“We Need More Young Families with Children”
by Lovett H. Weems, Jr.

"What we really need is more young families with children.” How many times have we heard those familiar words spoken in churches? The image of many young families with children brings memories of a time many churches associate with their heyday decades ago. But there are changed realities to consider if churches want to move forward into the future instead of looking back.

• Reality One. Most churches, including mainline churches, are doing as well today in reaching married couples with children living at home as they ever have. Churches have done a remarkable job in consistently and effectively reaching this group.
  
  
• Reality Two. Married couples with children living at home represent a dramatically smaller percentage of the population today than in the past.  So churches are doing an equally good job of reaching this constituency – but they are reaching a declining constituency.

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VIGNETTE

A Single Voice
by Kevin Brown

I had been attending a new church for a little over two months, when something changed. I was active in this church, attending Sunday school and participating in the hand bell choir, among other things. During that time a few people made me feel very welcome, especially those people who sat around me or who were in my Sunday school class. Then, one Sunday, I was welcomed with a fervor I had not seen before. I was offered a name tag, asked to sign the guest registry, and asked my name more often and with more enthusiasm than had previously been the case.

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Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

In planning for the future, some congregations have found it helpful to ask these questions:

What current strengths do we have that we could use
to meet the opportunities and challenges we face?

What new skills or competencies do we need to develop
to meet the opportunities and challenges we face?

Editors:  Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel
Production and distribution:  Joe Arnold

Copyright © 2007 by the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Leading Ideas material may be freely distributed with attribution (exclusive of material protected by separate copyright).