New Ministries EMT

A Workshop on Re-Connecting With Your Community

This workshop approaches the phenomenon of declining church attendance from an unlikely perspective: that of the Nones, Dones, Un-churched & Spiritual-But-Not Religious (SBNR). It takes a critical but hopeful view from outside the church.

Public discourse on religion has been dominated by regressive voices that most Nones, Dones and SBNR reject as hypocritical, anti-science, anti-LGBTQ, overly prescriptive, and closed to questions and doubt. To them, “church” is irrelevant.

The challenge is to hear these voices and re-engage them – with all their doubts and cynicism  – in a discussion where progressive Christianity meets their existential needs. With a bit of training, social media makes this very possible.

However, this is not a social media workshop per se. It’s a communication workshop, where we first un-pack the problem and then use social media as a research tool, before we use it as a speaking tool for reaching outsiders.

The format is a 4-6 hour session divided between theory and practice – with extra time allotted to helping church staff use their website and social media effectively.

Part 1 – Unpacking the challenge:

• Section 1 – What is the church attendance trend and trajectory? (15 min)
• Section 2 – Who are the people that are currently rejecting church? (15 min)
• Section 3 – Why do people leave, criticize or simply reject church? (30 min)
• Section 4 – How are churches currently speaking to rejecters? (45 min)

Part 2 – Building a solution set:

• Section 5 ­– Church’s unique role; how are we different and truly valuable? (30 min)
• Section 6 – Hearing the needs of our community – social media listening (45 min)
• Section 7 – Reaching out to the rejecters – social media speaking (45 min)
• Section 8 – Basic social media networking and best practices (remaining time)

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Identify key reasons Millenials and GenZ reject “church”
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of your church communications
• Research the spiritual needs of your community via social media
• Assess how your communications address these unique needs
• Tailor communications to reach people outside your church
• Identify organizations in the community for collaboration
• Use social media best practices to facilitate the above