What’s in this Episode?

COVID-19 happened and church attendance began to slip. Now what do we do? Here we are, months later, and it’s still an issue. Well, in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about what to do when church attendance has slipped, how to respond, and ways you can move forward, despite the current reality.

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Read the Transcript

Jonathan Hardy 0:00
COVID-19 happened and church attendance began to slip. Now what do we do? Here we are, months later, and it’s still an issue. Well, in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about what to do when church attendance has slipped, how to respond, and ways you can move forward, despite the current reality. Here we go.

Jonathan Hardy 0:22
So, the other day, I was actually talking with a pastor, and they told me during this season of COVID-19, that they recently started coming back to church after a season of being off like most churches were, and they are at 100% attendance of what they were before COVID. Can you believe that? This is I mean, that’s the first time I’ve heard

Dick Hardy 0:43
No, he’s yankin’ your chain.

Jonathan Hardy 0:44
No, I know. It’s serious.

Dick Hardy 0:46
And nobody’s doing that.

Jonathan Hardy 0:47
I know, this is unbelievable. But this particular pastor is and so, that’s pretty exciting for them. That’s not the norm in most churches right now.

Dick Hardy 0:55
Not the norm at all.

Jonathan Hardy 0:55
And anyway, so we want to talk to you today about what to do when the church attendance is slipping. And for most churches right now in the US, the church attendance has slipped. What percentage are you seeing right now?

Jonathan Hardy 0:59
Well, the numbers I’m hearing are normally between 25 to 50% are coming back.

Jonathan Hardy 1:13
So, you take the attendance of pre-COVID.

Dick Hardy 1:16
Pre-COVID and then what’s happening now, and it’s 25 – 50%. I think I came across one guy that maybe was at 75%. I mean, nobody is at that hundred percent.

Jonathan Hardy 1:24
Yeah, it was.

Dick Hardy 1:26
That was at a rural community.

Jonathan Hardy 1:28
Good point.

Dick Hardy 1:28
Yeah.

Dick Hardy 1:28
Rural community. So, and that plays a part, you know. Context is everything.

Dick Hardy 1:33
Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, they’re all coming back to church, that kind of thing.

Jonathan Hardy 1:37
Well, that’s true.

Dick Hardy 1:38
Well, today, we want to jump into the brass tacks of what you should be thinking about, as you’re in the midst of COVID, how you should evaluate these numbers that are so dramatic. Nobody started the year thinking you’re going to have to deal with this. But now we’re dealing with it.

Dick Hardy 1:56
So, we want to just jump into it and see what you should be doing now that you’re here. You got 35% coming back. You got 50% coming back. What do you do moved forward? So Jonathan, what do you say?

Jonathan Hardy 2:06
We’re gonna share a few things for you. So, maybe some action steps – things to think through. The first one is that you want to measure everything. And so, we talked a lot about measuring in episode Number 37. So, be sure to check that episode out, if you haven’t listened to that or watched that one yet. But the idea here, is we have to measure and the reason we have to measure is we have to know where we’re at.

Jonathan Hardy 2:28
And if you don’t know, if you don’t measure, you don’t really have a pulse on where you’re at. Now, obviously, we’re rattling off these statistics, and I would say probably the majority of pastors that we interact with, are measuring.

Dick Hardy 2:39
Right.

Dick Hardy 2:40
Some don’t, and some, you know, probably should even think about measuring more things.

Dick Hardy 2:45
Well and I’ll tell you, if you don’t measure, you’re going to do that to your own peril. Because you’re just going to be out there dangling with things that you really can’t put your finger on. And along with that, then you document. So, you can’t measure just what happened last week, and then go on. You got to document it. I had a pastor buddy over in Oklahoma one time. And he was constantly, everything that he said, related to last Sunday, rather than the last two months, rather than the last six months,

Jonathan Hardy 3:19
or even year over year.

Dick Hardy 3:20
or year over year. So yeah, I mean, your point is absolutely right – document. Measure and document.

Jonathan Hardy 3:26
Okay, so then what are the things we need to be measuring and documenting?

Dick Hardy 3:29
Well, I mean, obviously you’re gonna measure attendance. You’re going to measure giving. I think you’re going to be measuring your volunteers, because let’s use a number. Let’s suppose you’re at 40%.

Jonathan Hardy 3:40
Okay.

Dick Hardy 3:40
40% attendance. Well, what if your volunteers are coming back at 60%? Well, you probably don’t feel too bad about that. What if your volunteers are coming back at 25%? Well, you might be in a world of hurt there. So, you got to measure your volunteer participation, again as compared to pre-COVID. But those are the things and then you want to measure intangibles.

