How to grow the congregation?

[JM]

Any tips on how to grow a shrinking Lutheran congregation? In the past I have gone door to door, witnessed to the homeless while taking food and water, did a little street preaching, ran social programs free of charge to the public, used social media, etc. all of the typical ways modern evangelicals have tried to reach the unchurched and lost with mixed results.

I'm not sure how to go about it in a Lutheran context, the church I attend doesn't seem to have the heart for it, I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm guessing in 20 or less years this church will close it's doors.

Yours in the Lord,

jm

 

[Foghorn]

Pray,
continue to proclaim the gospel. But keep in mind, it's better to have a smaller congregation that is solid in the Lord than a huge one that doesn't take God serious and is more worldly.

 

[Halbhh]

Well, often Lutheran chruches have been neighborhood chruches, meant to serve only the nearby neighborhood originally, which once had newer houses and young families. And the young families that joined a chruch would of course bring all their kids.

Later in time, the neighborhood ages, and the children grow up and go off to college and marriage and new homes elsewhere, but very many of the homes in the neighborhoods are not sold, but the aging couple remains there and continues attending....

That's what we see a lot in my church. We joined simply because we moved in nearby into a rental house, and then later when we bought, we were still pretty close, and we continued attending. But what happens at Easter for example, or Christmas, is that many of the grown up children return to visit their parents and come to the service, and the church gets very full.

So, the church building was built for a much larger congregation full of young families, but the older people continue to attend and keep it going, even as they gradually age into passing on.

But, we have been getting some young families joining, and there are more and more kids over the last 10 years, even tripling in the K-5 compared to what we saw 12 years ago when we joined...so it is possible this church will still be going 20 years from now just fine. What's happening here locally is that finally many older couples are selling their old houses and often they are extensively remodeled or even replaced entirely, and the neighborhood is beginning to have quite a lot of families again.

That doesn't mean you can't bring in entire new people that weren't even raised in a church. I bet you can. The gospel message is very powerful to convert people. Not everyone of course, not even most, but many.

 

[Unqualified]

Pray. But there is apostasy going on. So much help for people to cushion their fall, like food stamps. I haven’t noticed many open doors at the soup kitchen. Rehab is a help too. Plant seeds like your doing. Get help. Do you have religion or Jesus. Be sure.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Pray, make sure that the Gospel and Law are being taught, and the sacraments rightly administered.

Remember also that we don't grow the Church, that is the job of the Holy Spirit.