This post is for members and attenders at New Hope. Each month I offer Entrance to New Hope which is for people wanting to join New Hope. This class is mandatory even for transfer members so it is always well attended. However, we offer three other classes onece a quarter on Sabbath afternoon and these are not well attended. In fact, we haven not offered them in almost six months because we get no takers. These classes are 1. Grwoing your devotional life, 2. Discovering your spiritual gifts, 3. Witnessing effectively for Jesus. One would think that people would be beating down the doors to grow in these areas but that is not so.
What are we doing wrong? How can we change things? How do we get people to take these very important classes?
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4 comments:
I can speak for myself in that I have not attended because of timing. I often come to church with a number of people and right after the service, they are ready to leave. I think most people like the Sabbath afternoon to themselves also.
How about having the classes during the time allotted for Sabbath School? (just before second service)
I agree with the first comment. Timing is bad. Marketing is not good. Maybe some "lay people" telling about the class how they liked it. A better description of the class and the importance of the class.
As relevant as those topics might sound, if they aren't getting takers you should probably try something else, anything else.
And while I liked the introduction class, it had a certain scripted feel to it. A specific agenda.
While that made sense for introducing people to New Hope's way of doing things, a better idea for other "classes" might be to provide a topic but leave the process of the discussion more open-ended.
Here are some topic suggestions you might want to consider:
1. Handling difficult Bible passages
2. How to read and study your Bible
3. Modern Bible Translations and the KJV
4. What is the Born Again experience?
5. Exploring the SDA 28 Fundamentals (or one of them)
6. Theology 101: What is Arminian-Weslyan Theology and What is Reformed-Calvinism Theology
7. How does the General Conference work and how do we effect decisions and policies of the world church?
These may sound academic and geeky--and that's because I'm academic and geeky. And they may not directly relate to goals of evangelizing the community. But they've been real concerns of mine, and maybe they are concerns of other church members, too.
In a big picture sense, here is the deal from the perspective of this post-modern SDA: I don't think the church is taking us or itself seriously. It doesn't want to deal with real issues. It wants us to support its ministries and evangelical programs but doesn't really want our input. If you read the Cliff Goldstein interview at Progressive Adventist you'll notice he was giving marching orders to not be "controversial" in the editing the Sabbath School quarterlies. That makes a certain amount of sense when you think the church is sure of its goals and missions.
But this (just to use the SSQ as one example) has the effect of dumbing down the learning process. We're taught to just parrot things, not to seriously explore issues.
I'm glad our founders weren't like that.
In short, you may need to keep trying new things, different approaches. Maybe a survey of the congregation's interests, from a wide range of options might help direct the process. Maybe you've already done that and that's what yielded the current array of options. I don't know.
But keep trying. If something doesn't work. Try something else.
Glenn
Glen, you are right on. There are certain fundamental needs that have to be met: survival, safety, significance, etc., but when it comes to the church we need to be open to people's needs. I like your list of suggestions. I wish more people would read my blog. I will start another post that hopefully will help me discover what people really want to hear about?
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