Jonathan Hardy 4:05
Okay.

Dick Hardy 4:06
What is the feeling? You know, you get a gut feeling from the body. I had one church, a very large church that I’m familiar with, and they came back. I think they came back in June, met for two Sundays. They started here, dropped to here, and then shut down again.

Jonathan Hardy 4:25
So because of the state or the local?

Dick Hardy 4:27
In their case, it was more of a state issue. But the point is you’ve got to be, and that’s a feeling. That’s an external thing that impacts the internal,

Jonathan Hardy 4:39
I think to measuring online stuff, because right now people are doing the Facebook Lives or the YouTube and those various platforms, and you know, that doesn’t say everything, but it gives you something to see, Okay, hey, and I know that with our church, early on, the participation was much greater online. And then as summer progressed every week, it’s just kind of, I think it’s slowly declined, the number of people Well, that’s a very important thing to do and to know.

Dick Hardy 5:09
Well, and one of the things to do on the online is, I know there are churches that have said to themselves, “Hey, we got to get an online presence.” Well, now we’ve all been forced to get an online presence. So, don’t let that, you want to measure that in order to advance it because don’t let that go now. You’ve done things to get an online presence going. Now you got to really make that baby pop, even while you’re coming back. You gotta measure.

Jonathan Hardy 5:35
Yeah.

Dick Hardy 5:36
Okay. The other thing you want to do is be realistic. That goes a little bit to the point I was talking about in terms of kind of assessing the body.

Jonathan Hardy 5:45
Yeah.

Dick Hardy 5:46
So, let’s, let’s say for example, let’s say you’re an optimist. He’s an optimist. I’m an optimist. And we’re all gung ho, man. We’re going to make this thing happen. And then we’d look at our leaders around us. Suppose we got six, eight, ten, fifteen, key leaders around us, three, whatever the number is. And they are down in the dumps. Yeah, I mean, they’re locking in. Their wearing masks. They’re just doing all this stuff. And you’re this optimist that says, “I want to pump this thing forward.”

Well, let me tell you. Your action steps going forward are going to be way different than if then if you’re an optimist. Then you got optimists all around, you. Same thing. You know, if you lean to the negative, to the pessimists, and you got up. You just have to, and you’re probably not, putting that in an Excel spreadsheet. But it’s a feeling that you’ve got to assess. I will also say, don’t deny things. You know, you and I both come across pastors, that they they’re in denial.

Jonathan Hardy 6:46
Yeah.

Dick Hardy 6:46
Well, this is all just going to go away. Well, on one hand, yes. We’re not going to be in this forever.

Jonathan Hardy 6:50
Eventually.

Jonathan Hardy 6:52
But to simply think as some did earlier on in the spring, Oh hey, by middle May, we’ll be back at it and normal. Everything will be normal. Don’t deny things.

Jonathan Hardy 7:01
Yeah. Well, and I think just what you’re saying really hits home, as it relates to just getting a handle on where people really are. I mean, yes, with the mask thing you brought up that, yeah, yeah. I mean, everyone has their perception of what you know, are we mask people are no mask. You know, and it’s like, hey, well, it is what it is right now. I mean, this is the life we’re living right now.

Jonathan Hardy 7:20
But beyond that, we’re getting a handle on, are they even watching anything? Are they even participating? Are they in a small group or life group or whatever you call them? Are they doing anything? Of course to do that you have to be able to, as goes to your point of assessing, we got to be on the phone, got to be shooting emails, text, whatever. And soliciting those, you know, people to help you and figuring out what do we need to do to really get a handle on where people are.

Jonathan Hardy 7:47
And I know, I’m just speaking from our church. There are a lot of people that are like, well, we don’t know. I mean, you know, they’re out there floating and you know, but the participation is so hard because you not only have COVID, but now you have summer and people are trying to come back. And so, it’s like just getting that handle on it. And so I think this whole point, you just have to be realistic with where are we really at?

Dick Hardy 8:08
You know, your statement there just made me think of the reality you’re facing. And we hear this every place. You’re going to work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life.

Jonathan Hardy 8:22
Or you already have been working hard.

Jonathan Hardy 8:23
Well, you have been. And to make church work when you’re not face to face with people every week. I mean, it’s a big, big job, and we commend you on one hand for doing it. But the other hand, or another side piece of this, don’t deny how much work it’s going to be, because it really is going to continue to be a major task for you.

Jonathan Hardy 8:44
Well, the next thing we want to talk to you about is creating a plan. So, we’ve talked about measuring everything we’ve talked about being realistic, and now you need to create a plan. So, now that you know where you’re at numerically, and even measuring some of those intangible type things, being realistic with where the church is at now you have to figure out well, how can I create a plan? What kind of options can I create that are going to help us be able to move forward?

