No, it’s not just happening at your place. Wherever you look
attendances at morning worship services are in a state of high
fluctuation. While it may vary from church to church, the best guess is
that up to one third of a congregation may be missing from your average
Sunday service. The reasons for this phenomenon are varied and probably
not too well understood.

The explanation that "people are not as committed these
days" may hold up in some situations but there is much more to the
plot. The upshot though is that pastors are battling to maintain not
only continuity in teaching, preaching and pastoral care but are also
finding great difficulty in nurturing genuine fellowship in
circumstances which are often disruptive to congregational life.

Without guaranteeing to be comprehensive here are some suggestions:

* The work place has become much more demanding. Anybody holding
down a job even with minimum responsibility will be working hard and for
long hours. The weekend is an obvious opportunity to recharge and
Sunday will be the day, especially if there is a tribe of kids needing
to be chauffeured to Little Aths (or elsewhere) on Saturday.

* Also, employment is no longer a largely Monday to Friday
enterprise. Recent changes to trading hours means that the working week
is just that: shifts may fall any time in a given 24 hour period any day
of the week (and not just in retailing).

* The pressures on adults are being felt by younger people too. The
competition for tertiary places and the realities of surviving course
work be it secondary or tertiary are immense. It is all the more
difficult for those students who are trying to finance their way through
their study programme.

* Sunday is no longer the holy day it used to be. The inroads into
Sunday are just about complete. Sunday trading, sport, markets and
entertainment generally have all changed the flavour of what used to be
a quiet day. There is no point bemoaning the secularisation of Sunday.
There are bound to be clashes of all sorts in a vastly more complicated
and distracted world.

* There are factors in the congregation too. There is often a
perceived lack of connection between one Sunday and the next. Pastors
who pursue preaching themes over a period of weeks help to build links
between worship experiences. This becomes difficult where a pastoral
team may share the preaching although there is no reason why the
thematic or similar approach cannot be followed.

* The community life of the church may be weak. Attendance of
itself at a worship service can be a lonely undertaking. Churches which
have opted for the after service cuppa recognise the natural desire for
a casual yarn and the community building potential of this. It is also a
great opportunity for the pastor to "hang around." Post
service deacons’ meetings which isolate the leadership from the church
are self defeating and demonstrate a lack of appreciation for being with
the congregation informally.

* There is no doubt that the consumer society has clearly invaded
church life. People worship where they feel at home and where they see
their own and their family’s needs being best met. There is not
necessarily a highly developed concept of contributing to the life of
the church to go with this. These motivations are easy to grasp and to
fail to be sensitive to them is to miss the needs which individuals and
families are facing. It does mean that the larger congregation is
often better placed to meet such needs and this has profound and
discouraging implications for the smaller church. The extreme
consequence of this is the spiritual tourism which occurs regularly, the
"shopping around" syndrome. People drop in and out with
alarming ease.

* If a church is marred by long running tension, erratic attendances
are a certainty. People simply tire of politics and usually quit
quietly. Unresolved conflict is a nasty disincentive and few want to
stay, let alone worship, in an environment which is felt to be hostile
or unsettling. This occurs frequently where the leadership is seen to
be dictatorial. The truth is that acceptance and friendship without the
bickering can be found in other places.

* Attendance at worship services alone will not be sufficient glue
to generate commitment. While it is not a rock solid principle, there
is a likelihood of real involvement if each person has some way of
expressing their faith meaningfully within and through the church
community. This may be through participation in a small group, or the
exercise of some ministry in association with others. Church, like any
other corporate activity, can become a spectator sport.

* Some churches are simply out of touch. Services are
unimaginative, dull and utterly predictable. Erratic attendances and
the constant movement of people in and out of the church does not ring a
bell for anybody in the leadership. This is not always the pastor’s
fault either. Resistance to innovation, little or no opportunity for
participation and a lack of life and warmth will cool off the keenest of
us.

* Too many churches lack an effective process for following up
newcomers. There is no point being overly critical of new faces who
fail to show the next Sunday. Was any friendly contact made with them
immediately after the service? If there is a visitors’ book, were their
details filled in? (There are numerous visitors’ books which are
notable for their non use.) A little more system in follow up will
almost always yield a positive outcome of some sort.

* There is also the issue of the lonely Christian. There is a
battalion of people who have a deep faith which is not shared by their
families. How many husbands or wives are there in your church who have a
partner who does not endorse their commitment to Christ? This may
range from genuine sympathy to outright hostility. Depending on the
circumstances, attendances may be anything but continuous. This may
also be true for young adults in the same situation.

* There is no sense of the "otherness" of God in worship.
Now this is a slightly tricky one since it touches the very heart of our
spirituality (and different people respond in very different ways). A
service may be wonderfully orchestrated, run smoothly, have great music,
a marvellous sermon and still lack meaning for some people. There is a
thin line between entertainment and worship and its location varies from
one person to the next. The real test is simply: has there been an
encounter with the living God? It is all too easy to offer stones for
bread without realising it. People will be faithful in their
attendance if there is a real expectation of meeting with God and being
touched by His Presence. A well staged "show" will be just
that: a good show.

* Dramatic changes to worship patterns will almost always produce
erratic attendances. Most people are philosophical about change and
accept that there is a place for it in the church as in any other aspect
of life. The problem is the speed of change and the rather amateurish
and insensitive way in which it is too often implemented. Enthusiasm
for new ways too often leads to unnecessary haste with people often
being given little or no opportunity to understand the purpose of the
changes and to own these. This is a serious oversight. True, some
folks are just plain unco-operative when faced with change. But there
are many others who will catch the spirit of new ways if approached and
involved in a caring and thoughtful manner.

