Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Well, if you're, like, most churches, things tend to slow down a little bit in the summer months. And it's not that there's less work to be done, but just people are on vacation and traveling, and things tend to get a little bit slower. And in this conversation, we're gonna unpack some of the things that we've learned that church leaders can do to avoid that summer slump. Let's do this. You are listening to The Reach right podcast, the show dedicated to helping your church reach more people and grow. Hey guys, I'm Thomas.
Speaker 1 00:00:31 And I'm Ian.
Speaker 0 00:00:32 And today we're talking about how your church can avoid the summer slump, uh, and kind of get some victory in that area. I know a lot of churches, they see kind of a downward trend as we get past Mother's Day, as we have, and we're getting into Father's Day season. And then, yeah. Uh, everybody's on vacation and all kinds of things are going on in the church, and people are busy, and usually that turns into a little bit of a summer slump at some churches. Uh, and I know as someone who's pastored churches, and I know that sometimes that can get us feeling kind of down because Yeah. Uh, try as we might, it's hard to, you know, get new, uh, people to show up or new visitors. And getting your members to be there can be challenging in this season. So we have some, uh, remedies for that we're gonna talk about today, right, Ian?
Speaker 1 00:01:17 We do, and it's always, I shouldn't say always, it often is on the tip of, uh, a lot of pastor's tongues that I've connected with over the years that around this time of year when I connected, well, you know, Ian, the summer slump is coming and Yeah. And, you know, yeah. It's, it's a reality that there can be a challenge. I think, though, that it, we should up our game to be strategic during this time. Cause it, it doesn't have to be a slump. It doesn't have to always be that way. That doesn't mean everything will be as maybe moving and shaking with events and attendance compared to other times. But, uh, I think we'll be talking a lot about how we can keep people engaged over that time. I think that's a good key word to use, right?
Speaker 0 00:01:55 Yeah, absolutely. And this all came from a, a question that we got. Um, and yeah, I guess I'll, I'll let you go ahead and share it, but hey, just a reminder, if you want one of your questions answered here on the Reunite podcast. Yeah. Uh, do let us know down in the comments. We read every single one of those. We try to respond on the platform that you write in your question, but if it's a good one, we're happy to, uh, kind of discuss it here in one of our podcast episodes. So, uh, why don't you go ahead and, uh, uh, kick us off with the question today, Ian.
Speaker 1 00:02:23 Yeah. Or if it's a bad one, we can make fun of you a little bit and all in love, but, uh,
Speaker 0 00:02:27 Well, I will say that we do get a lot of, uh, maybe not questions that we make fun of, but we get a lot of, a lot of comments. And, uh, our social media team has, um, you can only like, you know, respond so many ways to some of the ones that are just kind of backhanded criticisms of Christianity. And so we've, uh, we've taken to, uh, some new approaches there and just kind of, uh, try to meet it with sarcasm is what we're gonna try and do. So, um, anyway, you might get met with that, but in most cases, I think this audience would be, will be trying to find something we can, we can actually respond to. So worry
Speaker 1 00:03:00 Not, and that being said here was a good one. So, so typically we see a dip in attendance during the summer months. Can you share some strategies for keeping our congregation engaged and connected even when they're not able to physically attend services? So yeah, that was well thought of, uh, thought out, I would say. And yeah.
Speaker 0 00:03:19 Yeah. So the first one I think, like, to kind of jump into the question there, the first thing, I think it should be an obvious one that you're probably doing already, but it's a good time to revisit it Yeah. Is really taking a look at your online sermons slash live streaming, uh, is kind of what we're thinking there. Um, I think in general for the vast majority of churches, and we've done whole episodes about this Yeah. Um, but we think that you shouldn't livestream, uh, most churches shouldn't be live streaming. We'll just kind of say it plainly that way. Um, if you're a church of 2000 people and you have the staff to pull it off with excellence, yeah. Well, maybe it makes sense for you to livestream in that kind of a situation. But the reality is that most of us are not in that position, uh, and we cannot execute a live service very well for a stream.
Speaker 0 00:04:05 And basically, like, while it would be great to do, it's just a matter of where you're putting your time and your resources and all the work it takes to, to pull off a good livestream. So I say that I say livestream, um, just know that that's something we'd recommend for, uh, two or 3% of churches that are listening to this. Yeah. For the vast majority of us, I think it's better just to focus our energy on focusing on online sermons and revisiting some of that. Um, what are you doing with those? Are you're recording them. Um, how is the quality on your online services and do you, maybe one thing we kind of recommend for churches is maybe consider doing intros to your online sermon. So, you know, you record your sermon there on Sunday morning, you put it on, it doesn't take a lot of extra work, just if after the service, or maybe at some other time you do a quick little bumper.
