Most church leaders ask this question.
I'm not sure I have an answer, but perhaps an observation.
I think some have approached the problem from a simple consumer mindset. Put together some programs so the children of these couples will have something fun to do.
So we become a seller of services. We lure young couples by offering more bang for the buck.
I've heard people say "they just didn't have anything for my kids".
Don't get me wrong, some churches by their very nature are not kid friendly. Their filled with older people who have no desire to see a kid act up in church. They just want them to sit still and be quiet. And frankly those churches for the most part are dead or dying.
Some feel that if you have a dynamic speaker or leader of front of the people, then that will attract the younger generation.
While it helps, I'm not sold on this either. Again it tends to make the church no different than any other program or organization.
Maybe the core question is what attracts people to people.
Maybe the deeper question, have we truly transformed?
The church in Acts had no children's program, no seminars on how to grow churches, no blogs.
But I would submit that they grew at an incredible rate.
Why?
There had to be something special that the outside world saw in the believers of Christ.
I guess I'm saying that we are the advertisement for our God. And I think the world looks at us and says "your no different from us".
They can join any other organization and get that.
But when people see something that they lack, when they see love and compassion, when they see the church as a caring place, a place not focused on themselves but on others, then I think we have transformed church from just a place to a community.
Let's be honest, when we do advertise our church, are we really looking for the unsaved or are we looking to pull other Christians from other churches into our really nice programs?
You might get the idea I hate kids programs, or programs in general.
I don't.
I just hate programs that make us feel like were doing something, when really were not.
So I guess the young couples need to know you care.
But I think that more importantly, they need to know your for real.
They just don't have time for pretenders.
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1 comment:
One thing the early church had was community. People hung out together every day. We live in a society that have moved the front porch to the fenced in deck, who have moved community events to renting a DVD and watching it at home.
Here's a question? How many of your church people hang out outside the church walls? How many younger couples? What can you do to develop that?
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