What do you want from your church besides Sunday services?

[Earlybird]

I have been asked to coordinate a committee at our church. Our first task is to brainstorm ideas for what the church can/should offer (spiritual, social, charitable, pastoral, family/youth oriented activities, etc) outside of Sunday church services.

Would greatly appreciate any input regarding what your church currently provides, and what you wish it provided.

Thank you.

The church should support growth in your Christian faith, so should offer a variety of home groups for bible study, prayer and fellowship. They should also provide more formal courses such as Alpha, Christianity Explored or equivalent. They should have different types of worship services (aka Fresh Expressions).

They should reach out to the community so should offer a place for people (not necessarily Christian) to meet and feel valued for themselves - eg parent and toddler groups, places for older people to meet. They could offer parenting and parenting teenager courses for the benefit of the community.

A youth club to keep youngsters out of mischief - meeting them where they are, whether it is a football team, rock band, or just somewhere to chill out with games consoles, and provide someone to reach out to schools and families.

They should have a team of trained pastoral workers to visit people who need support.

Etc etc

It is fab that your church is thinking this way.

What my church provides:

holiday club/youth evenings/outreach activities/special services for children - they explain it so much better than I can;

Fellowship groups of around 12 people per group - it can involve Bible study and prayer, but also gives us chance to really know each other and love each other;

activities/events in church for members and to bring people in - doesnt have to be super spiritual. Tea and cakes, quizzes and fun activities - the doors should be open and the threshold easy to cross;

Prayer ministry for anyone who wants it - could be a prayer team available to pray with people, or just a notice board where folks can post prayer requests which are then prayer for;

What I would like more of - links to teaching/learning opportunities. If I want to learn tennis, or a foreign language, I know where to go. I'd like more structured routes and courses as a Christian to learning.

HTH

Love.

Thanks for the feedback.

Our church membership is skewed to the older generations, so many of the organised activities suit them most of all. So, we'll be looking for ways to engage younger members/their families and also how to attract prospective/new members.

We also are very good at helping those in a crisis (helping with food, etc), and do alot of general community volunteering to those in need, but we are not so good at being generally supportive or fostering personal growth outside scripture studies.

Any other ideas?

I would worry slightly if Christians got everything they needed from within the church. eg sport or language lessons. I think the idea is for Chistians to live in their wider communities and flavour those rather than retreating into the church for all their needs.

Our church is a bog standard parish church so we cater to all generations.

What we have found to be very good among the older generation is to have regular 'songs of praise' afternoon. We have about 45 minutes of traditional hymns using the organ, with requests from the guests. We then follow this with a very lovely tea.

We started off doing harvest and easter events, but now do 6 a year.

We know that at least half of our guests are not Christians, but they were brought up with hymns and love the nostalgia. We, of course, have prayer teams on hand.

We are lucky that our church is separate seats rather than pews so we can accommodate every mobility need.

It is all about meeting people where they are and not writing off any particular group. Most of our seniors were forced to conform to religion, but their numbers of believers are no different to our more free generation. Each person has their own indiviudal need.

Another really great thing we have done with our seniors is to involve them in our parent and toddler group. We need people to make the tea, but also need people to come alongside young mums without having their own distractions, and to become pseudo grandparents.

toddler group that isn't overly religious

ours has changed and now there's a religious craft activity, religious story and religious songs every week. The new lady running it is lovely, but I'm finding it a bit much for 2 year old ds

make sure you get corporate prayer in there otherwise there becomes a danger of you being a social organisation rather than one continually seeking and carrying out God's will.

Agree totally, Cargirl. It all has to have foundations in prayer.

As for religious elements in community programs (eg mother and toddler groups) - it is should really be on the back burner.

The key things to attracting people to the church is not the salvation promise, but just being friends with people and valuing them for who they are. The guests may wonder why the church workers are motivated as they are and want to know more, and only then should we respond.

In my mother&toddler days, we would have occasional invites to church services (eg Mothering Sunday and our Toy Service in advent). We would put a little ad in our newsletter about baptism. We would display our crafts on Harvest Sunday and have a little tour of the church during our M&T meeting, with an invitation to come on the Sunday. Mostly for our needy mother & toddler mums, it was a case of listening to their troubles, holding their babies while they had a cup of tea, hugging them, and occasionally, filling out government forms for them.

Relationships come first, and inviting them into the Christian faith is a long second.

Yes MmeTrue definately the way IME.

Something that has been a roaring success is "Who let the dads out" Dads/male carers only with pre-school children on a Saturday morning with bacon butties once a fortnight/month and then occasional evening socials.

lol Katisha - I didn't mean that our church provides sport and language lessons!

But the principle holds though? Should church provide one's social life as well as spiritual? I know many people who will only socialise with other church people...