Source: Why Flex Space For the Church

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By Carey Nieuwhof: As things continue to change and the crisis we’re in drags on, you’re probably asking what’s going to happen to physical church attendance in the future. That’s a really important question.

The good news is that as long as there are people, people will gather.

The need for human connection and face to face gatherings runs deep—it’s how we were designed.

But over time, how people gather has changed from generation to generation and moment to moment.

This may be one of those moments for the church.

While in-person gatherings are here to stay, in the future church, people may gather differently.

For decades now, there has been a slow decline in in-person church attendance. Growing churches have bucked that trend and managed to find growth despite massive cultural shifts.

There are indications though that the disruption of 2020 is accelerating those trends even further (here are 3 shocking statistics about how rapidly church is changing).

Yes, physical attendance is here to stay. But it may not follow the patterns quite the way it did even as recently as 2019.

And if the trends are changing rapidly, so should your response.

While the cement is still wet, here are four ways in-person church attendance might well morph further as we head into the future.

So, how will physical attendance change in the future? No one can see the future perfectly, and I may be wrong on some of this, but based on what I’m seeing, here are 5 ways physical church attendance will change in the next few years.

While in-person gatherings are here to stay, in the future church, people may gather differently.

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1. In-Person Doesn’t Necessarily Mean In Your Facility

So let me say it again. The gathered church is here to stay. In the future,  we may just gather differently.

For centuries, the gathering of the church has happened in a facility, and as leaders, we’ve become both accustomed to that and a bit addicted to that way of gathering.

One of the big shifts that the disruption is ushering in is that in-person doesn’t necessarily mean in your facility.

It could be far bigger than that.

The gathered church is here to stay. In the future, we may just gather differently.

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While that sounds threatening, it isn’t nearly as threatening as it seems.

With some of the shift home for work, school, shopping, dining, entertainment and fitness is temporary, a proportion of it will likely be permanent in the post-COVID era. The same is perhaps true with church.

With 71% of Boomers desiring primarily a physical church experience and only 41% of Gen Z desiring a primarily physical experience of church, some kind of change seems inevitable.

Younger generations are deeply social, and forward thinking churches might look to capitalize on facilitating home gatherings, community gatherings and other micro-gatherings that pull people together for in-person experiences.

When church leaders realize that this isn’t a threat, but possibly an advance of the mission, the mission could move forward at greater scale and speed than in a model where everyone had to gather in one central facility.

There will always be people who want to gather in a central facility. And in the future church, there will also be some who want to gather elsewhere.

Before you think ‘house church’, realize that this model could provide a lot more growth than most North American house church models ever did. Many home-based churches to date are a retreat from the organized church. This could become an advance.

In the same way workplaces are embracing permanent distributed teams, a distributed church that’s centrally connected to joint leadership and mission could be a massive step forward for most churches.

Church leaders, in the future in-person gathering doesn’t necessarily mean in your facility. It could be far bigger than that.

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2. In Person Attendance In The Building Will Be A Percentage of Your Real Church

If you think about it, for years now, the people in the building on any given Sunday have been a minority of those who call your church home.

If you have an attendance of 150, you probably have 300 or more people who are actively engaged in your mission. They just don’t show up all at once.

What if in the future, most of the people engaging with your mission won’t be in the building and not just be ‘away’. What if instead, most of the people engaged with your mission will watching online, watching on demand, attending micro-gatherings or engaged in other ways?

I completely empathize with the frustrations of empty seats and not having ‘everyone’ together, but if you can begin to expand your definition of ‘together’, you can realize a much deeper sense of mission.

Or even imagine packing out your auditorium. Awesome. But what if there are still far more people engaged who aren’t in the room?

That leads to a much expanded mission.

If you expand your definition of gathering, it’s much easier to genuinely expand your mission.

If you expand your definition of gathering, it’s much easier to genuinely expand your mission.

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3. You’ll Use the Building to Reach People Online, Not Use Online to Get People In the Building

For centuries, church facilities have existed to assemble people.

And in a pre-digital world, that made a lot of sense. In a digital world, facilities will still play a role, but perhaps they’ll play a different role.

In the future church, the way church leaders think about buildings and online might flip.

Today, most pastors use church online to get people into the building. In the future, most pastors will use the building to reach people online.

Today, most pastors use church online to get people into the building. In the future, most pastors will use the building to reach people online.

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If you look at the way many churches use their online ministry, it’s designed to either get people in the room (join us Sunday at 9) or to show people what’s happening in the room (here’s our livestream).

