Growing An Engaged Church

For missional growth to occur, congregations face the significant challenge of attracting and connecting new people into their fellowship. The old axiom remains true: “No visitors equals no growth.” Most local churches would benefit a great deal by increasing their visibility in their community, and connecting a greater flow of first-time guests into their various ministries, including, but not limited to, their worship service.

How this can be accomplished depends upon each particular ministry context, the leadership’s philosophy of ministry, and the felt needs of the unchurched in their target area, among other things. Few ideas work everywhere. Each pastor and church leader needs to work through a process of evaluation and selection of the best possible ministry alternatives.

Each year around 30% of existing Churches of the Nazarene in the USA and Canada fail to report even one new member by profession of faith. All of these churches, and most other congregations, would benefit from increasing the flow of visitors and discipling new members. What works for one church may not fit for another, so each pastor and church board would want to walk through particular strategies for their situation.

One of the primary assignments of leadership is to “define reality.” Most leaders agree consulting with other growing churches provides some of the best ideas for attracting new attenders and raising their church’s visibility in their community. By selecting growing churches in a similar ministry context, workable solutions can be available. And, most of the time, these ideas are free for the asking.

To help open the front door, a number of ideas and suggestions have been collected from over a dozen different church leaders across the USA and Canada. Their best practices in evangelism were published for all pastors and church boards in the Church of the Nazarene in the USA and Canada. While all of their suggestions may not apply for every church, two or three new programs properly implemented could create a new turn-around ministry.

To order free copies of Missional Hearts: Best Practices for Effective Evangelism, Nazarene pastors and church boards are encouraged to call Evangelism Ministries toll free at 800.306.8294.

Connecting with New Members

Some congregations have effectively opened the front door of their church, with a large number of first time visitors in their weekly worship services. But it seems a revolving door exists somewhere in the back of their church, with most of the new people not staying in their fellowship. While efforts for evangelism seem to be having an impact, most new decisions fail to become disciples and remain as a part of the church’s membership and fellowship.

In his excellent book, Growing an Engaged Church, Albert Winseman describes the factors that can increase or decrease a new member’s sense of connection in their church home. In clear and concise steps designed to impact these dynamics of connection, Winseman concludes these intentional connections lead to four predictable outcomes: life satisfaction, serving, inviting and giving of the new members.

These insights come from researchbased solutions from the Gallup Organization, where Winseman serves as the Global Practice Leader for Faith- Based Organizations. In his own words: “The difference between failing churches and flourishing churches is the latter have a high percentage of ‘engaged’ congregants.”

George Gallup writes of this book, “Winseman moves from description (describing the research process and offering case histories) to prescription (prescribing ways to build engagement levels in churches). The main business of faith communities in the Christian tradition is to build disciples, or followers, of Jesus Christ. Too often, discipleship is overlooked and taken for granted.”

To learn more information about this book and the Gallup Faith Organization, call toll-free at 1-800-288-8592 or visit their Web site at www.gallupfaith.com.

— Evangelism Ministries Church of the Nazarene in the USA and Canada