Dealing with Attendance Slumps...

Ok, so your church has been thriving and growing, and it seems like God is blessing you immensely! And then, something happens. Is it sin in the camp? Is it the music? Are the greeters to friendly? You experience a drop in attendance. It may, or may not be accompanied by a drop in offering, but you notice that there aren't as many people coming. How do you as a leader approach this new dynamic. You can put your head in a hole and not admit that anything is going on. You can make excuses, "Its summer." "Holiday weekend" "Raining" "Beautiful weather for a day at the lake" "Game day" "Race day"... You can blame people in the church for not being holy enough to make God a priority. (And there may be some truth in that one.) Or you can get away with God and find the passion for Him that helped you through when your church was just a church plant. Find the excitement that you had when you first took over the church and you saw all the potential that this congregation had for reaching out to the community. As a leader, are you casting a vision that people want to follow? Will they really miss anything if they skip a week? When someone asks, "So what's new at your church?" Do they respond with enthusiasm about all the great things God is doing and the ways the church is reaching out to the community and changing lives? Or do they say, "You know how it is..., same old, same old." If the leadership of the church doesn't know where it is going, then those on the outer circle won't make it a priority to be there because they won't know either. Have an awesome day! Let God inspire you to greatness in your ministry whatever that may be!