Keep All Age Groups Engaged at Church: 4 Tips How

It’s supposed to be a unique experience. Being part of a San Diego church community is supposed to be different than anything else in a family’s life. It’s not like school, work or hobbies. Family members often attend these activities alone. But church should be for everyone.

Can you say this about your church? Whether you’re looking for a new congregation, or you’re the person leading one, being family orientated should be at the top of the priority list.

But you probably know this isn’t easily come by.

The Challenge

How can a teenager feel as passionate about a church as a toddler? Their interests and understandings are vastly different.

You can see this as a reason to give up on finding—or creating—the ideal church community, or you can simply take up the challenge.

The Solution

It’s all about having respect for all ages. The magic word mentioned above is ‘community’. It’s not about finding activities the elders or leaders prefer. It’s about finding ways to accommodate everyone in the congregation.

No, you can’t play to everyone’s whims. But you can show you’re trying to be relevant to all age groups.

Here are a few tips.

Kids

Kids are full of energy. The nursery songs they love are the ones that have them jumping around. Will you allow your children to experience this same joy during a church worship service?

And will you try and capture kids’ attention with basic text, or will you take a few tips from the entertainment industry. Why are videos so popular on online platforms? Because they engage many senses.

Let’s do this with our kids:

Give them bright images that get processed faster by the brain than simple text.
Use videos so both sight and sound are engaged.
Do practical activities where they can touch items related to Bible stories. This will make the stories stick in their minds so they can remember and repeat them easier in future.

And what do you do when they get older?

Teens

Here’s an important feature we often forget. All humans want to have purpose and during one’s teenage years, this is especially important.

You may think teenagers seem disconnected from the world around them, but they’re not. Helping others is high on most of their priority lists. Instead of simply organizing gatherings, make sure you challenge young people to touch people’s lives.

And why force teenagers to leave the activities they love the moment they engage with church activities?

You may think social media platforms are impersonal, but have you seen online communities grow? A Facebook group is the ideal place where a group of teens can stay in touch with each other. Share your outreach photographs on Instagram and you’re bound to get more volunteers during your next event.

Why? Because these platforms where today’s teens engage.

Adults

While everyone has the same basic needs, each person is unique. Do you cater for the different types of adults in your congregation?

Here’s where interest groups can draw people into the church community. Build groups around:

Sports interests
Hobbies
Insightful courses
People with and without children
Singles and couples

People look for places they feel comfortable and you need to create these familiar environments for them.

The Elderly

What word comes to mind when you think of the aged? I think of one word: Nurture:

Show you value the aged by caring for their physical needs, such as organizing a music evening. This is how you nurture them.
Allow them to invest in the younger generations through care groups or seminars. This is how they can nurture others.

The elderly have both these needs and you have the privilege of creating an environment where they can enjoy both.

[Conclusion]

Do you have a few new ideas to make an impact in your community? The people you see in your city can become the ones benefiting from each other’s company. And you have the privilege of initiating it.