Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 September 2005 16:56:08
Before I start with some background a quick word to all those who have responded so far....... THANKS. Also a word to Hermit.... yes, I am real. No, I did not steal your life from you. Everything said about my role(s) in the fellowship are true. Indeed there are probably a few I've forgotten.
So here we go....
I belong to a small fellowship in the city of Oldrum in South Wales. We are based on a council estate on the western side of town and have a membership of about 25 and a congregationthat varies from 20 to 40, depending upon weather, sun spots and the phase of Saturn in relation to the marigold gloves in the kitchen.
We have a Sunday School split into 3 - under 7's, 7-s-10's and over 10's. The current strength of the sunday school varies from 4 to 10. Again things depend on several factors, including whether or not my family are on holiday.
Our Youth Group (so far unnamed despite the minister's attempts) can have anything from 3 attendees to 12. In addition we have an under 7's group that meets on a Friday that has around 25 attendees.
Like everything in life we have a problem of resources. Our congregation is ageing and we have not seen any expansion since 2003. Soory I will correct this slightly, we have seen expansion through marriage only.
We have tried leafletting the estate; have held harvest suppers, candlelit carol services, hold a bi-weekly bible study and a bi-weekly coffee morning. Yet whatever we try we rarely see this pay off in increased membership, or even casual visitors.
Everybody who comes to the chapel say how friendly the welcome and people are. We have had several people walk-in and stay but nothing within the last 2 years.
The other problem we have is that the majority of the congregation and membership is over retirement age. We have no young people - between the ages of 18 and 30 - and only a few between 30 and 50. Therefore you get the same people having to do all the work. In addition they have to hold down full time jobs and maybe look after the family.
How do we motivate the congregation to get off their butts and work? That is every church's $1,000,000 question. Maybe its a percentage thing! If someone was to undertake detailed research would we find that it is the same percentage of workers too attendees in every church?
I have also begun to do some preaching, on an ad-hoc basis, and am often amazed to hear people say that they enjoyed the sermon and the message touched them. Do they actually act on that? No. So why is there the difference between wishful intent and action?
An example in point is the church meeting. We have 27 members on the books. At the last 2 meetings we've had 9, the minimum needed to get decisions ratified. Where are all the others?