Religious attendance has declined significantly in the past 2 years from 34% to 28%. It seems like this trend will keep on continuing if pastors and church administrators don’t make some serious changes in the way they run church meetings.
You want churchgoers to be excited about attending a church meeting, not consider it a boring and tedious proposition. In that regard, there are probably some common church meetings mistakes that you are making that are easily avoided. Keep reading to find out what they are.
1. Practice Your Sermon Beforehand on a Family Member
Unless you are already quite comfortable with and proficient at giving public speeches, it’s a great idea to practice your written sermons on a family member or someone else before your live meeting.
This way you can gauge whether your sermon is interesting or not, whether the jokes you peppered in are funny or fall flat, and if there are bits of it that you need to revise or cut out completely.
There’s nothing like getting feedback from a person who isn’t afraid to say it like it is. Make sure you have at least one person like that in your life and rehearse your sermon with them until it is close to perfection.
You don’t want to get overly anxious about this. But your sermon is the glue that holds a church meeting together, so you will want to get it right.
Some tips to spice up your delivery are:
- Don’t read from your notes – you don’t need to memorize everything, try to use note cards to summarize points and pontificate with words that come from your heart
- Make eye contact with the people in the room
- Bring expressiveness, drama, and story-telling in your sermon
- Ask leading questions and let silence run in the room for a bit so people can think over your ideas
- Illustrate your ideas using real-world situations, rather than keeping things theoretical
- Use biblical text sparingly
Most importantly, have fun with the whole process. The more you can have fun teaching, the more your church members will have fun learning.
2. Arrange the Room in a Harmonious Fashion
Remember that you are not a megachurch (yet) and that’s why you will want to behave as a small church does. The purpose of church meetings is to bring members closer together.
It is to create a stronger bond between the members, so they can feel like they are part of something bigger. This camaraderie and togetherness will motivate church members to attend meetings regularly and with enthusiasm.
That’s why you will need to arrange the room in a fashion that best brings members together. You could do it so all members are looking up at the pulpit or the speaker. BUT a better way would be to arrange the chairs in a circle or some similar format, so everyone feels like they are part of one big family.
Everyone should be able to participate without issues, they should be able to hear everything without problems, and they should feel like they are part of the gathering, rather than apart from it.
3. Invite Feedback and Take Action upon Them
You might be the church leader, but that doesn’t mean that your ideas or thoughts are gospel. A true church meeting is a meeting of the minds. That’s why you will want to invite feedback from church members throughout the meeting (and outside of it as well).
When a church member offers feedback, DO NOT ignore it. Acknowledge the feedback or idea, thank the person for it, give your thoughts on it, and then take action upon it as soon as possible.
You need to do this to let church members know that they aren’t there just for show, but that they are an important part of the church. Show them that they are as important as you are, if not more.
4. Use Social Media to Connect Members in between Church Meetings
There is a tendency among church leaders to vilify social media. But that’s the wrong way to go about it.
The 21st century is the age of social media, and all your church members are probably using it already to connect with their friends, family, and colleagues. Why not use social media to connect to church members?
The more connected your church members feel to you and other members, the more likely it is that they will keep on coming back to meetings. Make it easy for them to make friends with each other, share memories and significant moments with each other, and you will notice your church meetings will become the highlight of their week.
If a church member is sick or stuck at home, then consider using live streaming solutions to get them attending as well.
5. Don’t Waste Church Members Time
One thing that church members will not be able to bear is their precious time wasted. This time crunch is something every American suffers from. If only there were more hours in the day, people lament.
If members are taking time out of their overfilled stressed-out days to come to your church meeting, you better make sure that you are not wasting their time with nonsense and trifles. Keep the sermon short, sweet, and packed with juicy knowledge and get them out and on their way back home as soon as possible.
They will appreciate you for doing this and will be more likely to keep on coming back.
A Church Meeting Is a Precious Tool – Use It Wisely
If you have been running church meetings since the yesteryears, you might think you know all there is to know about it. But as church members become more diverse, and as their needs change to accommodate the changing times, you will want to ensure you change the modus operandi for your church meeting as well.
The same old same old tactic will not work anymore. Adapt to the changing flow of time and your church meetings will keep doing well.
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