Declining In-Person Attendance: 7 Preaching Shifts That Are Happening Right Now

Every week, you host services at your church hoping to reach more people, which is admirable and appropriate.

The problem is that the culture is changing, and never bothered to ask your permission.

In many ways, preachers are using a method that’s been around for centuries…if not millennia…which on the one hand is wonderful.

The challenge is that culture is changing so rapidly that fewer and fewer people are hearing the message every year. At least, that’s the case in many, if not most, churches.

If you think that the cultural change is over, fasten your seat belts. It’s not showing any sign of decelerating any time soon.

Wise leaders will see the change and respond. As we’ve said before, leaders who see the future can seize the future.

The culture is changing and never bothered to ask you permission. Click To Tweet

Here are 7 preaching shifts that are happening right now. And, if you’re interested, you can read my guide on writing and preaching better sermons.

1. People Won’t Automatically Come to Hear You Preach Anymore

It’s almost singularly true that throughout human history to date, the only way to get the message was for people to assemble to hear it.

Just think about Jesus’ day: the crowds assembled to hear him. And in every century since then, that’s how it worked.

But technology has changed things so much that our culture doesn’t operate that way anymore.

In the past, people brought themselves to the message. Today, you bring the message to people.

In the past, people brought themselves to the message. Today, you bring the message to people. Click To Tweet

Think about how profoundly things have changed in the last decade. Amazon and other online options mean you can get anything delivered to you overnight…and you rarely, if ever, have to leave the house. The shift in how humans (here in the West) behave is profound.

In addition, people are far more mobile. This idea that you’ll be in one community every weekend to visit a set church at a set time is growing increasingly archaic by the day. People just don’t behave that way anymore. (For this and background and other church trends, start here.)

And whether you think they should behave that way is irrelevant, especially if you want to be effective.

I think it’s very possible to see in-person attendance growth AND online attendance growth (we’re seeing both where I serve at Connexus). The two ideas are not mutually exclusive. But to do that, you must take in-person ministry and online outreach seriously.

Preachers, everyone you want to reach is online. So act like it.

In the past, people brought themselves to the message. Today, you bring the message to people. Click To Tweet

Surprisingly, few churches invest anything more than pennies on the dollar on their online presence. And very few preachers take online seriously because they’re not even sure it counts.

But these days, a preacher asking if online counts is like a taxi driver asking if Uber counts.

The COVID-era debate of whether posting your services online reduces in-person church attendance has long since settled. I don’t know of a single growing church that isn’t also investing heavily in its online ministry.

Clicks lead to bricks, and bolstering your online presence almost always leads to greater in-person attendance.

Church leaders, bolstering your online presence almost always leads to greater in-person attendance. Click To Tweet

2. Easy Answers No Longer Resonate

Decades ago, the local preacher was essentially the source of everything about the scriptures, Christianity, and faith. Sure, an avid Christian might read a few books, listen to other talks, or attend a conference.

But information was scarce and cost money.

That meant that what a preacher said carried a lot of weight, and people, by default, accepted it.

Sure, often faith crumbled when a teenager went to college and was exposed to new information, but not every kid went to college.

For too long, preachers got away with easy answers.

Fast forward to today, and it could hardly be more different.

Just assume everyone hearing your message, especially non-Christians investigating faith, know as much or more about a subject as you do. And even though they may not, they can easily Google anything you say. And they will.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a ton of misinformation and bad information online. But that doesn’t stop people from researching.

Add to that the reality that we live in an age of strong opinions weakly formed, and the easy assumption that what you say as a preacher will carry to the day is gone.

We live in an age of strong opinions, weakly formed. Click To Tweet

Which means a little more homework on your part. Not only should you do a little research into the text (which is so important), you should do a little more research into the culture.

The future belongs to preachers who exegete the culture as well as they exegete the text.

It’s the only way you can understand what your audience is thinking.

The future belongs to preachers who exegete the culture as well as they exegete the text. Click To Tweet

3. You’re Preaching to the Room AND to the Camera

Moving forward, every church is a hybrid church. Almost everyone who attends your church for the first time (even when personally invited by a friend) will check out your church and your messages online first.

Almost every preacher today was trained to preach to the room. And that’s a wonderful skill.

But moving forward, you also have to be comfortable speaking to the camera. Sure, that might mean looking at the camera from time to time and making points directly to your online audience, but it’s bigger than that. Way bigger.

In the context of Sunday morning, it also means remembering that everything you say will be heard online, and with that comes all the challenges of having your work misquoted or misunderstood.

In addition, what you’re saying will be listened to for days, months, and (often) years after you say it, making evergreen content preferable to time-stamped content.

“Did you see yesterday’s game?” means nothing eight months later when football season isn’t on anymore and when a meaningful part of your audience doesn’t even live in your city, state, or country.

Bottom line? Assume that people are listening online and via social media and speak to them, too—not just the people in the room.

When it comes to message preparation, you don’t need to ‘craft’ social media clips into your message, but you should think about creating moments in the message that might translate well on social in 60 seconds or less. The best way to do this is NOT to create 60-second reels in real-time but to be clear and cohesive in your communication. Clarity translates much better on social media and YouTube than long, rambling, convoluted diatribes.

Realize, too, that the online audience isn’t just new people. In a world in which less than 50% of a church’s total membership shows up on any given Sunday, you’re also building into the people who weren’t in the room Sunday and are using YouTube, your church’s podcast or social media to ‘catch up’ and stay connected.

I know…it’s more complicated than ever.

