Hey, You! Yeah, You. Are You Under 50?

On Friday and Saturday of last week, we tackled a huge project - painting the exterior of the church and repairing the office building's deck. It was planned and announced a month ago, well-publicized and promoted as a challenge worthy of all. As expected, Friday's crowd was all retirees. On Saturday, the under-50 crowd contributed a single person. Ein, uno, one. And this has been going on for years, not matter what the need. That frustrates me to no end, as I know that we retirees only have so much gas left in our tank before we stay in our rockers on the porch. Who's going to do the maintenance, teaching, ministering, etc after that?

Shame on me for thinking this, but I had a mental picture earlier today of a Samson-like "jock", handsome and buff, but spiritually clueless until the end. Just imagine what Samson might have accomplished with a different attitude. Just imagine what our churches could accomplish with a different attitude. Okay, enough of that.

If you're a registered user on Ranger Chat, or just a guest, none of this likely applies to you. You bleed khaki. You Reach, Teach and Keep. You look forward to doing what you do. And I'm thinking you might have the same problem in your church.

HOW DO WE GET THE UNDER-50 CROWD TO DO MORE THAN SHOW UP ON SUNDAY MORNING?!

I will probably put together some kind of survey and post it on this thread. Feel free to comment beforehand.

Tough question.
Our church only has 3 people under 50 (my 2 kids+1 man in his late 20's who is often out of town due to his job.)  all the rest of the younger folk have fallen away or drifted off to places where they don't preach the full Gospel. You know, just the soft & comfy parts.

So I don't know that I can offer any sage advice here, since our church seems even worse off.


Many' of today's younger couples with children seem to be so wrapped up in activities. If you don't make church a priority your kids won't either.

Some are so into youth sports to the point they are almost slaves to sports. Starting their kids in sports at age 5 so they can get a leg up in the scholarship competition. Going to games or practices 6 or 7 days a week. I am not saying sports are bad, but some folks are obsessed with chasing scholarships. (my brother was like this with his kids-they had soccer games or practices 27-28 days a month.)

Some families I know with multiple children are constantly on the run to sports, dance or music lessons, 4H & more.

Some of the younger folk we used to have would show up every Sunday, but you never saw them at Sunday night prayer, church work days or Wednesday nights.

The enemy has been busy with our young people.

But how do we get them back?

You see it, wherever you go. You have 8% of the folks doing the work, and the other 92% won't even wipe off a table after a church supper.

I had the same thing at the American Legion. One member would cook supper every month: pork chops & potatoes, or chili, or stew. Everyone showed up to eat, and threw in their $5.00, but they were always short for kitchen clean-up.

After the meeting, I would help, so there would be the same 2 or 3 guys in the kitchen every month. It got to the point that I took rubber gloves to the meeting with me, because I washed dishes every month, and my hands cracked & bled, if I didn't have the rubber gloves.

After about 6 months of making every meeting, and washing dishes at each one, I was on the way out to a Legion meeting. I had my Legionnaire's cap on, was walking out the door, and said to myself, "I don't feel like washing dishes, tonight." I turned around, threw my cap on the table, stayed home, and haven't been to a meeting in two years.

Pastors to the same thing. They let the same folks do all the work, until they burn out.

Claymore wrote: You see it, wherever you go.  You have 8% of the folks doing the work, and the other 92% won't even wipe off a table after a church supper.

We all have the same problem, and it's probably universal. Only when a church goes "mega" are there more workers to spread the load. But then again, mega-churches have their own problems. I don't mind working. Been doing that forever. But it sure would be nice to have company. Unfortunately, we are competing against the world's distractions, of which the number has been exponentially growing in the last 20 years. People are easily sucked (suckered?) into short-term busyness that just doesn't have any staying power or value.

Does anyone out there have a solution? Is there an out-of-the-box idea that has worked somewhere?

joecool wrote:
Does anyone out there have a solution? Is there an out-of-the-box idea that has worked somewhere?  

Well, if you don't have an ethical problem with "cloning", maybe we could get a blood sample from Mark Jones, & make a couple hundred more, like him.

Claymore wrote:Well, if you don't have an ethical problem with "cloning", maybe we could get a blood sample from Mark Jones, & make a couple hundred more, like him.

Say, that's a great idea