Those won’t go away, but perhaps the building will no longer be the main event. Equipping people to follow Jesus (wherever they are) might become the main event.

Then, the building becomes a means to an end, not the end in itself.

No matter how large your church is, the world you’re called to reach is larger.

So use the building to reach people online, rather than online to fill the building.

No matter how large your church is, the world you’re called to reach is larger.

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4. In-Person Church Attendance Will Probably Become More In-Frequent Church Attendance

For decades now, even committed Christians have been attending church less often (here are 10 pre-pandemic reasons why).

With the rise of online ministry and millions of people exploring that for the first time, that trend is likely to continue.

I understand how disappointing it can be to have a ‘committed’ follower show up once a month.

When I started ministry, if I ran into someone I hadn’t seen at church in six month at the supermarket, it was pretty much a guarantee they had left our church. More recently, when I run into someone at the grocery store that hasn’t attended church in a few months, they likely haven’t left. They love our church…they just haven’t attended. Having grown up in the church, I still don’t fully understand that mindset, but it’s a real thing.

My guess is that with digital options abounding in the future, frequency might drop further.

And as hard as that is for church leaders, it’s important to remember that culture never asks permission to change. It just changes.

So maybe think about it in a fresh paradigm. In addition to the other points in this post, ask yourself why does ‘attendance’ is still a litmus test for devotion?

Is it a little like saying in sports that only people in the stadium are true fans? Or only people who buy an iPhone from the Apple Store in-person are real customers?

You and I know that’s not true.

I have argued before that decreasing attendance rarely signals increasing devotion. While that has been true in the past, I wonder if it’s always true (or still true) in the new culture that’s emerging, particularly if people gather in person outside of the facility and use online options to deepen their faith, not weaken their faith.

I’ve also argued that attending church no longer makes sense, but engaging the mission does.

We’re all figuring this out in real time.  And yes, it’s confusing.

But if you see the future, you can seize it. If you miss it, you’ll miss it.

Culture never asks permission to change. It just changes.

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5. Digital Church Will be More of a Front Door and A Side Door than a Back Door

The great resistance to digital church in the last decade for many leaders is the fear that people would walk out the back door and never come back.

And in many cases, that happened. Consumers left and never engaged meaningfully again.

What that means is the fear around digital church moving forward is largely a false one.

In fact, many leaders will realize that digital church will serve as much more a front door and side door than a back door. A front door to new people, and side-door for existing people who want to engage more deeply or stay connected when they’re away.

Everyone who’s wanted to leave is gone. That ship has sailed.

Which means those who are left will use your online presence almost exclusively as a way to engage, not to disengage. A way to stay connected, not to disconnect.

It also means many people will discover your church for the first time through your online presence and want to engage physically with you, whether that’s in your facility, in a micro-gathering, in group, or all of the above.

The back door days of digital ministry are pretty much behind us.

The front door and side door days are just beginning.

If you see your physical presence and online presence as working hand in hand, your mission can move forward in more ways than you imagined.

Those who are left at your church will use your online presence almost exclusively as a way to engage, not to disengage. A way to stay connected, not to disconnect.

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What Are You Seeing?

So in-person gatherings are here to stay. So is the digital church.

I realize it’s a confusing time, but it’s also an exciting time.

What are you seeing the sensing as you plan for the future?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post In-Person Church Attendance Is Here To Stay (But 5 Ways It’s Changing In the Future) appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: In-Person Church Attendance Is Here To Stay (But 5 Ways It’s Changing In the Future)

The post In-Person Church Attendance Is Here To Stay (But 5 Ways It’s Changing In the Future) appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Is your church healthy but considering merging with another church?

Are you a multisite church that is thinking about helping another church through a merger and adding a campus at the same time?

Are you part of a struggling church that is looking at the potential of merging with another church in your community?

Over the last 10 years, church mergers have heated up and become a palatable topic for discussion, and what was once a taboo subject now seems to be a favorite topic of conversation among church leaders nationwide. A sizable number of multisite churches are considering merging and one recent study revealed that a third of all multisite church campuses exist because of a merger.

But how do you know if merging is the right next step for your church?

During my own ministry career, I’ve played a direct role in facilitating two mergers with churches that joined us to become campuses. Each time, the process required the leaders of our ministry team (myself included) and those of the joining churches to undergo an internal transformation. In my own heart, I had to get to the point where I was willing to do whatever it took to see the incoming church succeed.

