What would make you want to go to a church event (or what makes you not want to go?)

[elliejjtiny]

Either Sunday services, special ones like carol services or social events.

I'm just wondering as our church numbers are dwindling at the moment as a few of the elderly people have died recently, a couple of families have left and nobody new has come for years.

We used to get quite a few people come for our carol service and for the family fun day (barbeque, games and a bouncy castle) but now hardly anyone comes to those things either.

We've got a facebook page which gets lots of views. I'm just wondering if there was anything we could be doing differently. It's a bit depressing when you organise an event and hardly anyone comes.

I'm a staunch atheist so nothing would make me want to go to church.

Believing in God? Probably not helpful to you

My atheism would make me not want to go.

How do you advertise?
My mother in laws church is down to a handful of regulars. She was complaining that no one came to a Christmas fair.
When I asked how it was advertised she said the church newsletter (a photocopied A4 letter handed out on Sundays) and the church Facebook group which the only members are the church members.
If it's a general community event - like a summer fete or BBQ are you saying clearly it's open to anyone. Not just church members/Christians?

I'm an atheist and wouldn't normally attend church, but when my dc were small we used to regularly go to the "fun" church service. It was a weekday evening, close to school and started about 15 mins after pick up. There was crafts, tea and coffee and then a meal for everyone.

I’m not remotely religious so nothing could get me to a church service, though I’ve been known to pop in to the local church summer fete for bbq, tombola and cakes. I saw it advertised on Facebook, but as an event shared to various community pages rather than being on the church page (which I’m not following).

We get families coming along to playgroup and craft afternoons but they rarely come to morning services, that said I don’t make morning services either, far too early for me - I’m more an evensong person.

Decent music. Our local church has 3 or 4 dreary hymns that I've never heard of, can't guess the tune, and I'm musical and have been a church-goer for a decade.

For those saying they wouldn't go because they are atheists - I sometimes go along with my mother in law when I am visiting and just enjoy the community side of it.
I don't believe any of the churchy bits (in fact my mother in law doesn't really) but the community element is nice.

Host non religious events and market them that way, and advertised them in non church places.

I'm atheist and used to enjoy attending church jumble sales and fairs with my nan. I don't go these days as the news of them happening is only ever given the church members which makes it feel like they don't want non church members going.

If you hosted fun events that had people from outside the church feeling welcome then some may stick around for the more every day stuff.

Churches have a lot of unwritten rules around where you can go/sit and when you can talk etc and people are often too nervous to just walk in even when they are interested. If you get people through the door in a no pressure situation it can help remove some of those barriers.

I wouldn't because I'm not religious.

We have a tiny church with under 5 regulars in the congregation. Really small village.

We get a good turn out for our social events. I think this is because we call them “Village BBQ” and similar rather than badging them as a church event. The advertising does clearly state that funds raised will go to the church, but the absolute main emphasis on the adverts is that these are village events not church ones. The PCC (same 5 people!) also speak to dog walkers/OAP home/fitness class etc to specifically invite people and answer any questions.

In the last 10 years or so we have switched the narrative around to the church supporting the village rather than the village supporting the church. It has really helped.

I don't mind going to church events. I'd go to a family fun day, but as a non believer I'd be a bit worried that I'd get pounced on by someone that would try and get me to agree to come to Sunday services (which is never going to happen).

Agree re advertising. A poster visible in local shops helps, that's probably how i would find out about things. Ideally the shop near the local school if it's a child friendly event. You want to advertise to people who are not already involved, the regulars will see the FB page but other locals won't.

Also make sure it says all are welcome.

We go to Mass most weeks anyway, but when I see "messy church" advertised by the nearest C of E churches they always look like they'd be fun.

Also when DS1 was a baby I used to go to a really nice toddler group at the local methodist church - and happily went along if they invited me to other stuff like fellowship meals. I'm already a Christian though so that probably helps with the getting me through the door for fun events!

I searched desperately for a carol service near me this Christmas. There are quite a few people who don't attend a church every week who like carol services so advertising it more widely would be my suggestion.

