Pastors get proactive about the busy times of the year. We prepare for end-of-year giving campaigns and five-service Easter Sundays. But what about the slower times of the year?
The classic “summer slump” shouldn’t be a time to step back or get through. There might be fewer people in the building on any given Sunday in July or August, but that opens up the doors to focus on other important areas — especially as one of the low-key busiest times of the year approaches.
It’s no secret that the busiest days of the year on the church calendar are Christmas and Easter Sunday. It’s estimated that attendance goes up nearly 50% on those two Sundays alone.
It’s impressive, but there are other spikes in attendance that, while less splashy, are just as important to think about. One of the most notable of these is in early September. While the date shifts depending on the school schedule, the first or second Sunday after Labor Day often sees a huge “back to church” rush as everyone gets back on a school schedule.
Here’s the thing. You don’t want to use the fall as a time to see if your facilities are firing on all cylinders. And the holidays come right after that, too. The summer slowdown is an ideal time to pressure-test facility operations while things are manageable.
And we aren’t just talking about day-to-day operations. This is a good time to review your long-term church strategy, too. You can use it to get a 10,000-foot snapshot of how your worship facility and any other campuses and buildings you use are working.
It’s time to rethink how we approach the dog days of summer. Use the weeks ahead as a testing ground. It’s your chance to make sure your buildings are ready when attendance surges again in the fall.
If you haven’t vetted how you’re using your building in a while (and we mean the whole building, not just parts of it), here are some questions you can ask to get your staff thinking and praying creatively about where you can make improvements before operational needs increase again.
What is your church’s mission? How does your building fit into that mission right now? Use this as a starting point to orient your team with the “why” behind your church buildings.
Building activation is the process of activating your building’s untapped potential. In most cases, church leaders have activated parts of their building while other areas remain dormant. There are many ways to start identifying and activating spaces in your church. Where can your church improve how it’s using its spaces?
One way to narrow your building activation conversation is to look at areas where you’re already struggling to accommodate demand in the summer. If certain ministries, auditorium seating, and similar things are near capacity, what will happen in the fall? What can you do now to accommodate future demand?
This one is subtle. Ministry Solutions Group talked to a church recently that was looking at moving from a rented spot to a space they were offered. We talked them out of it because they would have moved in and immediately been at capacity. The short-term solution didn’t meet the long-term vision. Where is that kind of big-picture thinking happening in your current church master planning conversations?
Creating a church building master plan requires a full-spectrum picture of your situation. That can’t just include your building. You also want to audit things like your mission (see the first question in this list), as well as money. That last bit can feel uncomfortable, but we’ve found church building budgets break when vision is not balanced by stewardship. You need both to create successful church capital planning initiatives.
As you work through the above questions this summer, there is a final question you should use to end every conversation:
Are your buildings funding ministry, or is ministry funding your buildings?
If you’ve been around a member of our team, you’ve probably heard them say this already. It’s because this is the crux of it all. This is the crossroads where vision, budget, and building meet.
If you show up to work every Sunday and you finish the service just happy that you can pay the bills, you’re putting the cart before the horse. You want to feel empowered by your building to accomplish your ministry. Often, that means a proactive effort of using your building for mission-driven ministry, coupled with activating unused spaces to generate revenue to offset expenses.
If you see the need to liberate your ministry from the burdensome upkeep of your building, our team would love to walk alongside you in that process. Reach out for a Free Analysis, and together, we can look at your financials, giving trends, attendance data, and similar numbers to help you take your next step with confidence.