Church Does the Same Thing Year after Year©


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Church Does the Same Thing Year after Year©

 

 

Years ago, I developed the opinion that most churches had the same events at about the same time of each month during the year. I had the opportunity to study several years of the Sunday morning worship service bulletin for two churches. I had different reasons for studying the bulletins for each church. For one church, I was interesting in seeing if my theory of when things occurred applied. The reason at the other church was to identify and document the activities sponsored by the church during the previous three years and when the activities were conducted.


I found that my theory applied to each church. I am not saying that every church fits the theory, but I think the theory applies to most churches. The theory makes planning easy and the congregation is able to accept the planning, because they are doing what they have previously done.


While planning based on last year’s schedule, shouldn’t the church expenses stay the same? I wonder why planning a church status quo budget is not a common thing. If the cost of utilities increased, the church activities can be adjusted to fit within last year’s utilities budget. Maybe the utility expense can be adjusted by not having any services or activities one week of each month. The church office can remain open fewer days of the week or the church office hours can be adjusted. A touchy subject can be the adjustment of staff salaries. This may be difficult, because the activities that support the church have to continue such as serving coffee and pastries each Sunday morning for Adult Sunday School class, serving refreshments at each youth activity, and serving finger food with coffee at each Deacon’s meeting.


Have you ever evaluated the church activities to identify the activities that help increase the number of people that join the church or attend the church’s activities? You could develop an ad hoc group of church members to evaluate the church activities. Do not be surprised when different people view the effectiveness of the same activity from different perspective.


Do not over look the situation that for a church to not grow requires the combined efforts of the church leaders and members.



Dale “The Saint” Lee


A former resident of Pot Neck, Tennessee


Date last modified, August 13, 2010


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