Except in areas of high tourist traffic, most congregations ease off the throttle in summer. They cut back on Sunday morning activities, such as multiple services and education, and give choirs, clergy, and teachers a vacation.
This is a bit counterproductive, since summer is often a time of church shopping; a growth-minded congregation should put its best foot forward.
This is a perfect time to do smaller, more personal activities that respond to specific needs and opportunities. A softball team for young adults, for example. Swimming parties for families. Mission trips for youth. Mission trips for retirees. Picnic outings to parks.
Other than the mission trips, such activities don’t require much support effort. But they do help people nurture connections that can continue after Labor Day. If children have fun together at a pool, they are more likely to feel enthusiastic about Sunday School or midweek school. Friendships formed on playing field or mission field meet a need that won’t evaporate in September.
If your congregation is education-oriented, summer is a good time to experiment with off-site learning. A “Patio Study Group,” for example, can form the nucleus of an ongoing small group. Home-based small groups — the essential core of any growing church — are still foreign to many people. A low-key summer experience can stir enthusiasm for more.
Some congregations find lively response to Vacation Bible School. Others find themselves swimming upstream against unavailable teachers and uninterested children. In that case, it’s time to try other approaches.
Consider, for example, friendship-building that combines social networking (e.g. Facebook or its tween and teen counterparts) and face-to-face fun, such as sharing funny videos over ice cream. Ministers can invite children to a summer of mutual “following” on Twitter. It would be a great opportunity to hear what children are saying and for them to get to know their clergy in new ways.
Summer can be difficult for many, as their usual supports take a break. People in recovery from addiction, for example, might welcome a conversation about recovery. Lonely seniors might welcome lunch gatherings.
This is a good time for ministers and lay leaders to deepen their skills at thinking like entrepreneurs. Listen to your marketplace, for example, by asking what summer 2010 is bringing to people’s lives, what needs they have, how a community of faith can help them.
It is a time to try out new “products,” especially off-site and on-line activities that bring future growth.
It is a time to learn the “test and measure” approach: try ten things, learn from each one, discard the failures, nurture the winners. Then try ten more. Don’t over-think and over-plan any one activity, stirring unrealistic expectations, but start by seeing where people’s interests lie and do some trial runs.
If the future of mainline churches lies in what we call “Multichannel Church” — less focus on Sunday worship, more focus on non-Sunday, off-site and on-line ministries — then summer is an excellent laboratory for fresh ideas.
Most will come up short, but you haven’t committed nine months of resources to them. A few will bear fruit, and those you continue forward.
