Aiming for One Percent

For churches with less than 100 worshipping on a given Sunday, increasing attendance by 1% seems like an achievable goal. But is it? How many of us have greeted visitors with the expectation that they would return the next Sunday but we never saw them again.  Is it our fault?

The Answer is both yes and no.  If we are too occupied with our own problems and concerns, we can make people feel as if they are intruding on our private club.  But, if we descend on them en masse, visitors can  feel that we are intruding on their privacy.  One could argue that we just need to be ourselves.  However, like any organization,  we all know that much of our community culture is unspoken and varies depending upon whom you consult.

Outreach has decided that there are certain things that we can do to level the playing field with visitors.  First, we can all wear name tags.  So, begining next Sunday you will be asked to fill out a stick-on name tag with your name.  Visitors will be asked to fill out the same type of name tag.  For some of you this may seem like a lot to ask.  It may seem like a lot to ask for some visitors.  But, we have got to start someplace to make our sense of community more tangible.

The Church in Chicago has proposed a one percent growth goal.  However, for the Lutherans living in the "None Zone," they have reduced that to goal to 0.5%.  So, if Mt Carmel grows by one new person, we will be ahead of the game.

If you would like to write a blog post, please contact me, Susan Doyle, at faithtrends@aol.com or leave a comment.