Speaker 0 00:04:54 Like, so for us here on this podcast, right after we finish recording this podcast episode, I'll go and do like three and or four sentences that is specifically for our YouTube channel, where you can kind of hear a little intro of what the actual podcast was about. And for a sermon that would be a great idea to tag on, do three or four sentences and say, Hey, in this sermon we talk about this and we actually quote this verse here and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy it. Kind of giving someone a little bit of a, a hook, if you will Yeah. At the beginning to engage them and have a better chance of them sticking around and listening to the whole sermon. So that's kind of a, an idea there.
Speaker 1 00:05:32 I like it. I like it. Well, I'll tackle the next one. This is a digital bible studies and small groups. Um, you know, I think we all, again, uh, referring back to the pandemic. This did really, churches jumped on this and they were effective for a, a season where mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, I don't think before the pandemic, there were some churches probably that'd had virtual groups, but, um, you know, churches all had Zoom small group meetings. I know I partook in those myself. You probably did as well. Yeah. And they were very encouraging and I think that, you know, piggybacking off the pandemic, maybe churches now kind of, um, you know, uh, greased the wheels or got, um, you know, learned how to do that effectively. And that might be something that you offer now. Um, how often, you know, during the summer months is a question and maybe it, it, you know, that question could be answered just depending upon each small group at your church or just what your church sees seasonally. But that could be definitely something if people are traveling more and on vacation or can't physically make Bible studies or Sunday school as much, or whatever it would be at your church, um, these could be very effective.
Speaker 0 00:06:40 Yeah. I, I think we're in the middle of a little bit of a Zoom backlash right now, right? Like we, we all like had such like, uh, I don't know, it's almost like PTs d from being on Zoom and stuck in our houses two years ago or three years ago, whatever it was now, three years ago I guess now. Yeah. Uh, so, um, we're kind of, I, I dunno, there's a strong like, um, repulsive response that I have towards online small groups because I feel like it just, it brings back bad memories in some ways of that. But I still think there is a certain group of people, uh, that would be open to these kinds of things. I find that they are a great way, I think they're a hard way to build connection, like to start off new relationships. Right. But they're good for existing relationships, sustaining 'em.
Speaker 0 00:07:25 Yeah. Let's say you have a small group and everybody is traveling and you guys have been together as a small group for, for 18 months and there's a lot of relationship. Everybody loves one another. It might be a really good idea to have a quick zoom check-in if everybody's traveling and going their separate ways over the summer. Yeah. Uh, I think if you're trying to start a small group in the summer and do it exclusively on Zoom or some kind of an online channel, you might ha it might be an uphill battle. Do those to do those kinds of things. Could be. Uh, but yeah. Something that's worth trying, I'd say.
Speaker 1 00:07:53 Yeah. That's good.
Speaker 0 00:07:54 Awesome. Next one, uh, is take another look at your email newsletter As a church, one of the things you have to remember is that in the summer months you probably have a lot of events. We're gonna talk about some of those in a little bit here. So you probably have those, but you have to remember that if your attendance in person is down a little bit, well a lot of those people aren't hearing your normal Sunday announcements that you're giving. Right. And so I find that in the summer months that, uh, you're more likely to hear that dreaded phrase of, I didn't know that was happening today. Right. Or that was next week, pastor, or something like that. Yeah. So I think it's a good time for you to revisit your email newsletter and take a hard look at that. Is that something that is actually readable?
Speaker 0 00:08:35 I think that what happens for so many churches is we get this weekly regular news email that we send out. Uh, and I, I know in my case, because it's just kind of the same thing over and over and it's in my email inbox, I am very tempted just to archive that without even taking a look at it, uh, or not even open it at all. And so I think it's something that a lot of people fall into that trap. Uh, and that's why we have to really do something to make that email newsletter engaging. Uh, so, you know, writing really good copy, getting some graphics in there, just taking some time to revisit that, I think is gonna be really important.
