The Faithful Few: Programming for Presence, Not Attendance

In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, Todd Rhoades discusses the common issue of reduced church attendance during the summer months, often referred to as the 'summer slump'. Rather than focusing on retaining those who are absent, Rhoades encourages churches to appreciate and tailor experiences for the faithful few who continue attending. By creating more intimate and personal settings, churches can make those attendees feel valued and foster deeper connections. • Summer slump in church attendance is common and predictable. • Churches often react by creating bigger events to attract missing members. • This approach can overlook the needs of those who do attend. • Smaller gatherings can foster deeper conversations and connections. • Redesign summer programs for those present, not for absent members. • Honor and appreciate the choice of those attending by making their experience special.

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Transcript

When Summer Attendance Drops

SPEAKER_00 0:07

It's summertime and your youth group is playing from 40 kids to 12. Your small group attendance is half of what it was back in the spring. Your worship team is missing three people this week. You don't have a drummer or a guitarist. So what do you do? Most churches panic and start programming for the missing people. Bigger events, more activities, flash here everything. Try whatever you can to get people

Naming The Summer Slump

SPEAKER_00 0:34

to show up. Meanwhile, the faithful few who actually did show up are watching you totally ignore them. That's what we're talking about this week on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're talking about the summer slump. And if you're dealing with it in your church or you're about to deal with it in your church like you do every year, stick around. Let's talk about it today here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name's Todd Runs, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com. Here's what's happening that we've been talking about this week that really nobody is

Why Panic Programming Backfires

SPEAKER_00 1:03

talking about. Every single church faces the summer attendance drop. Every single one. There's vacations, there's sports, there's camp, there's family time. It's predictable, it's normal. It's not a crisis. It happens every year in every church, but we treat it sometimes we treat it like the building's on fire. And we try to switch up everything. We start programming for ghosts instead of people. And here's why it gets a little bit messy. Because we just bring into so much anxiety. It's almost a trap. Your experiences, you design experiences for 40 people when you have 12, and then the room feels empty, the energy feels forced, and your faithful attenders start feeling like they're maybe they're just not enough, like their presence really doesn't matter because the real crowd isn't there. They didn't show up. They're accidentally, you're accidentally communicating that the people that are there in the summer are the consolation prize. And before we do anything meaningful in ministry, we just need to wait until fall. School's back in session, all the vacations are gone. And hope that at that point everybody comes back, and then we can do the real ministry stuff, right? Meanwhile, you're burning out your team trying to attract people who have other priorities right now. And listen, you want your

Build For Depth Not Crowds

SPEAKER_00 2:21

church to grow. I want your church to grow. That's good leadership, but there's probably a better way. So here's what I suggest. Design experiences that honor the people that actually show up. Smaller circles create deeper conversations. We talked about this yesterday. Twelve committed people beats 40 distracted ones every day. And this is your chance for the intimacy that you can't get when the room is packed. Jesus did his best work with small groups. In fact, the early church grew through house gatherings, not through mega events where you invite everybody and everybody to come. So ask yourself, what becomes possible when I stop apologizing

Practical Ways To Go Smaller

SPEAKER_00 3:04

for who's not here? And here's what it looks like practically from a practical standpoint. You move from a big room to the living room. Think of it that way. Cancel the event that needs 30 and plan for the experience that thrives with eight. Thank people for showing up instead of explaining why others didn't show up. Here's a practical idea. Use names more. Create space for everybody to contribute something. Create space so that everybody that is there becomes known. Your summer programming should feel exclusive, not depleted. Those people chose to be here. So treat that choice like

The Bottom Line For Leaders

SPEAKER_00 3:47

the gift that it is. Here's your bottom line for today. The people who show up this summer at your church deserve better programming design for the people who don't. So redesign all of your programming this summer. Redesign it for the people who will actually be there. Make it smaller, make it deeper, make it more personal. Your faithful few are a gift, not a consolation prize.

Free Help And How To Reach Out

SPEAKER_00 4:15

So honor them. That's it for today. We're gonna round out our series on the faithful few and the summer slump tomorrow, right here on the podcast. Hope you'll join me. And if there's any way that I can help your church this summer, maybe during your downtime, you need to do maybe some more strategy work on making your hat your staff healthy. Maybe you need to do some compensation analysis. Maybe you need to think about who you're gonna hire in the fall. Those are all areas that I can help, and I'd love to be able to help your church with. So just reach out to me if you'd like to have a conversation. Absolutely no charge to have a conversation. We'll hop on a 30-minute Zoom call, grab some coffee or an ice mountain, and we'll we'll talk about whatever you need to talk about. I'd love to be able to do that for you. Just reach out to me, podcast at chemistrystaffing.com. All right, that's it for today. Hope you'll come back and join me right here at the Healthy Church Death Podcast tomorrow.