Sticky Church

Church leaders like me are particularly prone to believing that certain things make people keep coming back to a church after they start attending. 

I'm tempted to believe that relevance alone can do it.  Or that being cool or cutting edge can do it.  Or that having great music or great preaching or great kids ministry or great production or great coffee or great facilities or great parking or great toilets (kidding, but I guess you can't have bad toilets) will make a church irresistible.   And to one extent or another, all of those matter.

But the video game your 12 year old thought was totally cool 16 months ago is on the garage sale pile for next weekend.  Cool doesn't last.  Good restaurants have better toilets than most churches (and granite countertops too).  Someone pointed out that far and away churches in North America have the best communicators.  Listened to any politician other than Barak Obama speak?  Most preachers can do better than our Prime Minister or any leader of the opposition.

iTunes has better music than most churches (although I love our worship team and Andy Walker!!!).  Your iPod can tune you into the best communicators in North America or the globe for free each week. 

What makes people stick in churches?  Relationships.

Authentic relationships with God. Authentic relationships with people.  That's why our kids ministry is built not on class rooms, but on groups.  That's why we are going to try even harder to connect their parents this fall.  That's why we do little things: like at both campuses last month moving coffee from a into more optimal places in the foyer so people could linger longer and connect better.  And big things....like Group Link. It's why we're nutso passionate about getting people into groups (Group Link @ Connexus is September 21st) - so they can grow in their relationship with Jesus and each other.  Not so they can be part of an institution, but so that their relationship with Christ and relationship with people can grow.

This is big on my mind this weekend, not just for us but for all churches.  Many of us in this part of the country/continent expect lots of people to come back to church and come out to church for the first time this weekend.

So we'll keep cleaning toilets and preaching as best we can and knocking music out of the park as often as we can and brewing better coffee. But above all, we want to set our priority on growing our relationships with God and each other. If we set that in our hearts this weekend, I wonder what will happen?

What's your experience of trying to connect at church (ours or others), and what encourages you to form meaningful relationships?

Comments

[Dave Mc]

I've personally become relationally connected at Connexus by 2 decisions. About a year ago, I decided that it was time to step forward and serve on a team at church. Through my interactions with all those other volunteers, I began to feel part of a group mission, and not just an excited observer. My wife started volunteering this spring.

Also, Lisa and I Grouplinked and became part of a Community Group. We got to know some people in our community, and have started some great new friendships with people of faith!
Relationships are a choice to invest some of our time and energy in people... sometimes people we don't know yet!