“How do you rebuild your church’s reputation in the community?” Steve, a pastor in Kentucky, emailed me after my last post. Like me, he had to adjust from church planting where the pastor builds the reputation to leading a church whose reputation is already built.
Here is what I told him:
I’ve been here for 5 years in June. Much of what you described for your church is true here. I’ve actually apologized to some people for how our church treated them. I haven’t seen the massive shift in how our community sees us that I hoped to see yet, but we are trying to do consistent, faithful basics along with creative, generous ideas where we can.
We try to reach everybody in our very small, rural town, but we do a lot for kids and families because that reaches grandparents too. Also, younger people and new people to the community don’t have the memories of what our church might have done.
You should know that our town is super rural (300 people in a county without a stop light–but we reach into the towns around us). And I believe in faithful, biblical worship without anything fancy. We just try to do congregational singing, solid preaching, and loving one another.
The main thing that I do to help our church reach our town is to live here, be present, and stay. People expected a 36 year old pastor to leave quickly. 5 years later, I’m still here.
Being present and visible is also a big plus. I try to see the families at the bus stop. My family and I keep a garden that is a ½ mile walk across town. I try to walk or ride my bike to be visible in the community.
The best things we’ve done to try to reach our community are done consistently:
- Give away popsicles at the bus stop across from the church.
- Host a community BBQ competition at the town park across from our church.
- Set up a synchronized Christmas light display.
- Host the town Easter Egg Hunt (this year we did a story walk in the park across the street for the two weeks leading up to it). Doing this every year means that families count on us. The same goes for Trunk or Treat.
- Host the town trunk or treat (we host it but everyone is invited to decorate and join us).
- Host a lunch called Free Lunch Monday three times a year for the local high school students where we give away books.
- Go door-to-door with a Daylight Savings Time gift and invite.
I wish I could say that we’re seeing revival, but we’re not. But the other day, a teenager in the park asked when we were doing Free Lunch Monday again because she said, “we always like it when you do.” We are building relationships, giving away books and resources that share the gospel, inviting people to our church, and being present so that kids and teenagers talk to us.