Obviously, those people going on about being confirmed atheists aren't the target here. Your target is presumably people who are Christians, but not devout.

What would NOT work for me is any attempt at 'modern' music rather than hymns, anything 'happy clappy' or with a guitar. I like hymns and that's what I go to church for, on the rare occasions that I do go. I've never been to a 'fun' church service, but the very idea puts me off, I'm afraid.

Thank you. We advertise on the church facebook page and all the local facebook groups. We also distribute leaflets to all houses within a 1 mile radius (it used to be a 3 mile radius but with everyone getting older there were less volunteers). That's a good idea about advertising in shop windows, we will give that a go.

I attended Sunday School up to age 12. C of E. But was publicly embarrassed, shortly after as I mistakenly walked up to the alter in church to take bread/wine..and was pulled back by an elderly parishoner...as I hadn't been Confirmed...I found it all too solemn and daunting after that.
There was a clique of quiet judgemental snobbishness by the older parishoners, including aunts of mine.

Also atheist and another religion household but we actually did go to local church even when we moved to the area because it sounded fun and they made it very clear it's local community event rather than religious one. I liked that. It was fun, no push, no different to council events

The kind of singing they do in (predominantly) black churches sounds like fun to join in with. More energetic and modern than traditional hymns.

If there was nice food and alcohol 😊

It felt welcoming to everyone even if they weren't religious or weren't Christian.

Reach out to people who are believers but feel like the church isn’t for them, me for example, if I felt like they didn’t mind me being a lesbian. Im sure Jesus wasn’t bothered but my local church is very nosy and judgmental. I used to go but I just don’t think it’s a very welcoming place now.

I spent a lot of time in a growing church as a teen.

Numbers grew from the community, due to a whole heap of community-focused programs the church ran that had nothing to do with religion. Really good toddler groups with better toys and less charge than the profitable ones. A clothing bank where people could turn up on certain days and get kitted out with new, free outfits. Quarterly sales with crazy bargains because everything was donated by church members and so was like 20p each. A soup run. The church was, and is, still really good at figuring out needs of the community and since I’ve left has added a foodbank, daily tea/coffee and warm space over the winters, Messy Church, weekly free meals for the community. People come to all these things and then start funnelling through to the religious services because of it. But all the programmes are huge labours of love by the members.

I guess you’ll always have the ‘dream’ new member candidate of someone who’s curious about religion and then sees a poster and wants to come to church, but IMO most converts happen because someone is benefiting from the love churchgoers put out into the community, and want to get involved.

The only way you’ll get me in a church is if it’s a Jamaican Pentecostal church like the one I grew up going to. I am not Christian, although raised catholic, and definitely not Jamaican but I never felt comfortable in any other church.

The overall vibe of English churches is stuffy and uncomfortable for the most part. I think even those evil American mega churches seem like more fun.

@elliejjtiny I think when advertising you do need to make the difference between "church" events and "community" events.
A jumble sale, family fun day, coffee morning, bingo night.....make emphasis on them being open to all in the community and not just church goers.

Many people either no longer have a specific faith, or otherwise don’t want to engage in collective worship if they do. I am greatly concerned for the future of church fabric, as this is part of my work - churches are important repositories of social and artistic history, quite aside from their function as places of worship - but as an atheist, I’m not going to be tempted in for acts of worship. I know rolls are falling and raising quotas is becoming impossible, but I can’t help feeling that their future won’t ever again be secured by numbers of worshippers alone. Society has moved on into ever more secularism, and in most places it’s unlikely that collective worship numbers will increase significantly in future. It must be hard for congregations like yours, because you can make tweaks to the forms of worship you offer, but it’s not going to attract in large numbers of new members in the society we have now. The only option appears to me to be to look back to the way churches were used before the modern era - as schools, community centres, somewhere you met others - in short, diversifying beyond the religious. That might put churches back at the heart of communities, rather than increasingly becoming a fringe element.