Through the dialogue and conversation of this process, I found myself increasingly seeing the merger as an opportunity for us as a church. I got to the point where I just loved these people and wanted to see something positive happen. My own conviction led me to realize that the fundamentals of my own church needed to change in order to restore its original passion for reaching the community. Likewise, the leaders of the churches that joined us came to realize that a significant and necessary change on their part needed to take place. They realized that in order to reach new people, a type of death of their original church was required.

We often talk about church mergers using rebirth language because it supplies a framework for understanding what a healthy merger could look like, especially since both sides of these merger conversations need to experience a transformation of heart. There is a palatable sense of resurrection that needs to take place in the life of a church to experience the new life that is on the other side. We come as lead churches thinking that we want to do whatever it takes to serve, care and love for this community of believers. But because we see that brighter future ahead for our communities as they join together, it requires us to lay down what we’ve done in the past.

As I think about your church and what it might take for you to engage in a successful merger, there are a few things that came to the surface as warning signs against merging. My desire is that you would be a part of healthy, thriving church mergers. The two mergers that I was directly involved in resulted in a more than 20 times return on attendance, new life through baptisms, kids in church that hadn’t been in there in years, and all kinds of other amazing things. But if you’re thinking about a merger, I would advise you consider these five warning signs carefully before you step forward into one.

Too Far Away

The greatest success factor in the health of a merger is the lead church’s ability to invest a large, healthy volunteer core that is able to breathe new life into the joining church.

Oftentimes when a church has atrophied, the volunteer community has withered as well. If this new campus is too far away from your existing community, it will be difficult for you to inject a renewed sense of vitality into that community. If the distance between the two communities is too great, you won’t be able to ensure that a solid group of volunteers can serve that community well in the days ahead. 

Measure the distance between the two locations and plot your volunteers onto a map to see how many you might have at the new location. Let the data determine whether you have an existing community that could be a part of the merged campus.

A Cultural “Misfit”

It all comes down to the culture and vision of the church. 

What has God called your church to do? Require these conversations to take place to discover how strongly the joining church aligns with its own mission and vision. If there isn’t a fundamental understanding about why the church exists and what its role is in the world, it will set up the post-merger dynamic to drag down the mission of the church. Your conversations need to be united about what the mission of the church is and then focused on doing whatever it takes to achieve it. From my perspective, the church is the only organization in the world that exists for the people outside its doors, and the conversation needs to stay focused on that.

We would love to merge with other churches that share similar convictions but have just lost their way and don’t have a recent history of being able to engage their communities as a result. But if there isn’t a deep conviction within that church that they should be doing whatever it takes to reach and serve those in their community, then the merger is going to be difficult.

If you can’t achieve strong alignment in the mission and culture of the church, you will face problems.

A Large Financial Debt Load

More often than not, financial troubles become the straw that breaks the camel’s back as a church contemplates closing its doors.

Financial problems are common motivations for churches considering merging with another church, and while this is a frequent reality, the lead church needs to think very carefully about the implications of assuming that debt. For example, churches that have struggled with debt for years often defer maintenance on buildings (which may mask significant building issues that could drive into the tens of thousands—or hundreds of thousands—of dollars). Churches that struggle financially often underpay staff, which may have compromised the church’s ability to serve with excellence. There may also be reputational issues that the church may not be able to overcome—even with the new brand.

Straight up: if you are assuming debt in the form of a mortgage or other long-term commitments, you need to consider very carefully whether your church can carry that load.

We want to ensure that the financial institutions that are expecting to be repaid actually get repaid so that your church can move forward. Don’t just blow past or ignore the financial entanglement that is about to happen with the merger. Evaluate it and consider its full impact on your financial operations.

Mutual State of Decline

There used to be a type of church merger where two struggling churches would pool their resources to try to bounce back and have an influence. This is not a particularly promising idea.

Two organizations that are unclear on how to impact their community, raise the required financial resources, release volunteers, or develop leaders won’t get better at those things when they come together.

If your church is looking at joining another church, avoid churches that appear to be in decline. Combining two churches that are struggling will not somehow magically produce a church that suddenly thrives. Unless there is a change in the trajectory of where a church is going, then it won’t be able improve at what God has called it to do.

It’s Just An Asset Acquisition  

If you’re a lead church considering mergers and your primary reason for doing so is to acquire assets that could help your church’s balance statement, please don’t merge with other churches.

