KEEPING VISITORS COMING BACK
David Michael McDonald
October 1, 1986
David and Beverly stood in the doorway of the adult Sunday school class and looked over a sea of unfamiliar faces. Beverly had coaxed for weeks to get David there. Their first child was due in four months, and Beverly wanted that child to have a church home. David kept citing a bad experience with "religious people," but he was finally willing to try church again since they had just moved to this area.
Maybe this time I'll meet some nice people, David thought.
Maybe this time, Beverly prayed, someone in there will introduce David to Jesus.
I shudder to think how many Davids and Beverlys visited our class and walked away with needs unmet. We didn't realize it, but we weren't giving them a chance.
Our pastor first noticed the problem. He called one evening and asked if I would join him for breakfast at a local restaurant. "Sure," I said. "What's up?"
"We need to talk about the couples class."
I wasn't sure what he was driving at. Our class was well established; it had existed for fifteen of our church's thirty-five years, and I had taught or co-taught the group for eight years. If anything, we were typical. I took up the offering and taught a Bible lesson. My wife, Judy, did everything else.
As we met that morning, the pastor pointed out that slowly, almost imperceptibly, our class was losing attendance. In a year's time our average attendance had dropped from twenty-five to twenty.
"Growth occurs on the edges," he said, "and you're not taking in new people." I didn't have any answers, but then, neither did the pastor. In the following months, however, as we prayed about and pondered the situation, we came to several conclusions.
Know thy purpose
We had begun a guest book several months earlier. As Judy and I examined it, we realized ...
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