By "closing the back door," we are referring to assimilating or keeping those who have already become a part of the parish. The sad reality is that many parishes have less than one-half of their parishioners show up at any one point. They are "walking out the back door."
The Five-Step Plan
The plan to keep your parishioners from leaving theparish is not difficult. It just requires execution and persistence. Once begun,these five steps become a natural flow of the parish’s ministry.
- Have a mission statementthat includes the importance of parishioners getting involved in a group. For example, if themission statement is “Love God, Connect with Others, Serve Others, and GiveAbundantly,” the second part of the mission statement (“Connect with Others”)would refer to the importance of a parishioner getting involved in a smallgroup, Sunday school class, or some other group.
- Communicate the importanceof groups in your new members’ class. In fact, some parishes actually require theprospective member to connect with a group as a requisite for membership. Thisstatement obviously assumes that the parish has a new members’ class in place.
- Make certain the parish isintentional about starting new groups. This step is very important if you arediligently moving new members to groups. New groups, particularly, will beattractive to these new parishioners. They will not have to break into existingrelationship patterns.
- Have a leadership groupreview the status of new parishioners at least once a quarter. The ministry staff couldtake this initiative. Some parish leaders do this review once a month; othersdo so once a quarter. One of the primary purposes of this review is to determineif the new parishioner has become active in a group.
- Follow-up persistently if aparishioner is not in a group. Some parishes have a “meal plan” follow-up.They make certain an existing member of a group takes the new member out to eatand invites him or her to join the group. The success rate has been very high.
Why These Steps are So Important
Parishioners that are in a group are more likely to read their Bibles regularly. They are more likely to share their faith. They give more abundantly to the parish. And they are much more likely to “stick” with the parish over time. In fact, in earlier studies, it was found that a parishioner who was in a group was five times more likely to stick with a parish than someone who was not.
So, these five steps are not some new entrepreneurialdiscovery. They are basic. They get people in the Word studying with others.They engender new relational connections. They create an implicit system ofaccountability.
And they also get parishioners to stick. The back door isclosed.
Source: Lifeway Resources
Next Steps
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