Options — Offer Them, and They Will Come
by Royal Speidel, Distinguished Evangelist in Residence, The General Board of Discipleship

What is the most popular convenience store in your community? What is the biggest grocery store? Which of these has the largest parking lot? The chain grocery store. Why? It offers many more options. How many kinds of cereal can you buy at the convenience store? Perhaps four? Wheaties, oatmeal, and maybe a couple of sugar-coated cereals. What offerings can you buy at the chain store? A whole aisle full with possibly 50 options. Hot or cold cereals. Simple Corn Flakes or five different kinds of multgrained ones. You can buy cereal with blueberries, raisins, or pecans. Whatever cereal your creative appetite desires can be found there.

People go in larger numbers to places that provide them with the most options. That is true of the twelve-screen theater over against the little one-screen neighborhood theater. The reason Wal-Mart forced thousands of neighborhood mom-and-pop stores out of business all cross American is thae Wal-Mart offers thousands of choices. People drive to the outskirts of town past many little stores to get to Wal-Mart because its huge aisles provide so many options.

What works in the business world also seems to work in the church. The largest number of people attend churches that offer the most options. This is also true of worship services. Many churches would increase their worship attendance if they added other services.

Friendship United Methodist church in Bolingbrook, Illinois, held two Christmas Eve Services in 1987 that had an average attendance of a little more than 400. About 1992, Friendship added two more services, and attendance went up to 800. More people came when they were offered the options of services held at 5:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m., or 11:00 p.m. Each was a candle lighting service, but variations were built into each one. The 5:00 service catered to families with children who served as handbell ringers. Contemporary instruments were featured in the 7:00 service; and the 9:00 service was a carols and Scripture service. The Chancel Choir graced the 11:00 p.m. service.

Friendship Church applied the same options principle to its Easter Services. Previously, Friendship held three services on Easter Sunday; then the church added a fourth. People had the option of attending Easter morning worship at 6:30 a.m., 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m., or 11:00 a.m. Attendance grew from 500 to 600 because of the fourth service. Instead of taking away from the other three services, the fourth service attracted 100 new people.

By offering a Saturday evening service, your attendance will likely grow. Why? Because some people prefer to worship on Saturday evening instead of on Sunday morning. Others who prefer Sunday morning will sometimes be busy or out of town on Sunday. They will be thankful to be able to worship on Saturday. Then there are people who work on Sundays, and they are grateful for a Saturday service. Visitors are attracted by the Saturday option — espeically if that option is not available elsewhere.

No church is too small to offer options. Leith Anderson in his book, Leadership That Works, tells of the growth of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Duluth, Minnesota. The church was averaging forty in Sunday morning worship in 1995 and had plateaued at that number for many years. The church added a second service — obviously not because they were crowded either in the sanctuary or the parking lot. They wanted to give their members and visitors another worship option on Sunday morning. Two years later, their average attendance was more than 200. God used options to help them grow.

Churches that offer two vacation Bible schools provide a wonderful option. Many families vacation after school in June, so they miss the June VBS. If a second VBS is offered the first week in August, those children who missed the June VBS can attend. The first week in August is a good week to hold vacation Bible school because kids are bored with summer, and they have two or three weeks remaining before school starts. If some children come to both vacation Bible schools, they are twice blessed. Two vacation Bible schools will likely increase attendance by fifty percent. It takes a lot of work, but shouldn't we demonstrate how much we care about children? Does it matter if children believe in Jesus Christ? Those are the important questions.

Ministry options are important. Does your church offer nurture and/or fellowship options for the following people: seniors; singles; youth; parents; married couples; men; women; players of softball, basketball and volleyball; golfers; young adults; and older-adult couples? How about people struggling with finances? Can they find the option of help in your church? Do you have a financial consultant in your church who would be willing to put on a Saturday morning seminar to help people think through budgeting, investing, saving, the wise use of credit cards, and paying off debts?

Sanctification was a basic doctrine in the early Methodist and EUB churches. Helping people grow in Christ, to be set apart for God, touches every aspect of daily life. Christ needs to be involved in our work, our play, and our personal relationships. Jesus wants to be part of marriages and parenting. What options can we offer people? Weekly newspapers often list pages of support groups people can attend to get help for virtually everything. United Methodists should have the option of finding godly help in their churches.

Options — Offer Them, and They Will Come

Offering many options takes a lot of love, work, and prayer. Isn't the salvation of our people worth it?

Posted 5-4-04.