Jonathan Hardy 9:07
Because, you know, this thing, obviously is we know, hey, it hasn’t gone away yet. And it’s not going away anytime soon. And you know, you think cold and flu season pulling up. And what’s that going to look like? I mean, there’s all the unknowns still. And so we got to figure out, okay, what’s the plan to get a better pulse on where people are at? Of course, right now, we’re in the midst of the school, the school starting stuff.

Jonathan Hardy 9:35
Point being, you know, we got to have this plan figured out. And how can we maybe do things different? You know, I heard Andy Stanley when they talked about canceling for the rest of 2020. One of the things he said was he just wanted to, or they were the church, NorthPoint and were going to look at how can we do church differently for the rest of the year. Take our resources and such to position the church to do different things. And so, you know, What does that plan look like for you?

Dick Hardy 10:01
And the great point with that, is he articulated to the body, a plan. And it was clear. Whether you liked it or not, it was a clear plan.

Jonathan Hardy 10:10
Yeah. And there’s a point where we have to do that. We have to just give clarity to people, whether they like it or not. So, that way, you know, they’re not just wishy washy, and it’s just like, well, what’s today? You know, are we meeting this week? Are we not meeting this week? And, of course, all this again, remember is in context to where you’re at. You know, we’ve got that rural pastor I talked about, well, they’re, they’re moving forward right now, at least as of now.

But you know, so obviously keep that in mind as you’re as you’re listening to this.

Dick Hardy 10:36
And while you’re doing this, you really need to help your leaders come along with you. And you know, if you’ve listened any of our podcasts at all, we’re huge on developing leaders, and you still develop leaders even during COVID-19. You’re going to go to episode, we would encourage you to take a look at episode 34, where we talk about developing leaders.

Dick Hardy 11:00
But I can’t. No, you can do this. You don’t have to be sitting in an auditorium or a sanctuary on Sunday morning to develop leaders. You need to continue to develop leaders, because they’re going to help you move the plan forward.

Jonathan Hardy 11:14
That’s right,

Dick Hardy 11:13
You know, and then the final now is, by the way, this is Mr. Plan guy. So, I mean, he gave you the stuff on the plan. You want to pay attention to this guy, because he’s always talking about, “You gotta have the plan.”

Jonathan Hardy 11:19
That’s right.

Dick Hardy 11:19
But, the final thing we want to tell you is you’ve got to act. Too frequently, we talk to good pastors. I mean, these guys, gals have great hearts for the Lord. But they talk, talk, talk, put a plan together, and then do nothing. That’s a loser with a capital L. Once you’ve done all the things we’ve talked about, you’ve got to act. And that’s what a leader does. So, give us a snapshot. What did we just cover here, Jonathan?

Jonathan Hardy 11:49
So, four points we wanted to share with you as it relates to this is measure everything. Be realistic. Create That’s going to help you as the church has slipped or is slipping in attendance, especially during this COVID-19. And that’s going to help you get a better pulse and handle on everything.

Dick Hardy 12:09
Good.

Jonathan Hardy 12:10
We want to mention, you know, you were talking about leaders and you know, we’re always trying to develop leaders. Whether you or the people in your church, or your key leaders, you want to make sure that you are developing them. And one of the ways to do that is through the Five Day Leadership Challenge. Just go, it’s five days, 15 minutes a day, where you are investing in you, as a person as a leader, and it’s going to help you to lead especially during these crazy times.

Jonathan Hardy 12:33
We need to be able to lead at a whole another level than we’ve ever had to lead before. And the Five Day Leadership Challenge can help you to do that. Simply go to leaders.church/challenge. Again, that’s leaders.church/allenge. I also want to thank you for listening to the episode today. Wherever you’re listening to this or watching this, please subscribe.

Jonathan Hardy 12:52
We want to continue to help get the newest content to you on a regular basis and then also rate and review. Whether it’s on Apple podcasts or other platforms, please rate and review, so we can continue to get the word out. In fact, we have a review that we want to share with you. This is from WAK, “4A app.”

Dick Hardy 13:10
There you go.

Jonathan Hardy 13:11
I love that. Don’t know what that means.

Jonathan Hardy 13:15
So, if you don’t have much time and you need something quick, direct help, some quick direct help for your church leadership, this is it. Well, thank you WKA four A app. for that review, and we want to read your review. So please leave a review for us. And thank you so much for being with us today. We will look forward to seeing you next time. Until then be blessed.

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