We had around a dozen or more extra visitors – which was great.
Janet and her team laid on a fantastic spread.
Look at all these eager young hands reaching in to get a plateful of goodies.
The worship group played and sang really well, Bob preached a super [but brief] sermon and all in all it was A Good Service.
Hoping that some of these people will come again to worship with us.
If you could, about how many of your visitors were "older" folks and how many were really young ones, say, twenty-somethings? The church here in the US is in such big trouble. We are losing upwards of 93% of our youth as they leave high school. They just don't come back to the church. At least, some church leaders are beginning to decide that the thoughts on youth ministry are wrong. Perhaps they need to quit isolating youth in specialized groups and integrate them into the whole church. Amazing.
ReplyDeletesounds fantastic and so good that your church is so welcoming x
ReplyDeleteGreat! We had a handful of new people too. None came from my invitations but at least I made a connection there. We had a really good service too and we are a friendly lot so hopefully the visitors enjoyed their Sunday morning with us.
ReplyDeleteLizBeth - we had three families - parents in their late 20's/early 30s with children. A couple in their 30s - and the rest I think were 50+. Sfter I wrote the post, I realised tat actually we had nearer 2 dozen visitors if you count in the children!
ReplyDeleteWe have a great youth worker, and work hard on integrating the youth into the life of the church.
The USA is not alone in losing young people when they get to their teens, and then there is a genuine problem with them going off to Uni, but not being able to afford to come back and live in our village after graduation because prices are so high.
Jo - glad it went well for you too!
blessings x
Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. Glad to hear that The Big Welcome went well.
ReplyDeletein recent years I have started to go to church again. it started mainly with my daughter being involved with uniformed groups and them doing parades etc. for me i always had a curiosity but i felt that i was unable to just turn up , almost as though i had to be 'invited'. I think that lots of people probably feel the same so these events are a great idea to get people in through the doors. although i am c of e by baptism, i go to RC with my husband and daughter as they are RC, but she attends uniformed groups at the methodist church so I go to that a lot too. my church of choice is methodist, our local one is lovely, the people are friendly and there is lots going on, it has a great atmosphere. my 'own' church ( c of e ) by contrast is very cold, the people are unfriendly and they complain if you sit in their seats !!
ReplyDeletethe majority of our congregation is over 60. I have to admit I haven't been to church since the beginning of August, and won't be attending for another couple of weeks. No excuse, must get back into to going weekly.
ReplyDeleteGill a proud member of St. Luke's, Rosemont, Ontario, Canada