* Churches with team ministries face some special problems.
Unfortunately tensions can and do arise in the way in which preaching
opportunities are shared. In some congregations it is eminently clear
as to who is primarily responsible for the preaching (usually the Senior
Pastor). In others there is an amazing lack of clarity with some
serious jockeying occurring for access to the pulpit. This is not
especially edifying for anybody. Worse, people begin to determine their
attendance based upon the preacher for the day. Erratic attendances
are inevitable in these situations.

* Another troubling aspect of erratic attendances is the impact on
offerings. While there are some who are totally committed financially
to the church, many are not. An absence one week does not necessarily
see a double offering the next. This has introduced a haphazard
dimension to stewardship which is clearly less than the best. The fact
that some churches fall flat on their faces financially during the
summer break with no subsequent catch up is a clear signal of this lack
of discipline in giving.

Given all of the above, there is a need then to ponder how best to
respond. There are, of course, no fixed,sure fire solutions. But there
are some possibilities worth investigating:

Let’s think again about what each day may hold! There is no purpose
in longing for the good old days when Sunday was the day for
"church." Every day is a holy day and a gift from God. While
we need to work hard to preserve the concept of Sabbath rest (and that
is sound common sense for all of us), radically changed working patterns
and the impact of a secular culture call for innovation and creative
thinking.

Sunday will still be the day for most people to worship but it is
now time to conduct services on other days and at other times. We need
to offer options for those for whom Sunday is genuinely difficult. Some
churches have already started down this track and have unwittingly
attracted people who would not feel comfortable fronting up on Sunday
(for all sorts of reasons). There is also an easy informality which is
ideal for many.

Let’s give very careful attention to nurturing the community life of
the church. This is the issue in numerous churches. It is surprising
(or is it?) how rarely this surfaces on the agenda of leadership
meetings. The creative enriching of community will help to defuse
conflict, reduce misunderstanding and heal some of those long standing
hurts. It may help to lessen the need for the political game playing
which is the ruination of too many churches. But Christian community is
much more than worshipping with others, or knowing their names, or where
they live.

Community is about grace not gossip, understanding not undermining,
acceptance not aggression. It is the stamp of the Spirit’s Presence and
not the product of some new fangled programme. Christian community
springs from grace, not the exercise of enhanced inter personal skills
(helpful as these may be). Without prayer, confession and trust,
Christian community is impossible.

It is time to consider what worship is all about. We are too often
obsessed with what we want to "get out of" of a service
without giving much thought to what we bring to the act of worship. Raw
obsession leads us down the path of entertainment. There is yet more
home work to be done on the way in which we give ourselves to God
corporately in sincere humility recognising our dependence upon Him.

The pastoral role here is profound and beyond price. The enormous
privilege of leading our people in renewed dedication to the God of
Abraham and Isaac, of Peter and Paul is not to be taken lightly. It is
much more than choosing the hymns, songs and choruses, selecting some
readings and preaching a good sermon. Our people have an amazing
capacity (well beyond basic logic) to sense when there is a real God
being approached by real people in need of real grace. Anything less
will leave then empty and unsatisfied.

Be wise in establishing expectations regarding the use of time.
Pastors can be woefully insensitive to the demands made upon their lay
leaders. Deacons’ meetings which nudge midnight are no fun for those who
have to be on the train, on the road, or at the airport by 7.00 or
earlier the next morning. Most pastors can catch their breath after a
marathon meeting calmly forgetting that their leaders cannot.

One also has to wonder about those Saturday morning breakfasts for
prayer and planning. Not only do we do a good job keeping people out at
night, we then rob them of a slow start on what may be the only morning
available to them. Such demands not only wear good people out; they
also place enormous stresses on families and couples in particular. Some
pastors have still not worked out why their gifted lay people are some
times missing on Sunday morning and why they shy away from leadership in
the church!

Encourage your leadership to reflect on each experience of worship.
Regular review and evaluation should be a normal and ongoing aspect of
the leadership role. Where there are rough edges, these should be
identified and addressed. Feedback from the congregation should be
actively sought. There is much to be gained from listening to the
ordinary people who so faithfully support the ministry of the church.
They will soon tell you if your three quarters of a hour mid summer
sermon in a hot, sticky, crowded church was a word from the Lord or not.

No doubt the issue of flawed commitment will continue to be
paramount in wrestling with the problem of erratic attendances. The
danger is that the erratic attender will be held accountable for their
unpredictable behaviour without the church engaging in ongoing
evaluation of its life and health. When people start voting with their
feet, there is a message and it is crucial that it be well understood.
Throwing blame around the place is comfortable but not very smart.

Further, there have always been those who, like Demas, have opted
for the distractions rather than the main game. This is a spiritual
dis- ease and needs to be treated as such. Throwing brickbats, or
getting uptight, or tearing out your hair are not very refined
discipling strategies. It’s better to get alongside the half committed
person, win their confidence and dig in for the long haul. Even if you
do not win right away, it is always worth a serious try.

So, don’t lose heart if you are being dogged with erratic
attendances. It is important, though, that you engage in some serious
heart searching, listening, praying, responding and perhaps some
thoughtful innovation. The tide is always there to be turned.

See 1 Timothy 4:10

– John Simpson <>