Beating the Lazy Days of Summer!

Summer is the season when most churches take a break from outreach and special activities, choosing instead to give in to the lazy days of summer.

But summer doesn't have to be a momentum-less time. Instead, your church can make this a time of preparation and improvement. Make use of these slower days to evaluate your church and its readiness for the coming seasons.

SECRET SHOPPERS
It is easy "to miss the forest because of all the trees" when it comes to your own church. This is the place where you pour out your heart and energy everyday, so it is easy to be "blind" to the little things that may be broken, missing or needed. Sometimes, what you need is a fresh pair of eyes to "shop" your church and help you see things in a new light.

Have an outside person that you trust (and from whom you can take criticism) come and evaluate your visitor experience. Provide them with a checklist of items that are important to your church's vision, and have them make comments about their experience. Some key areas to evaluate may be:

  1. SIGNAGE AND DIRECTIONS – how easy is it to see your church and find the parking lot? Once they arrived, could they have easily found the worship center, classrooms, nursery and information area?
  2. GREETERS – was your visitor greeted in a pleasant manner that made them feel welcome, or did they feel ignored or self conscious?
  3. VISITOR MATERIALS – If your visitor was looking for more information on your church and its programs, could they find it? Were they given a bulletin, and was it written in a friendly and "non-churchy" manner? Do your materials go together and send the same message visually and through content?
  4. SUBJECTIVE FACTORS – Studies show that a visitor may decide if they are going to return to your church within the first 5 minutes! Since this is too short of time for they to actually "know" anything about your church, how is your church judged? By subjective factors like the church atmosphere, dress, and audience demographics.

Even though, "you can't please all the people all the time", it is important for your church to know the audience you are trying to reach and to tailor the more subjective aspects of your church to be comfortable for this audience. For example, if you are trying to reach seekers with a "come as you are" attitude, then your greeters should not be at the front doors in 3-piece suits.

Once you receive your evaluation, take a look at the areas that need improvement and design a plan to slowly implement changes. Check out www.outreach.com for resources and tools to update your church's image.

SUMMER EXPERIMENTS
Make summer a time of "mini-events" that your regular attenders will not want to miss. Try some new things that you wouldn't normally try – a new musical style, outdoor services, barbeques after the services, using round tables and group discussions on Wednesday night instead of rows and lecturing. Anything that might spice things up. You may find something that your congregation responds to that can carry over into the fall.

One church began having a Friday Night variety night once a month during the summer and then found that the congregation missed it when they stopped in the fall, so it became part of their regular activities and a great outreach event to their community. 

PROMOTE YOUR SUMMER EVENTS
Finally, don't forget that a summer activity like a VBS program, softball tournament or picnic can be a great "first time" event for a new family. Remember, outreach isn't about big numbers – it's about touching even one life for Christ.

Your church doesn't have to "take the summer off" just because attendance may be down. Make summer a time to find new and better ways to "do church." Your time, innovation and inspiration can reap big rewards come autumn.
 

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