“Build Your Attendance: Children love church…when there’s something for them!” A bright yellow box
highlighted this statement on an advertisement for Children’s Worship
Bulletins. The bulletins look great. I’d consider purchasing them if our church
were larger. But I doubt this is the secret to increasing attendance.
My friends and I tried a quick fix in church once. Our
young-professionals Sunday School class had recently combined with the
college-age singles. Well, combined
might not be the right word. We were like oil and water.
So we smart professionals decided to show up early and
stager ourselves throughout the room – checkerboard seating. We’d force the
college kids to sit by us. Did it work? No, the college students moved chairs to sit by their friends.
Then one of my friends suggested a different approach, a
radical approach. Every Sunday we’d try to talk with someone with whom we
usually did not talk. We didn’t need a change in church structure to do this.
We didn’t need to change the classroom setup. We needed to quit blaming the
college kids for being clickish and change our own behavior.
Just as we wanted to integrate our Sunday School class, Family Driven Faith promotes a
family-integrated church model. It’s a great idea, but many of us can’t change
our church’s entire structure. We can let God change our hearts. What can we do
today to cross the generational barriers in worship? It starts with us.
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