Shrinking gatherings
Recently I was at a clergy gathering where one man was speaking about his early Sunday morning church service and he said, “it is shrinking, as all 8:00am services are”. No one in the room disagreed.

I don’t yet know whether this is accurate. Are there early morning services that are bursting at the seams? I hope so. But there is truth to early services in many places dwindling in numbers.

I wonder why this is the case, and if it is, should we be worried about it?

Why early morning gatherings are shrinking
In most of our churches early morning services tend to be more traditional and are populated by the older members of the parish. That being the case, as people age they move to nursing home care, often with its own Sunday church meeting; or health issues diminish churchgoing regularity or they are now gathered in glory around the throne of our saviour. These are all good reasons for why the existing congregation will shrink.

Why early morning gatherings should be growing
But the problem is that the age group represented by people whose children have left home, the over 60’s, percentage wise is the fastest growing group in society. So as the size of this group grows in society why is this the very group that is dwindling in our churches?

And it is not just society at large that is swelling in this age group. For many years The National Church Life surveys have shown that our churches have significant numbers of people in their 50’s – so isn’t there a natural feed into our early morning services?

What’s going on?
I admit to not having yet put much thought into this issue, but here are some preliminary thoughts, that I am sure you will add to in response to this column.

1. Generally the pattern of multiple church meetings on Sunday morning was established some time ago. It was then that people decided which gathering to attend. How the decision was made varied but some significant factors were
a. Choosing to be with a group of friends
b. The best time of day for my lifestyle
c. The type of meeting that was on offer (we all know the stereotype: early morning is traditional, alter morning is more relaxed family)

That decision being made some time ago means that people are content with the decision and don’t want to change. We see that in the way the later morning family service is tending to hold older people. There is no problem with this; it is just that the natural flow to the earlier church gathering is cut off.

2. With no natural flow of congregation members to the earlier service these gatherings can only grow by evangelism. My hunch is that often we merely assume that running a traditional church service is what will draw older people to our congregations. But evangelism amongst the unchurched elderly is in some ways more difficult than with any other age group as these folk have spent their life opposed to God, and as a habit avoid church, or they made a decision in their youth not be a church goer and no one has challenged that. The average age of our clergy in Sydney is now younger than the age of this group, and so the clergy sometimes can’t lead the evangelistic push into this age group.

That said, it is as we face the massive changes in life like loss of loved ones, reduced independence and retirement that God uses to have people reconsider their attitude to him.

Some thoughts
How then can we reach a growing generation that is not engaged with Jesus from a base that is shrinking?

• ask our congregation members who they are in contact with? Older age people tend to have more time, and more time with people gives more gospel opportunities. Often the pastor doesn’t intuitively know the answer to this question. Share the visions with congregation members about using such times to share the good news of Jesus.

• enlist the help (and train if necessary) the congregation members to minister where they are. Retirement villages are great places for people to evangelise their neighbours, as are the recreation times at bowls or golf.

• maybe 8:00am on Sundays in our church buildings is not the best time to gather people? We should think more expansively about using other venues and other times to gather people.

• recruit the older members of the later morning gatherings as missionaries to help reach those a little older then themselves.

I am sure we will get many more suggestions as a result of your interactions. 

Photo: Richard Taylor Flickr