Speaker 1 00:09:12 Yeah, that's good. No, that's excellent. So, um, yeah, cuz they, they can often be forgotten. Uh, you know, those are kind of regular things and I think just, you know, understanding the importance of it during this season is good. So good touching on that. Thomas. Next one should be a no-brainer too. I think social media, uh, keep people engaged over social media. You know, make sure that, uh, you know, and this could be a time where if you've kind of fallen behind as a church with your social media updates and or game, uh, you know, get back on it, this is where engagement is very important. So, you know, not just events, you know, but things like sermon snippets like we've talked about, um, you know, testimonials, uh, over the summer, you know, get people excited about what God's doing in the lives of some of your members and people coming. And, um, of course discussion questions, things to where, and these don't always have to be, as we've mentioned before, these could be lighthearted things about like ice cream or fun favorite theme parks in the summer or whatever mm-hmm. <affirmative> water, water parks, um, you know, whatever it would be. But things to just keep people engaged and connected there on social media.
Speaker 0 00:10:19 Yeah. So I would say that the summer months are a great time to really assess your social media strategy as a church. And I think it's the time to double down on that people. Yeah. You probably don't need to put as much attention into, uh, other areas of your church because people are traveling. Maybe you do fewer of some of your regular events or small groups. Maybe they're taking a break for the summer. Take some of that time as leadership in your church to really invest in your social media presence, come up with a strategy. Um, I think the strategy today should be centered around short form video. Uh, so that can typically be things like repurposed sermons, um, taking your sermons and clipping them into a few chunks and turning them into regular posts on TikTok and Instagram reels, Facebook reels, YouTube shorts, all those channels.
Speaker 0 00:11:07 You can use the exact same content on all four of those. And so it's a huge opportunity, um, if your church is looking for some help in that, we have sermons, sling that does that completely for you. So it's no real work on your church's part. We handle everything. Yeah. Uh, so that's just something that you can take a look at, but if you're able to pull it off yourself, this is the time to do something like that because you probably are freed up from a lot of your other responsibilities in the summer. So take a hard look at that and I think that's one of the biggest opportunities we have.
Speaker 1 00:11:37 Yeah. No, that's, that's awesome. Yeah. What'd you get the next one?
Speaker 0 00:11:40 Next one. This is one that I think that a lot of us, uh, think about is our, our giving tends to go down in the summer. Yeah. Because plus people are there, they're not, they don't see the offering box, or if you're still passing a plate that's not in front of you. So it's a good time to take a hard look at your online giving strategy again. Yeah. Uh, so I think the, the best thing about online giving is the allowance of recurring gifts. Yeah. And so people, whether it's summer or not, uh, they can give the exact same way just today. Uh, we're filming this here on June the first, and just today I got the email and I didn't even really think about my church and my giving at all, but because it's June 1st, my donation came out of my account today. Uh, and I got the email that says, you gave this amount to your church today.
Speaker 0 00:12:27 And so this is something that if it hadn't been for recurring giving, I probably would've remembered within a few days or something like that. Yeah. But, uh, it came to me and I said, oh yeah, that's right. Today was the day for that. So I saw the email and I, I gave so a good time to do that. Um, obviously online giving is growing. I don't, I, I really, I can't think of any reason that a church wouldn't offer some kind of online giving today. Um, you know, we've been in this industry long enough that when we started, there was a lot of resistance. No, I don't wanna do online giving. That seems like people are gonna get stolen from, and there's all right. So we, we've been through it all with this, but it is a time to revisit that. I would make a point here early in the summer to, in your announcement time on a Sunday morning, talk a little bit about, Hey, here's what we do for online giving.
Speaker 0 00:13:13 It's totally secure. So put people at ease with those kinds of things. The church gets all of the money the same way as if, if you put it in the, the plate here or in the box in the back. Uh, and then just encourage people to, may maybe share a testimony just like I just did a simple story about how Yeah. You know, uh, we were able to give recurring gifts. You can do it weekly, you can do it monthly, whatever you want to do to set that up. But just give people a reminder and talk about it. I think that'll help you kind of get over that summer financial slump that a lot of churches face that way.
Speaker 1 00:13:45 Yeah. It's good. One last thing I'll say to that, not much to add is just that I rarely come across now a church that's not doing online giving. Right. I would say 99% of churches almost are, are doing it. And, uh, you know, security's not an issue anymore. It used to be a hangup that there was a, you know, the transaction fee, but, um, now there's mo every giving option, or most of them at least, offer where the, the per the donor can even take care of that transaction fee. And even if they don't, we've seen churches statistically across the country, they're giving goes up by just by adding it and making it available. So, uh, if there is anyone hearing this that hasn't done it yet, you know Yeah. Do it and you'll, it, yeah.
