To put it simply, if people feel like they missed nothing when they missed church, they’ll keep missing church.
If what your church does touches the soul, people will continue to gather.
The best churches will offer both because that reflects the character and nature of God and the character of the Christian church at its best.
4. Genuine Community
The paradox of our age is that we’ve never been more connected as a culture, and we’ve never felt more alone.
Churches that see church growth in the future will prioritize community. Real community.
Real community isn’t just ‘fellowship,’ where the people who already know each other catch up over coffee while new people go unnoticed.
Churches claim to be friendly, but that usually only means we’re friendly to each other.
And catching up on what happened this week and talking about sports or the weather is hardly what Jesus had in mind when he told us to love one another.
But the truth is the real mission of the church is relationship. It defines the vertical nature of our faith (love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength) and the horizontal essences of Christianity (love your neighbor as yourself).
If anyone can get relationship right, it should be the church.
So ask yourself as a church leader: What are you doing to forge the deepest relationships you can forge between people in your church? Then do it.
5. Deep Engagement
As I’ve written about before, in the future church, engagement will drive attendance.
Why? Because in the future church only engaged people will attend because only the engaged will remain.