There is a high level of hard work that needs to be done to honor the generation that is passing on the asset to your church. If you think of these churches as just buildings that you can slap your brand onto, you are mistaken. These churches have been in their communities for years, or even decades, and you have the privilege of joining with another church in order to see amazing things happen in the community. Of course, there’s often an asset transfer in a church merger and that tends to be a positive outcome for your church. However, if that’s all it’s about for you as a lead church, I would caution you from moving forward.

Similarly, if you’re joining church and all you see is a building, you’re missing the opportunity to have your people join this new venture and see amazing things happen. I love seeing church leaders who have joined with the lead churches become reactivated in their leadership and service and re-energized with what God has in store for their community. Look at this as a positive way to get people more engaged in the mission of Jesus.

More help for you as you think about church mergers

There’s no doubt that church mergers are a hot topic, and we want to help you as you look for resources to make these mergers go better. Click here to download an audio recording and a PDF that will help your leadership team as you think about church mergers. Here’s what you’ll find:

An interview with Kristy Rutter where she talks through the best practices of being engaged in a church merging process. (Kristy has since passed away after a battle with cancer. She was one of the clearest voices and practitioners in this area and I was honored to interview her about her experiences.) A PDF download from Portable Church Industries on what every multisite should know for a merger conversation. This PDF offers some food for thought and acts as a great discussion starter as you and your team wrestle with campus expansion.

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Source: 5 Warning Signs That Your Church Shouldn’t Merge

The post 5 Warning Signs That Your Church Shouldn’t Merge appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by unSeminary: Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. Today we have Ben Lueders and Raj Lulla with us from the design company Fruitful Design. The company works with churches to help them reach the visual learners in the congregation.

Raj and Ben are with us today to talk about why good design is important in churches and what churches should be thinking about design-wise as they communicate to people in the congregation and community.

Consistency in branding. // When starting to give attention to your design work, the first thing for a church to focus on is its branding. Consistency in what you put out in front of people is key to the level of trust they feel with you. Good design is important in the church because it gives people the “experience” before they have the experience within your church. What people see on your website, social media pages, signs, logos, and more can help people know what the weekend experience will be like.Discover your brand. // Going through the branding self-discovery process and turning that into a visual representation of who you are does a lot of the heavy lifting for you when it comes to identifying who you are reaching out to in your community. Fruitful Design develops brand manuals with their clients to help create the look that reaches out to the people they are focused on. Don’t underestimate the power of a simple brand experience.Tools to start with. // If you’re not ready to bring on a creative director or purchase something like Photoshop for your design work, try starting with Canva. Canva offers a free version with a lot of basic templates that make drag and drop design very easy for the user. For websites, Raj and Ben recommend Squarespace because it is easy to use and does well at keeping out hackers. WordPress is also used by some clients, but it can be harder to use for those who might not be as tech savvy. 50% photos and 50% text. // No matter how good the wording is on your website, paragraphs of straight text on the site aren’t the way to get people interested in learning more. Be sure to intersperse visually interesting and engaging photos in with a sparse amount of text. It’s okay to use stock photos on your website to make a connection with your audience. Ben recommends Unsplash and Lightstock, which offers Christian photos. Additionally, Life.Church offers their series graphics for free after they finish using them, so that’s a place to get images for sermon series. You don’t have to use their sermon content; you can just use their graphics.Make use of email. // If you’re not using email often, Ben recommends that you start. In the retail world, social media has about 1/10th of 1% conversion rate, meaning that out of 10,000 people on social media only 1 will result in a sale. But an email list has about 1% click through rate—out of 100 people on the email list 1 person will buy something. Everyone may not see your posts in social media, but you are sending messages to directly to people through email. Try using MailChimp as a way to send out email to groups of people.Make communications jobs clear. // One of the biggest mistakes churches make is to hire a communications director or graphic designer and expect them to handle several different creative and communications roles that may be outside of their area of expertise. Shift away from thinking that you’ll find the perfect person to do four different jobs yet work on a church employee’s salary. The better approach is to find a pastorally-hearted person who will manage a team of volunteers to work on these various creative projects. Another option is to outsource the entire approach to an outside team of professionals.

You can download Church Design Tricks for Non-Designers here, and you can learn more about Fruitful Design at www.fruitful.design.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

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Source: Church Design Help for Non-Designers with Raj Lulla & Ben Lueders

The post Church Design Help for Non-Designers with Raj Lulla & Ben Lueders appeared first on Passion for Planting.