Why Does Your Congregation Come To Church?

If you took a survey of your congregation, asking them, “Why do you come to church?”, what do you think they’d say?

For religion? For friends? For music? Out of habit? For God?

Great worship leaders study this. A powerful worship ministry is so much more than a big voice and powerful music.

But that’s often what we focus on, isn’t it? We strive for CD-quality soundscapes every weekend. We try and sing like Israel Houghton. We work hard on writing songs like Matt Redman.

But what if I told you that this was counterproductive for you?

That there are smaller, simpler actions you can take that will make your worship ministry stronger – a worship ministry that meets people where they are and leads them to see and experience the presence of God.

Why Does Your Congregation Come to Church?

I hate to deflate anyone, but here’s the cold, hard truth: A very small minority of your church cares about your detailed creativity and artistic expression.

Sure, some communities are more artistic than others. If you lead worship in Nashville you may be able to take more artistic risks than a worship leader in Nebraska.

But the truth is that people come to worship. They come because they need God. They need their perspective lifted from this earth. They need the mundane of their lives placed within the context of God’s greater story.

If they want to go to a concert, they can go to a concert to experience art and see an artist. In the local church, you are not primarily an artist, but a pastor. You are creating and curating a connection point between them and the Almighty.

Without a doubt, this is done through your musical gift, services, singing, songs, and band excellence. But there is so much more.

12 Unique Ways to Serve Your Congregation

Matter of fact, let me get a list started with some simple steps you can take. All I ask is that you continue the list in the comments. Deal?

Here we go:

1. Sing hymns and share your testimony with the senior citizen ministry at your church.
2. Talk to people before and after services
3. Lead songs they know and love
4. Pick songs with them in mind – not you
5. Talk to them about your passion for worship
6. Make “care calls” to people in the church
7. Pray for your congregation, in general and specific needs
8. Challenge yourself to remember people’s names
9. Start conversations
10. Lead your band to connect with people off the stage
11. Smile
12. Write songs with them in mind – not you

Without a doubt, applying tips like this will strengthen your ministry. Since worship leading is about building trust, this is exactly how you do that. And it’s good for you and your team to not just care about the creativity in your music, but to care for the souls in the chairs.

I want to hear from you on this.

How would you continue this list? What action steps could you add?

You are awesome.

You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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