Easter Sunday brings a prime opportunity to connect with new faces at church through intentional hospitality. From parking volunteers to a special guest tent, stage announcements, handwritten notes, and follow-up emails, churches can make first-time visitors feel appreciated. With smart strategies before, during, and after the service, church leaders can maximize the chances that newcomers will return and get involved after the holiday. Easter attendance could become lasting commitment.
3 Winning Email Marketing Strategies for Churches
Let’s face it: church staff have an ever-increasing list of responsibilities. Whether you oversee pastoral counseling and first impressions or outreach and communications, every church leader knows there’s always another weekend service knocking at your door. With this reality in mind, it’s important to acknowledge that while every pastor would love to invest in a full suite of marketing strategies, time and budget are often limited. It’s imperative to know what marketing efforts to prioritize and what should take a back seat until further notice.
Gen-Z Is Looking For More Authentic Worship!
The spontaneous revival at Asbury University contrasts sharply with the high-production worship common in many churches today. Rather than relying on fog, elaborate lighting, deafening volume, and worship leaders as performers, the Asbury students simply worshipped in song and prayer. Without distractions, they experienced God’s presence in a powerful way. This raw, participatory worship may point to a better model – one that helps congregations actively join in praising God together rather than passively observing a spiritual spectacle. Authenticity over performance could be the key to true revival.
Your Classically Trained Pianist CAN Play Modern Worship
Turning classically trained pianists into modern worship players requires strategic communication, not frustration. Start by acknowledging their skills and channeling their precision into specific musical goals. Use orchestral language they understand and provide quality keyboard sounds and song tutorials. With patience and friendship, these musicians can transform from a headache to an invaluable asset. By believing in their potential and giving them the tools to succeed, worship leaders can unlock their team’s hidden secret weapon.
Sacred Song or Christian Karaoke? Every Voice Matters
Singing together in worship is far more than spiritual entertainment – it’s a sacred privilege with many purposes. Beyond personal prayer and praise, it declares our faith to each other, welcomes newcomers into our beliefs, proclaims Christ’s rule, and unites us as one body declaring the glory of God. So leaders must convey its significance, encouraging every voice to join in, whether on pitch or off. Our corporate songs are sweet incense to God and a vital way we build up fellow believers. No voice should be left silent when there is power in every simple note sung in Jesus’ name.
How To Choose Songs For Congregational Worship
The technological advances of the late 20th century brought new ways to create and share worship songs, but also removed critical filters. As worship leaders, we must be discerning about song selection, ensuring lyrics teach sound theology and are singable for our congregation.
New Report Sounds Alarm on Declining Small Group Attendance in US Churches
Many churches are finding it hard to increase their small group participation after COVID-19. According to Lifeway Research, only 44 percent of weekend worshipers are involved in a small group, Sunday School or similar group. This is down from 49 percent in 2010.
Small groups are important for discipleship, fellowship and outreach. But many churches face challenges such as lack of leaders, space and time. Some also struggle with online options or hybrid models.
Lifeway Research surveyed 1,000 Protestant pastors Sept. 6-30, 2022. They found that only 19 percent of churches have at least 75 percent of their worshipers in small groups. Another 30 percent have between 50 and 74 percent. About one-fourth have between 25 and 49 percent (27 percent) or less than 25 percent (24 percent).
It appears that mainline churches may face greater challenges when it comes to small group participation than their evangelical counterparts. In fact, 28% of pastors from mainline churches reported that less than a quarter of their attendees were involved in small groups, compared to 21% of evangelical pastors reporting the same low level of involvement.
Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said that small groups are vital for church health and growth. He encouraged pastors to invest in training leaders, creating a culture of invitation and providing resources for groups.
“Small groups are not optional for churches that want to make disciples,” he said. “They are essential for helping people grow in their faith, connect with others and reach their communities.”
3 Ways to Keep Familiar Songs Fresh
As worship leaders, we all have our “go to” songs that we use regularly in our services. These are the songs you probably use once every 4-6 weeks. These songs speak to the season our churches are walking through. These are the anthems where we always see hands raised and hear voices sing out the loudest.
So how do we keep them fresh? Now don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit is the one who does the work in the hearts of the people and He is the reason those songs speak so powerfully to our congregations. But as musicians, lets be honest… We can play/sing that song in our sleep, whatever those songs are for you!
Here’s 3 easy ways to keep familiar songs fresh for our teams, our congregations and us!
- Use Scriptures that correlate to the truths you are singing on the screen during instrumental breaks and longer interludes. We do this every week at The Journey Church. Sometimes we have it up during the intro. Sometimes we do it during the mid-song instrumental break, but no matter where we put it, the Word of God always speaks loudly and powerfully! In that moment, most people don’t even remember that you played the same song 2 weeks ago!
- Change the key from a guy to a girl key, or vice versa. This has become one of my favorite things to do! We have done it now with 5 regular songs we do and I’ve really noticed a difference in the response to the song! For example, we put Forever Reign in G and had one of our female leads sing it instead of it being in C and I sing it… First of all she slayed it! Second of all it was just an all around friendlier key for more people to engage with!
- Change instrumentation and length of the song. This is more of a regular practice for most worship leaders but it’s still one of my favorite things to do! If a song calls for lots of synth and electric guitar, I’ll change the synth to a light piano/pad mix on our keyboard and instead of having 2 electrics and I’ll have acoustic higher in the mix and have my electric player either play slide or just do some light finger picking on his guitar. I’ll also have my drummer use brushes or rods instead of sticks and he will simplify his transitional fills. We may even cut out an instrumental break or shorten the turn a rounds or something of that nature.
There are lots of different ways to achieve keeping familiar songs fresh. These are just a few easy, hopefully helpful, ideas to do so!
by Worship Cohort
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