For years I have heard pastors talk about their attendance lagging in the summer. For some, it sounds like it is inevitable. Attendance always drops in summer.
That always makes me wonder, though, if people show up less in the summer because we plan less for them to do. We ratchet back our small groups. We cancel Sunday School in July. We combine our two worship gatherings into one, thereby creating fewer options for our people.
I never want our church's attendance to drop in the summer. Those sermons I preach are just as useful for making disciples in July as they are in November or February. The faith stories that we tell and the scriptures that we read are just as valuable for the progress of our people's faith.
Now, I know people take vacations. But as the pastor leading the church, encourage your people be together. I think the letter to the Hebrews was written in the middle of the summer: "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds," the author says, "not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Heb. 10:24-25).
Grace,
Brad Franklin
Transitional Director, Next Generation Churches
