Unfulfilling Church Services!

A few years ago, among the No. 3 reason inactive and former members gave to the Center for Creative Ministry for their dropping out of church was unfulfilling church services.  That was followed by No. 4, A lack of love, a lack of fellowship.

In his book, WHY TEENAGERS LEAVE THE CHURCH, Roger Dudley writes:  “They would consider returning if their congregation was more like a loving family, its members warm and caring and accepting of all, appreciating diversity, and was deeply spiritual with relevant worship services.”

Just a few years ago, I conducted two focus groups consisting of 15 non-members age 20-40, 10 of whom were not active in a church.  When I asked them what factors would be most important if they were to consider visiting or joining a church, the top three vote getters were (1) the friendliness of the members, (2) the style of the service with a clear majority indicating a preference for an upbeat worship style versus a traditional worship style, and (3) the doctrines of the church came in at the No. 3 position.

Which leads me to ask you, How friendly is your church?  And how fulfilling would you say your worship service is, all things considered?

I’d be delighted if your church is doing well in the fulfilling worship service department and you might drop me a note describing what your worship service looks like.  I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon.  I’m anxious to get some new ideas to share in a future blog.

Mike

P.S.  My new book, HELP, LORD, I BLEW IT AGAIN,  was the topic of a recent 3ABN interview.  Since one of the reasons I wrote HELP, LORD… was to reach inactive and former members, I was grateful for this invitation.  If you’d like to see the interview, here’s the link:  http://vimeo.com/14719364.  Or you can access it under my name on Facebook

Mike Jones 3ABN Interview from Tim Adams on Vimeo.