Speaker 0 00:14:24 We assume you're doing it, but I just think it's a good time to revisit it. I do wanna take a second. You mentioned something interesting, the, the cover, the transaction fees. Um, yeah. Does your church, um, I I we didn't plan this then. Does your church, uh, you, you do online giving, I assume, right?
Speaker 1 00:14:40 Uh, I've been doing it for years, yes.
Speaker 0 00:14:41 Yeah. And so, and is it, um, does, do you do a recurring one, so just set it and forget it? Or do you do it, do you go in there and actually, uh,
Speaker 1 00:14:49 I go in there and actually do it. I could do it. I do it basically at, at the same time. I do it several times in the month is kind of the way that I do it so that I, I go in and, and on my own and do it. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 0 00:15:01 And I I I might be weird on this. Uh, let me ask this question though. Like, so do you, on yours, do you, do you have the option to cover the fees if you use a credit card? Yep. That
Speaker 1 00:15:10 Is there, do
Speaker 0 00:15:11 You know what platform they use your church?
Speaker 1 00:15:13 Uh, we are using Secure Give.
Speaker 0 00:15:15 Secure Give. Okay. So I personally do not like the cover the fees part on church websites. This is kind of my philosophy on things and let us know in the comments if you have a different thought. I get it Like that, the 2.5 or 2.9 whatever percent that adds up over time. I understand all of that, but I just think of like, if you're ever, um, I, I don't like it when I go to any other place and they say, Hey, there's a 3% transaction charge if you want to use your credit card here. Right. Um, it just kind of rubs me the wrong way. Yeah. And Yep. Like I, I think of like, when I'm in California, I'll maybe go visit family there. And when you go to the gas stations, all of them have two prices listed. There's like the cash price and then there's the credit card price, and it's like a pretty big difference between the two.
Speaker 0 00:16:01 And here, here's my take on it, is that as the leader of an organization, I, we run reach right here. I don't want my, my customers or anybody who's giving us money to concern themselves at all with the inner workings of our credit card processing fees or any of that kind of stuff. Right. And it, I think it just leaves a bad taste in people's mouth on a business side. So I, I don't have any data, I haven't seen any research on this to back it up, but I would think that for the most part, having people just, uh, just give and not worry about the cover, the fees versus not cover the fees, but just give, uh, and not even think about our processing fees at all. I think that would be a better solution for people. So that's a little bonus, uh, thing that I'm, I'm pondering, uh, for people, if it was my church, I would probably turn that off if I could. Yeah. Like we cover the fees option and just keep it nice. Yeah. Plain simple and just encourage people to give. So I don't know, do you have any thoughts on that? Full,
Speaker 1 00:16:56 Full dis I do full disclosure, I, I don't cover it. Um, in it all. I'm kind of, and I, hey, I give, I give faithfully, but I don't cover that fee. And I agree with you on that. I think that all just came from, that was so many church's objection for so long, they thought Oh yeah. That they would be losing money. But it really isn't. And I agree with you Totally. But no, that's good. So I, I don't
Speaker 0 00:17:18 Fault anybody for doing it. I just, I think that it's something that if, uh, I I, I don't know how you research something like that. Right, right. But I, I know that that is, it is a huge pet peeve of mine. I go to this burger shop down the street from our house, and I give 'em my credit card, and I, every time I forget this, and they say, did you know there's gonna be an extra 3% fee for using a credit card? Yeah. And it's like, uh, I mean, it just, it just, it just makes me, it, it's, I don't like the feeling <laugh>, so
Speaker 1 00:17:45 I, I lost my appetite. So anyway.
Speaker 0 00:17:48 No, uh, you know what, yeah, that's it. So anyway, that's, that's either good nor there, get the next one first and the
Speaker 1 00:17:54 Next one. Podcasts and blogs can be a great thing during the summer to go deeper into your church's content. Again, giving people content when they may not always be getting it on a Sunday, um, diving deeper into maybe it's certain topics. It could be just, uh, you know, expounding upon something you preached on in a, a shorter way. Obviously we're big for, uh, big on podcasts. We're doing one here, but many churches now are understanding the, you know, I would say the need, but the benefit of doing it, a podcast. And, um, and then of course a blog. We've been blog again, as we always say, you have to count the cost of that. You have to be on your game with that, and you have to be regular on that. Just like a, a podcast. Both of these things, we'll take some work, but when done well, uh, we know these are two excellent tools for engagement and, um, and on churches that do it well, uh, they do see results from it, for sure.
