February 25th, 2021
By Tina Yerkes
What does it look like to be engaged with the church?
I read an interesting blog post the other day by Carey Nieuwhof, author & founding pastor of Connexus Church. He writes, “Jesus didn't say 'attend me', he said follow me. Early Christians didn't attend church, they were the church.” And he went on to write “However, you’ll also notice that engaged people—people who serve, invite friends, give, and participate in the community, & attend.”
One of the ways we track engagement is fairly new to churches. We use analytics or data from social media, from online services, Google, our website, app & emails. Each week, I create a spreadsheet called Impact Report. And it shows what St. John’s data is across all of our communication channels. We have been doing this since 2018 but the report has grown over the last year. The days of simply counting how many people walked through the door on a Sunday morning are no more. Our church’s impact can be counted throughout the week as well as in a month or next year or whenever the internet stops counting digital metrics. Churches have had to pivot in how we look at engagement versus attendance.
Even pre-2020, we could have had incredible attendance on a Sunday morning but did we have incredible engagement? Someone could have faithfully attended Sunday services and not paid attention to a word or song or a prayer or even talked to anyone. (Certainly never at St. John’s…lol) Engagement, to me, means being involved in more than a Sunday morning service. It means being in relationship with other people from the church, volunteering to help with a ministry or one-time service opportunities. It means being in a small group, giving of our gifts- both our talents and our money and praying for our pastors.
And St. John’s has amazed me over and over again with those who have hung in there with us as well as those who completely had to learn new technology in order to participate in worship.
Now, we need to engage our community and people who we do life with-whether that is at work, at school, in our neighborhoods and our acquaintances. We are called to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Easter is the time of year with the most HOPE to share! As we go through The Way of the Cross sermon series, this is a great time to invite someone who may not know about Easter and why it is eternally important. This message of the cross is so powerful and provides the much needed hope to those in our lives. Jesus gave us the example to follow, The Great Commission- “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20
Yes, our world & technology may be different from when Jesus spoke these words but the message is unchanged. Our responsibility is still as Jesus commanded. His hope endures forever!
What does it look like to be engaged with the church?
I read an interesting blog post the other day by Carey Nieuwhof, author & founding pastor of Connexus Church. He writes, “Jesus didn't say 'attend me', he said follow me. Early Christians didn't attend church, they were the church.” And he went on to write “However, you’ll also notice that engaged people—people who serve, invite friends, give, and participate in the community, & attend.”
One of the ways we track engagement is fairly new to churches. We use analytics or data from social media, from online services, Google, our website, app & emails. Each week, I create a spreadsheet called Impact Report. And it shows what St. John’s data is across all of our communication channels. We have been doing this since 2018 but the report has grown over the last year. The days of simply counting how many people walked through the door on a Sunday morning are no more. Our church’s impact can be counted throughout the week as well as in a month or next year or whenever the internet stops counting digital metrics. Churches have had to pivot in how we look at engagement versus attendance.
Even pre-2020, we could have had incredible attendance on a Sunday morning but did we have incredible engagement? Someone could have faithfully attended Sunday services and not paid attention to a word or song or a prayer or even talked to anyone. (Certainly never at St. John’s…lol) Engagement, to me, means being involved in more than a Sunday morning service. It means being in relationship with other people from the church, volunteering to help with a ministry or one-time service opportunities. It means being in a small group, giving of our gifts- both our talents and our money and praying for our pastors.
And St. John’s has amazed me over and over again with those who have hung in there with us as well as those who completely had to learn new technology in order to participate in worship.
Now, we need to engage our community and people who we do life with-whether that is at work, at school, in our neighborhoods and our acquaintances. We are called to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Easter is the time of year with the most HOPE to share! As we go through The Way of the Cross sermon series, this is a great time to invite someone who may not know about Easter and why it is eternally important. This message of the cross is so powerful and provides the much needed hope to those in our lives. Jesus gave us the example to follow, The Great Commission- “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20
Yes, our world & technology may be different from when Jesus spoke these words but the message is unchanged. Our responsibility is still as Jesus commanded. His hope endures forever!
No Comments