Just remember this: while your primary audience for any sermon might be in the room, most of your audience is watching online. Prepare and preach accordingly.

While your primary audience for any given sermon might be in the room, the majority of your audience is watching online. Prepare and preach accordingly.

4. People Aren’t Starved for Information; They’re Starved for Meaning

I realize the first two points come across as a bit bleak, but they lead somewhere great.

The internet provides a sea of information. But, it’s a sea in which far too many people are drifting nowhere.

The current shortage in our culture isn’t a shortage of information; it’s a shortage of meaning.

The current shortage in our culture isn't a shortage of information; it's a shortage of meaning. Click To Tweet

And that’s where no one should do better than preachers of the Gospel.

The challenge is to wade deep into the text and deep into the culture AND come out with meaning that resonates.

In an age that has no scarcity of information but a deep scarcity of meaning, the church is uniquely positioned to answer ‘why’ in a world that is fascinated with ‘what’ and ‘how.’

The church can answer ‘why’ in a world that’s starved for meaning. And the church can answer ‘who’ in a world that’s starving for relationships.

The church can answer 'why' in a world that's starved for meaning. Click To Tweet The church can answer 'who' in a world that's starving for relationships. Click To Tweet

5. Your Personal Integrity Will Make or Break Everything

No one needs to make a list of names of highly known, loved, and formerly respected preachers and church leaders who are no longer in ministry today because they lacked personal integrity.

Sadly, far too many names are emblazoned on our minds.

Our culture also now prizes authenticity as a chief cultural value…but only in a strange kind of way. The moral compass of our culture points in a hundred different directions on any given day and often tolerates blatant contradictions in some leaders while zeroing in on the tiniest little defect in others.

Here’s what it universally means for preachers, though: as important as your talk is (see above), your walk is far more important than your talk.

In fact, an inconsistent walk will invalidate your talk, no matter how good your talk is.

Preachers, an inconsistent walk will invalidate your talk, no matter how good your talk is. Click To Tweet

In many ways, that should be no surprise and a relief to most preachers. We have always been held to a high standard of accountability, as we should be.

And when you mess up, admit it. I don’t just mean on the big things; I mean on the little things.

Own your junk. Get help. Apologize as often as you need to. Push others into the spotlight. Admit your weaknesses.

If you don’t, you’ll eventually be humiliated when others spot the truth you’re unwilling to admit.

Humiliation, after all, is involuntary humility. That’s what a public fall is: involuntary humility.

Humiliation, after all, is involuntary humility. That's what a public fall is: involuntary humility. Click To Tweet

Far better to humble yourself than to have others do it for you.

See a gap between your private walk and your public talk? Decelerate your talk and accelerate your walk.

See a gap between your private walk and your public talk? Decelerate your talk and accelerate your walk. Click To Tweet

If you want to dig deeper on the whole issue of the private walk of a leader, my best-selling book Didn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges Nobody Expects and Everyone Experiences is available now.

6. Imitation Will Kill You

Because integrity and authenticity are so critical in our current culture (and yes, the culture is hypocritical on that…but we never should be), imitating other leaders is a terrible strategy.

Imitating leaders you admire can seem like a wonderful strategy to accelerate your development as a preacher.

But there are two problems. First, anyone who knows you knows that’s not really you.

I watched a young preacher recently trying to preach with just a crazy amount of passion, and all I could think the whole time was, “Why is this guy trying to imitate Rich Wilkerson?”

It came off as inauthentic, fake, and honestly, surreal.

I love Rich. Rich is an amazing preacher with a great church, and having been on a trip with him a few years ago, I can assure you he’s got a unique, God-given personality. But God gave that to Rich, not to the guy trying to imitate him.

Preachers, here’s the question you need to ask yourself: do you want to be a cover band for the rest of your life, or do you want to be a real artist?

Preachers, do you want to be a cover band for the rest of your life, or an artist? Click To Tweet

Go ahead and play the bar circuit for 40 people a night if you want to be a cover band, but if you want to develop the gift God has given you, be yourself. At least you’ll die with your dignity.

I have tons of things I wish were better and different about my communication style, but at least I’m me.

The best part of being true to who God made you to be? You can roll out of bed for the rest of your life and do it.  Work hard. Get better. But be you.

As Craig Groeschel often says, people would rather follow a leader who’s always real than a leader who’s always right.

7. Intellect Alone and Emotion Alone isn’t Enough

When it comes to the style of preaching that’s going to really reach our culture, I’m not sure the intellectual approach is going to win the day.

For sure, you need substance, research, and a deeper level of thinking than you had before. And if you’re able to carry a discussion far and deep, that’s a great thing.

But speaking to the head alone rarely reaches the heart. So don’t just speak to the head.

Speaking to the head alone rarely reaches the heart. Click To Tweet

On the other hand, there’s a real resurgence these days in what you might call ’emotional’ preaching…preachers with a lot of passion, fascinating imagery, word-craft, and emotion.

In many ways, that’s amazing.

But just like the intellect alone isn’t enough, emotionalism alone isn’t enough.

Reaching and keeping the next generation will take both the head and the heart.

If you only reach the head, it’s easy to walk away when a new idea comes along. If you only reach the heart, it’s easy to walk away when the feeling dies.

But if you preach to both the head and heart, the head will carry the heart in the tough seasons, and the heart will sometimes carry the head.

Preach intelligently and preach emotionally, and you’ll reach the whole person. Which is exactly who God redeemed.

Preach intelligently and preach emotionally and you'll reach the whole person. Click To Tweet