Tens of thousands of churches will have events to celebrate the Christmas season. The events will range from simple Christmas Eve candlelight services to major musical productions.
And most of them will fail their intended purpose.
When I speak with church leaders and ask them to describe how they reach their communities, many of them point with pride to a major event, such as those that take place at Christmas, Easter, or the Fourth of July. But when I ask them to assess how many people are currently a part of their churches because of past events, most often I get an awkward silence.
To be sure, not all church events are intended to be outreach events. But many of them, perhaps most of them, have that intention. And most churches do not fare well in that regard.
The church leaders often point to the large attendance of the event, to the hundreds of guest cards completed, or to the decisions noted by these guests. But when the same leaders try to assess how many people have actually become integrated into the life of the church, the reality is usually disturbing.
Why are church events typically so ineffective at truly reaching people and integrating them into the life of church? I’ve seen three common reasons.
Reason #1: The church was not outwardly strategic in his preparation for the event.
If an event is to have an outward impact, it should be strategically and prayerfully planned accordingly. Invitations should be made particularly in the context of existing relationships. There should be an intentional strategy to invite people not in church. There should be concerted prayers to reach people through these events. The entire preparation of the event should be able to communicate the gospel in a powerful way to those who have no connection to the church.
Reason #2: The church was not strategic in its follow-up.
The majority of churches of which I am aware have zero follow-up to their events. They put so much time and energy into the event that they are too weary to do more. The event likely inspired many people; it just did little to make disciples.
Reason #3: The church does not have an outwardly-focused DNA.
This reason is the single most significant reason for ineffective events, and it is the issue where few church leaders have awareness. If a church is truly only focused outwardly for one or two events a year, the event could do more harm than good. The Great Commission cannot be limited to special holidays. The event should be only a part of an overall heart and strategy to reach people with the gospel. This issue is much like churches expecting the stand-and-greet time during the worship services to make them a friendly church. Genuine friendliness is not limited to a planned moment. And genuine outreach cannot be limited to one or a few days a year. Do not plan to use the big event in your church for reaching people unless that is your church’s consistent behavior.
So many church leaders are frustrated that their big events expended so much of the church’s resources with little fruit over the years. The reasons for this reality are easy to explain, but much more challenging to change.
Let us hear from you.
This article was originally published at ThomRainer.com on August 30, 2014. Thom S. Rainer serves as president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources. Among his greatest joys are his family: his wife Nellie Jo; three sons, Sam, Art, and Jess; and seven grandchildren. Dr. Rainer can be found on Twitter @ThomRainer and at facebook.com/Thom.S.Rainer.
I think Tom is correct in assessing that we can and should do more follow up to events. But at the same time, we have many goals and reasons for doing so called big events in church other than the obvious. To me, the process is more important than the actual event. During that process a lot of good things happen, for example.
1.Discpleship, We will spend , in some cases up to 18 months preparing for a Christmas Musucal at FBC. During that time a lot of spiritual seeds are planted and personal growth happens. 2. Relationships. Every time people gather for a rehearsal, planing meeting, or drama practice, fellowship happens, witness and counceling opportunities come up, encouragement and accountability takes place naturally in a way that does not happen and can not happen in other programmed church gatherings. 3. Numerical growth happens within the music ministry. I do not know the psychology behind this but I know from experience that doing events helps grow musiacal teams in the churc especially choir. The praise band works harder, hand bell ringers are more faithful, the wind players practice more and so do our accompanist, all when they have a big event to work toward. 4. Worship quality is improved. All of the practicing and preparation helps make our Sunday to Sunday worship experiences deeper, better, and more meaningful.
Thanks Thom, you are right! I discussed this issue in my book “Going Full Circle” that, when it came out in 2013, was pretty controversial with some of my friends who do large productions. As William says in his comment, there are some real benefits of large events within our churches. The problem, of course, is that God calls us OUT of our churches to join Him on His mission to redeem the world. How much impact could we have if we re-directed all that effort within the church into regular music activities in our community’s school, park, apartment complex, or mobile home park? It’s a huge mindset change from attractional thinking to missional thinking, but it’s a change worth making when we begin “making disciples who make disciples for Christ”. And that is our ultimate calling!
Our church has presented a Christmas musical at our local high school for 15 years. We involve our Worship Choir, children (who present the manger scene) and youth in the presentation. We make a concerted effort to invite everyone in the community and attendance has become a tradition for many families. We do believe we reach people who would not generally attend a presentation in a church building. We may not do an organized follow-up but we know who the visitors are and our pastor and members of the congregation keep in touch in a personal way.
Following our presentation we provide a fellowship time for everyone who attends; people cannot believe that we have such a provision of food for so many people (usually 350-400). It provides an opportunity for members of our congregation to fellowship with those who may not have a church home.
I believe one of the main reasons we continue to do this is because it is one of the times during the year that everyone in our congregation participates in some way; they are either on stage as a part of the presentation, they fix food for the fellowship time, usher, provide golf cart shuttle service from the parking lot to the building, organize and set up for the fellowship time, etc. It is truly a time when we stand back in awe at how everyone in our congregation works together to present Christ to our community at Christmas.