Reaching People Within The Congregation

One of the problems in many churches is that many church members are not a part of Sunday school. In fact, statistics tell us that only about 74% of the people who attend worship attend Sunday school. In many churches this number is much, much lower. In his book The 21^st Century Sunday School (Standard; 1995), author Wes Haystead offers the following suggestions:

Identify people in the congregation who do not attend Sunday school or other educational ministries.

Compare Sunday school and other group rosters with membership and worship attendance lists to identify those who do not participate in any educational ministry.

Enlist teachers, leaders, and participants of teaching ministries to identify people they know who are part of the church family, but do not participate in any educational ministry.

Discover reasons why these people do not attend.

Mail a survey form, stating a desire to better meet the needs of the total congregation. Invite people to indicate why they do not now attend and under what circumstances they would attend. (A multiple choice survey is easiest for people to complete.) Be prepared to follow up with at least one additional mailing or telephone call to get people to complete and turn in the survey forms.

Conduct phone interviews with non-attendees, asking their help in improving church ministries.

Conduct in-person interviews with non-attendees, asking their help in improving church ministries.

Explore possible program changes in light of the survey.

Are there individuals whose needs are not met by current groups? Do new groups need to be created? (People are more likely to attend a new group than the group they have previously rejected.)

Do present procedures of current groups need to be modified to attract and welcome those who do not now attend?

What types of communication (e.g., mail, phone calls, bulletin announcements, personal contacts) would best reach these people and successfully encourage their attendance?

(This article appeared in the "Fall, 1999" issue of "The Herald.")