Speaker 0 00:18:51 Yeah. I think that both of these are kind of long form, uh, not easy things to do, you know, filming a podcast or recording a podcast, writing, you know, decent size blog post. Yeah. It's a commitment. I think both of them, uh, what they have in common as well is that it ha you have to do it more than once. Like, it's not a podcast if it's only one that's just a video. Right. Or like a, it's just a, an audio recording. Right. So you have to commit to doing things regularly. I think the same thing goes for blog posts, but the reward on these are enormous. There's huge opportunity, but I think they're especially good, like you're saying in the summer months here. Yeah. Because you're seeing less of people less chance to connect. And so a podcast is a great way to do that. Blog posts are a great way to engage with people. Um, when we talk about podcasts, uh, know that we, you could think of your weekly sermon as a podcast. That's not what we meet in this case. Right. Maybe having some other kind of a podcast. Maybe it's, uh, an interviews with people from within your church podcast or, uh, some kind of a theology podcast. There's all kinds of ideas and themes. Yeah. But I think this is another point of connection, uh, outside of your Sunday sermons is what we're thinking about with this. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:20:01 That's good. That's good. Last but not least, you got this one. Yep.
Speaker 0 00:20:04 That's it. Summer specific programs. So think of some things that you can do that are programmatic and the most obvious one is, uh, a vacation Bible school. Right. I think that these are tried and true, and we're actually doing an episode next week, I believe, uh, that talks about some of the strategies for Yeah. Having success with your vacation Bible school. So, uh, I know a lot of churches do it. Um, I, I didn't grow up going to vbs. Did you Ian?
Speaker 1 00:20:31 Well, as you know my story, I grew up in an unchurched home, so I did go on a couple occasions because my neighbors were Christians and regularly attended the church down the road. So they, they drug me a couple of times. I think I got kicked out of one, uh, for bad news. Sounds
Speaker 0 00:20:47 About right.
Speaker 1 00:20:48 Yeah. Just, uh, sounds about right. And, you know, again, pre-Jesus days. Uh, but, uh, but yes, I didn't go regularly, but my kids have, um, for the most part, uh, uh, since my kids have been alive and since we have been regular church goers, you know, we've seen the benefit of them. My kids have for sure. And I'm yours.
Speaker 0 00:21:09 Yeah, no, I, my kids have loved it. I never did it. I'd never even heard of it until, um, I grew up in Hawaii and I just wasn't really a thing here, I don't think. Yeah. Uh, so, but when we moved to the mainland, every church seemed to offer it. But again, the reason behind this is that kids are outta school. I think it's a godsend to parents, right? Because you get to get young kids out of the house and they're learning about Jesus for a week, and there's some really great ones. And if my kids were still young enough now we, they're in youth camp days, and so we gladly encourage our kids to go to that. But, so, you know, youth camps, vacation bible school, those kinds of things, really getting on those and promoting them, it's probably a little bit late in the year if you're hearing this for this year to start planning your vacation Bible school. But I think really hitting home with that and making sure that it is all, that it can be a huge opportunity for summertime.
Speaker 1 00:21:58 Absolutely. Get to it for sure.
Speaker 0 00:22:00 Awesome. Anything to add as we close up?
Speaker 1 00:22:04 No, just, uh, we hope these are of course, encouraging and maybe they gave just an idea or maybe just a refresher. Maybe a lot of churches are already doing this, but, uh, hopefully this is something that you can put into to action, get your teams on board, your volunteers, other staff, and uh, we can do this. It doesn't have to be a slump. Doesn't have to to be that way. It could be a great summer of growth.
Speaker 0 00:22:27 Yeah. Summer is just a great time. And I think it's something we can embrace at churches and yeah, it's gonna be good. I pray it's good for you and, uh, our audience here. You guys have a great summer. Yeah. Uh, thanks so much for being a part of the reach Right. Family. Uh, if this has been helpful to you, it would mean so much to us If you would rate, review, subscribe, do all those kinds of things, uh, let us know in the comments if you have any other questions you want us to cover on the podcast, and we'll catch you next time. See you.
