Don’t settle for an impact smaller than you’re called to make. It's time to unlock your potential and lead confidently into a future filled with growth — for yourself, your church, and your mission. Get access to some of my best leadership content, only published in my newsletters.
On The Rise: Why It’s Hard for People To Attend Church, Being Cheap and How to Not Be So Critical
Published 4 days ago • 4 min read
Welcome to the On The Rise newsletter, where I feature fascinating, helpful, and sometimes curious content that caught my attention this week.
Today, a perceptive article on why it’s hard for some families to attend church on Sundays, what being cheap really costs you, how to be less critical and how to finally stop procrastinating.
Some Insights Into Why Weekends Don’t Work For Churches
Some empathy for people who aren’t there every Sunday
It’s easy to get pastors ranting about people who are not ‘committed enough’ to attend church every Sunday, but the reality is how we live on weekends have changed in our lifetime.
I live in Ontario, Canada, and growing up I remember having to get gas on Saturday because everything (I mean everything) was closed on Sunday. That changed in 1992, and overnight my home province became a 24/7 culture.
Before you judge people for missing yet another Sunday,check out this piece.The weekend isn’t what it used to be. While there’s something beautiful and sacred about everyone having time to be off together, the economy and culture are making that harder than it’s been in a long time.
From time to time, I'll have church leaders ask me if church should move off Sunday to accommodate this. I don't think so. Sunday is still the most attended time for church for almost every congregation. I’m still a big fan of Sunday morning services, and a lot of growing churches have experimented with Saturday night, Monday night or Thursday night options as well. The reality today is that it's hard to all be ‘off’ together on any day of the week.
Sunday morning still delivers like no other time slot in the week. It's just not delivering quite like it used to. So experiment, be gracious, and don't give up on gathering together.
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Pastors and Churches Have a Bad Reputation for Being Cheap
Cheap is expensive in the long run
A business leader I know stopped serving church leaders because he was tired of pastors complaining about price and wanting a discount.
Ouch.
Look, part of me gets it. Pastors don’t often get paid enough and churches have tight budgets. But is cheap the answer?
The next time you think about complaining about price,read Seth Godin’s summary of his philosophy of pricing yourself or others too low.
The problem with the race to the bottom is you might win.
Your congregation is trying to tell you something
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I’m a former procrastinator, as is Jon Acuff. One of the biggest costs of leaders who procrastinate is the impact your constant lateness has on your team.
Jon’s book is the best I’ve read on how to ditch your bad habit. And guess what? We write this newsletter weeks in advance.
Some help for those of us who can be overly critical
I like to joke that I have the spiritual gift of criticism. I can spot a flaw almost instantaneously in a product or a person. And while that has some value (it can help you get better and grow your church or organization as you eliminate what’s wrong), it gets out of hand quickly. Applied to people, it can be deadly.
So I have to constantly work against being overly critical.
I found this James Clear quote to be very perceptive:
"Observation is a skill, and like any skill, it can be trained and honed.
Even if you're not a negative person, you may be skilled at noticing negative things. Sometimes people are good at noticing the reason things won't work out or have a tendency to fixate on the latest distressing story.
But you can train your eye toward the opportunities each day quietly presents.
You can become competent at noticing your good luck: the little moments of joy, the stranger who helped, the small things that went right, the opportunity in front of you right now.
What are you competent in observing? And which types of observations seem to serve your life best?"
- James Clear
Cheering for you,
P.S. Weekend Watching
Dave Ferguson
The Reason Your Church Isn't Multiplying, and Fresh Trends in Church Planting With Dave Ferguson
Carey Nieuwhof Communications, PO Box 160, Oro Medonte, Ontario L0L 2X0
Carey Nieuwhof
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Don’t settle for an impact smaller than you’re called to make. It's time to unlock your potential and lead confidently into a future filled with growth — for yourself, your church, and your mission. Get access to some of my best leadership content, only published in my newsletters.
