9-11, Visitor Feedback Survey, may be reproduced for the local congregation with the following credit line: From Overflow: Increase Worship Attendance & Bear More Fruit by Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Tom Berlin. Copyright © 2013 by Abingdon Press. Copyright © 2013 by Lewis Center for Church Leadership, Wesley Theological Seminary. www.churchleadership.com.

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Dedication Page

To

My parents, J. D. and Nancy Berlin,

who placed worship at the center of our week

so that Christ would be at the center of our lives.

T. B.

To

The staff of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership

of Wesley Theological Seminary

with much appreciation for their commitment

to helping congregations

increase their capacity for service, vitality, and growth.

L. H. W

Contents

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. Why Worship Matters

Chapter 2. Pay Attention to Those You Seek to Reach

Chapter 3. Pay Attention to Worship Services

Chapter 4. Pay Attention to Attendance Seasons and Patterns

Chapter 5. Big Days

Chapter 6. Prime Seasons

Chapter 7. Low Times

Chapter 8. The Wonder of Worship

Conclusion If Churches Can Change, They Can Grow

Introduction

Introduction

All churches seek to experience the promise of Jesus that those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit (John 15:5, NRSV). In Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results, we illustrated how focusing on results or fruits of ministry shapes how we carry out ministry. We provided a procedure to ensure you are clear about the fruit that God is calling a ministry to produce. The key to this practice is two words: so that. The task is to complete this sentence: "We will do x so that y happens."¹

Nowhere is the challenge of fruitfulness more important than in helping increasing numbers of people experience God through worship. It is the challenge of worship attendance to which we seek in this book to apply the lessons of fruitfulness. As we encourage others to do, we developed a so that statement for this book.

We have written this book

so that

congregational leaders learn strategic clues regarding worship attendance

that they can tailor to their situations and implement,

resulting in more people becoming and growing as Christian disciples

through increased participation in vital and life-changing worship.

Church leaders want to increase worship attendance and do make many efforts toward this goal. However, the reality in many churches is decline every year in worship attendance. This book seeks to give people hope that they can improve their attendance by not only offering to you encouragement about how important the task is, but also proposing practical steps to develop ways of planning, implementing, and evaluating worship that can produce greater fruitfulness. While examples from actual churches are central to the book, it is not a collection of random tips. There is a concept or theory to which the examples are attached so that readers can see these as simply examples of the insight, and they then can develop the expression of the insight most appropriate for their situation.

This book features a number of what the Lewis Center for Church Leadership calls actionable strategic insights. The Lewis Center, where Lovett serves as director, defines these as practical steps people can take to act on a goal they have, without having to do major research. Insights and practices have emerged from applied research, which have been implemented by practitioners to great benefit. Another way to frame what we offer here is giving readers some new lenses through which to view the subject of worship attendance. Our readers are assumed to be those who care deeply about worship attendance and have a passion for more people gathering to worship God and, thus, becoming and growing as Christian disciples. Our goal is to give such motivated people tools they need to accomplish their goals.

Why Focus on Worship

Attendance?

Our goal is to assist you in doing what your church was established to do—help more people gather to worship God and leave inspired to serve others. At the heart of why any church exists is to glorify God and to share God as revealed in Jesus Christ; thus, worship is at the center of the congregation’s life. The chances that God will speak to someone through your church are far greater if that person is in worship. Careful attention to the people you are seeking to reach, to planning, and to patterns of attendance can bear much fruit for God. The church, of course, is more than worship, but without vital worship attendance, it is unlikely that members are growing and new disciples are being brought to faith. Worship attendance is also the one factor where improvement tends to help every other aspect of the church’s ministry.

Growing churches connect people with God, and compelling and inspiring worship is a primary means of connection. But there is not one right way to worship. When we look at growing churches, sometimes we think that if we simply copy their worship practices, we will grow also. We can certainly learn from every church that is reaching people for Christ, but no one way of worshiping is right for all churches. What is right for your church depends on a number of factors.

For example, some think that successful new church starts feature a certain worship style. This is not the case. Growing new churches do a good job of developing worship that connects with the needs of those they are seeking to reach. While the worship is different at various new church starts, the worship tends to be relevant to their particular contexts. This does not mean just doing what you have always done because it is comfortable for those attending. It means doing what fits your church’s mission and its surrounding context today. If those who worship at your church are more representative of the community in a past era than today, perhaps your worship has not adapted to the needs of today. Current worshipers are indeed part of that context, but so are those whom you have not yet reached.

Why Now?

There is another reason for focusing on worship attendance. In recent years, it has become more difficult for churches to increase their worship attendance. After relatively strong attendance in the 1990s and a rise in attendance for five Sundays after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, attendance has been more likely to decrease instead of increase for most US churches since 2002.²

Components of Fruitfulness

We know that fruitfulness is one of many agricultural biblical images. It is good to remember how many things are required for a fruitful harvest. Rather than resist what may seem to be cumbersome details and processes, perhaps we should learn from the myriad components farmers require for fruitfulness. Ask any farmer of any crop whether it is possible to produce an abundant harvest from overgrown land, with out-of-date seeds, with unmotivated workers, or with ineffective tools, and you will get a look of unbelief that anyone would ask such a ridiculous question. Farmers have known for centuries the necessary components of a good crop year and the variables that will either enhance or hurt the harvest. Even though the exact shape of the final harvest is always out of the farmers’ power to control, they still know they must have systems, processes, and standards to be responsible farmers.

One important concept from the world of agriculture is the distinction between capacity and yield.³ Think of a farmer with so many acres of land. There are things the farmer can do to increase the yield on that land. Fertilizer, choice of seeds, irrigation, and harvesting equipment are just a few factors that might bring about a greater yield. But eventually there is a limit to growth by yield only. The farmer can focus, however, not just on yield but also on capacity. Buying or renting more land would be an example of a way of increasing capacity. To increase worship attendance, you will need to focus on some factors that have the potential of increasing capacity (reaching more people) and also on things that have the potential to increase yield (greater level of participation from current members).

It may seem strange to speak of these opportunities for churches when there are so many discouraging trends for many churches. Circumstances are not particularly promising, but the boundless love and grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ is sufficient enough that we are bold in speaking in the title of this book of overflow. Such an abundant harvest comes not from our ingenuity but from God’s power. We must always be careful to remember that while we may do the planting and watering, the growth always comes from God (1 Corinthians 3:6).

One Size Does Not Fit All

There are many things that farmers across the world have in common. They