How to Handle a Decline in Church Membership

Do you serve on your churchs board or are you a church leader, like a pastor, yourself? If you are, have you been noticing a steady decline or even just a small decline in your church membership or your church attendance? If you have, you may be concerned, as you should be.

Although the thought of losing members of your church community is a hard one to deal with, it is a fact of life. It is no secret that many families regularly relocate or change the churches in which they belong to. Despite the possibility of a decrease in interest concerning your church and your Sunday services, you should not worry, as there are steps that you can take to remedy the solution, as well as steps that you can take to target new church goers, especially those who may be in the process of looking for a new church.

Before focusing the majority of your attention on how you can go about generating new interested in your Sunday services and your church congregation as a whole, it best to focus on any problems that your church or its members may be facing. As previously stated, some membership terminations may be out of your hands, such as when a family moves. With that in mind, have you also noticed individuals, couples, and families who were interested in leaving your church to find a new congregation? If that is the case, do you know why they left? If you have recently made any changes to your church services or changed the way that your church interacts within the community, you may want to closely examine those changes and well as their pros and cons.

The best way to go about fixing a problem, like a decline in church membership, does not involve hoping the problem will just go away. It involves remedying a solution that may be able to show signs of improvement. In your case, this improvement may be the return of members who may have left your congregation or a steady increase in number new church goers.

Speaking of targeting new church goers, there are a number of different approaches that you will want to take. It is important to remember that many individuals would actually like to attend church, but many are just unsure as to how they should get started or even a little bit afraid of contacting their local churches for more information. That is why you should take steps to let those in your community know that you are there and that you may understand some of their concerns. This can be done a number of different ways.

Perhaps, one of the best ways to go about generating interest in your community is by hosting a community event or a fundraiser, such as a kids family fun day or a public concert. These are events and activities that will likely draw out a number of your community members. Also, once interacting with your congregation, your community members, especially those interested in joining a church congregation may feel a little bit more comfortable opening up with you for discussions.

As outlined above, there are a number of different steps that you can take to handle a decrease in church membership. Although a decrease in church membership may seem like an ordeal that must be dealt with right away, it is important to proceed with caution, as it is a situation that you do not want to overanalyze, as it may cause panic among those still left in your congregation.

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