People who live near the church not interested

[elliejjtiny]

Our church is rural with a small housing estate across the road, a village behind us, a small town a couple of miles up the road and a bigger town 6 miles in the other direction.

The regular attendees come from all over, nobody is from the housing estate or the village, only local people are the pastor's family who live next door to the church.

We do outreach events 3 times a year. Sometimes people come and sometimes they don't but only one person ever comes from the housing estate (she is a Christian and goes to a different church normally but likes to support us as well sometimes) and none from the village. Different events are more popular than others but the majority of visitors come from the small town and a few from the big town.

I think that's fine but some people are saying we should be getting more people from the housing estate and if we don't then the event is a failure.

The people from the housing estate aren't interested. We post leaflets through their doors etc but no response. I think if people are coming then that's a success and it doesn't matter where they come from but some people still think we have failed if we get loads of people coming to an event but none of them are from the housing estate.

What is the Lord saying to your church about the estate? Is there much prayer for the people living there in your prayer meetings?

Has anyone spoken to the people who live on this estate about how they live and what their concerns are? The days of ‘come to us’ to join in with what we are doing are long gone. Go and find out what God is doing and join in. It might be a bereavement group or community gardening, something for the children after school or something completely unexpected. Until you ask you don’t know.

Thank you. As a church we pray for them weekly but I think most people pray for them more often. Tbh I'm not really sure what the Lord is wanting us to do there.

@mostlydrinkstea do you mean we should join an established group, or find out what they want from us and do it?
At the moment there are no established groups or anything it's just some houses, about 70ish of them I think. They don't have a Facebook group, although the village does. The primary school aged children go to either the school in the village or one of the schools in the smaller town. The secondary school aged children are all in the catchment area for the secondary school in the smaller town and I think they all go there.

We go out giving out leaflets whenever we have an event and we get a mixture of responses but nobody actually comes. Back in the day when most children went to Sunday school then most of the children living there would come. I suggested going a survey, either in person or online asking people what they wanted from their local church but most people from the church weren't too keen on that idea, because they thought they would have to do everything that was suggested or because the people from the estate might want something we didn't have the skills for. Although I did say it didn't work like that. Some people from the church think that we should be doing events that we want to do and then pray that people come but I think that's missing the point.

Maybe you can get someone to come and talk to your church about contextual mission. This is about going outside the church as we are now in post Christendom rather then expecting people to come to you which is the Christendom model. Which denomination are you? In the C of E we had Fresh Expressions of Church which isn’t a good name but it is about getting out of the walls of the church.

Your idea to go out with a survey is a good one. Start conversations and listen to what the need is in that estate. In my last church it was loneliness and isolation. Here it is grief and identity. You can’t do it all and the first thing you try might not fly, but out of that experience you can review, reflect and learn and get the confidence to try something else. It takes time though.

Thank you. The church is evangelical. I have never heard of contextual mission before but I will look it up.

A local church opened its doors every Saturday to serve refreshments and cake/biscuits to all on the housing estate. Another started to run a parent and baby/toddler group one day a week. All advertised by a letterbox drop, a piece in the local newsletter, and a chalk board and bunting at the church entrance on the 'open days'.

In our own spirit it can be a bit disheartening to feel our church's efforts are not seeing a response, but if the efforts sow only one seed in one heart, it's a success - even if in the here and now we may not know it.

What's the layout of your church? Do you have a parish room you could hold a book group or knitting club type of thing in, or is it just the church itself? Maybe if it's just the church they might feel uncomfortable going along, but would be more willing if it's clear that what you're doing is in the parish room.

it's mainly just the church itself but we do have a small room at the back with a sofa that is used either as a quiet space to pray or as a separate play space for the toddlers when the bigger children are getting a bit lively at social events. We push the chairs back and use the main part of the church for lots of different things as well as services. There is a chess club that meets in the main church once a week.

What kind of events are you doing, and what does the village hall, assuming there is one, do? Does the church have a presence in the village primary school? I suppose these days it's more about what can the church provide for the community?

We have a fun day in the summer holidays with things like table tennis, lego, trampoline, hot dogs and ice cream. That is normally well attended (20 last year) and increasing in numbers each year. People from the town really appreciate somewhere to take the children that doesn't cost anything.

Then we have the harvest supper which 1 or 2 visitors come to plus about half the church, mostly friends of the elderly church members.

Then the Carol service which is usually 3 quarters of the church and about 4 or 5 visitors.

The village hall has the WI, a martial arts group, a friendship group. There used to be a baby and toddler group but I think that stopped before covid.

We don't do anything with the primary school in the village

There is a church in the village (c of e).

To be honest I am happy with how things are (although I wouldn't mind if we stopped doing the harvest supper) and we are definitely meeting a need with the fun day but some members are moaning that people don't come from the housing estate. But these are the same people who don't want to ask the people in the housing estate what they want or do anything extra. I'm happy to do some extra things and ask the people what they would like but I'm only willing to do it if we have a decent number of people helping.

Maybe the way forward for those who are dissatisfied is to seek what the Lord wants your church to do? He’s the Head, He makes the decisions, so it might be good just to take some time out and seek what His will is? That would be my approach.

@elliejjtiny I'm only willing to do it if we have a decent number of people helping.

Ah, the age old request for volunteers: a cue for looking for dropped items on the floor, feigned sleep, rummaging in handbags … 🤭

Too true. And "I would love to, but ......"

I'm in an Evangelical Anglican church and one day a week some of us reach out on the the high street of our town. A lot of people get to hear the gospel and occasionally some will become members. It's not about numbers, it's about sharing the love of God, like the parable of the sower and the seed.