What is in Kelvin's Head?

25 More Questions for people who want to make their churches grow

31/05/2015
A lot of people seem to have been sharing my 25 Questions for people who want to make their churches grow on social media.

So, here’s 25 more…
1. If you didn’t have to go to your church on Sunday would you still go?
2. Are the clergy happy?
3. Are the musicians happy?
4. Does the congregation have a stronger ethos than that of its denomination?
5. What one thing could you change this week to make the worship better?
6. Why didn’t you make that change last week?
7. What steps are you taking to make the phrase “All are Welcome” come true?
8. Do you do church business on a Sunday after church or is there a better time for that?
9. In the next month are you more likely to spend time on ecumenical activities or church growth activities?
10. Do people who leave become ex-members who have disappeared or do they still contribute to the life and ministry of the place?
11. What is the noticeboard like?
12. What is the first thing you see when you come through the door?
13. Did you implement the recommendations of the last “mystery worshipper” you asked to give you a candid assessment?
14. Which church events in the next six months will be newsworthy locally?
15. Which church events in the next six months will be reported in the local media?
16. Do you have enough staff and who decides this?
17. What would your clergy really like to do that they can’t because of the laity?
18. What would your laity really like to do that they can’t because of the clergy?
19. Which would attract young families more – a bible-based week long summer activity for children or letting it be known that gay people are welcome in your church?
20. Can you email those members of your congregation who want to receive regular updates?
21. Do you email those members of your congregatio who want to receve regular updates?
22. Has someone done the work required to make sure emails sent to large numbers of people don’t end up in spam boxes?
23. Who in the congregation has gifts that could be better used doing a different job in the congregation than what they are currently doing?
24. Who is your volunteer co-ordinator and is it obvious how to contact them?
25. Can you volunteer without being a member of the church?
church growth

9 responses to “Turning Up and Being Counted”

Lesley-Ann craddock

26/11/2022

Thank you Kelvin
What a read, I really enjoyed it, all of it. You have touched on the 3 things that I too have been wrestling with.
Liturgy , turning up to be counted, and being open and real with our peers and counterparts.
Hmmm I wonder if those aspects of being church in this post pandemic implosion of society will somehow be a catalyst to become braver clergy and have proper discussions about what matters to Gods church in its own context. Can we be diverse and not divided, can we lock into our heritage and yet be able to change too. Can Branson pickle save us. X

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Christine McIntosh

26/11/2022

Great stuff, Kelvin!

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Robert MacDonald

26/11/2022

Good points well made. We find some church members, who organise a community lunch on a Wednesday, then regularly say ‘we won’t make it on Sunday’. Seems the wrong way round – attendance on a Sunday should come first.

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Peggy Brewer

26/11/2022

Reading this made my day and contributes to my celebration of the season! Thank you!

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Calum Wyllie

27/11/2022

Reading this, I feel like it could have been written about me. I couldn’t have been more deeply involved with my church (felt deeply rooted in the weekly liturgy, sat on the PCC, led on diversity and inclusion, set up online streaming for the first time during lockdown), yet I haven’t been back in two years. There is definitely an element of that link of continuity having been broken, and it’s up to me to make the effort to reforge it again. But the anger is also real, and hard to pin down. When somewhere no longer feels like home, when you feel excluded (even when that person was responsible for leading on inclusion!), how do you find the courage to return? When the link with spirituality feels more present in other places (even when I used to absolutely value liturgy, the Eucharist, the community), how do you find a way forward? Too much thinking, and not enough getting on and doing, perhaps…

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Meg Rosenfeld

27/11/2022

Wow–this article is not only thought-provoking, and, to someone who’s a church-goer, extremely easy to identify with, but also entertaining and therefore all the more memorable. As one whose parish church (in San Francisco’s notorious Haight Ashbury neighborhood) nowadays gets about 15 people in the congregation on a “good” day, I do often wonder whether we’re ever going to bounce back from this expletive-deleted pandemic. Personally, I have no choice: I am, on the aforementioned good day, 50% of the alto section, and on other days, 100% thereof. All you folks out there don’t know what you’re missing–except, of course, those of you who are watching on your home computers.

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Father Ron Smith

27/11/2022

Well said, Kelvin Perhaps we clergy don’t stress enough the fact that the Host at our worship is not the clergy, but the Incarnate Son of God; who empowers us to the extent that we are willing to be empowered for daily life and work. I still think of that lovely phrase “Turn towards HIM and be radiant”. What a thrill!

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Kennedy fraser

28/11/2022

Yes,I still wonder if we have counted all those spiritual communions

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John Davies

01/12/2022

My church (suburban, evangelical Anglican in Birmingham, UK) took a long time to really recover from the lockdown and subsequent fears, but seems to be close to its pre-shutdown numbers again. What my wife and I noticed was that for quite some time the congregation was largely made up of its elderly members – ie those who are not perhaps so nifty with the electronic gadgetry of our age and, also, those who most wanted company. Younger families took a lot longer to return, but are now coming out of the woodwork again.
One interesting point is that my old church reported a big increase in deaf people watching their zoom or youtube services, because one of the congregation provided signage at the front. Their new found audience felt greatly enabled to join in when they may otherwise never have done so. Is this something worth thinking more about?

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