The last few months

Here's a long due update on what's been happening over the last few months.

We've had 5 services so far since Feb 6th. We started a new series on April 9th called Developing Your Relationship With God, after finishing our last series - Knowing God, the service before. During the first series, the number of new people were growing, most of the growth came from people who haven't ever been to church before, which is an amazing success. The last service however, was a disappointment - in terms of numbers anyway. There were various meetings running all over Crewe, which most of our congregation were involved in. In the end, the only people there were our Y-Zone youth group, plus a few other members of our church. Although that's not a bad thing, it made me realise a few things:

First, we're spending money on advertising. However, every new person who comes to Re:Generation, hears about it from word of mouth. Which means, that our advertising isn't working.

Secondly, the new people who now come to Re:Generation feel part of the youth as a whole, which means it's very unlikely that they'll stop taking part in various church activities anytime soon. Also, I'd like to guess that many of the people in our congregation are mature Christians anyway. So maybe at this point in time, a series called 'Developing Your Relationship With God' isn't the best series to run. Although this series should minister to many people there, especially our youth, I'm also looking at ways to attract people to Re:Generation and see it grow, and I don't think this series is the best for that either.

So in the last service, I took the decision to have a short break in the services, mainly to concentrate on advertising, so to 'relaunch' Re:Generation on May 14th. I imagine there's a fair few reasons why this is a bad idea, but I hope I've addressed them: Mainly, there's the chance of us losing people from our congregation. However, in our current position, our congregation now consists of our youth group, youth leaders, plus a few other people. All of which, I doubt would stop coming because of a break.

So there's a few ideas I'm playing with, all of which, if you'd like to give me some feedback/suggestions/etc, I'd appreciate.

The first, is about what I'd like our next series to be on. It's something I'd call the Untouchables, because it's the controversial subjects you never really hear talked about in church. They include hell, homosexuality, sin, etc. I've chosen this for two main reasons. First, we never hear about this in church, however, they are some of the most talked about subjects when it comes to church. I for one, have never heard of a service in my church which concentrates on subjects such as these. Secondly, controversial topics like this attract attention. Because these topics are so unheard of when it comes to church, many people are interested. So this in itself may be a way to draw people in, especially if it's promoted effectively.

Which comes to promotion and advertising. So far, we've been on the radio and in the local newspaper. The radio, as expected, was not effective in advertising Re:Generation. The paper did attract a lot of attention, and it brought two new people into church, however, that was only because those people knew a member of our band. So although it raised awareness, that in itself was not enough to bring people in. We also printed many flyers, which cost quite a bit. These were designed to raise awareness around Crewe's churches mainly. And although they were effective in raising awareness, they were not responsible for any of our growth.

So we've been thinking of ways of how to promote Re:Generation in a way that will actually bring people in. We've had a few ideas:

The first, is printing more flyers to post through people's doors. I'm looking at getting these professionally printed - around 1000 for £90, 2000 for £100. These are full colour on silk paper. There's the option of having black and white photocopies on normal paper, but again, 1500 will cost £75 to photocopy. Although cheaper, these will not look anywhere near as good as the colour printed version, and when we're targeting an age group where looks are everything, this is important.

Secondly, we've been thinking about how to raise awareness in our high schools, colleges, and also MMU university in Crewe. We've thought about going into schools and having our band play, along with a short talk/sermon. Although this is probably 'the' best way of promoting Re:Generation in high schools, it's very unlikely that we'll ever be able to do this, for various reasons. Our current thought is to hand out flyers outside the schools after the day ends. We'll also put up posters in South Cheshire College.

We've also been thinking about how to promote Re:Generation in Malbank 6th Form College. I've got a friend who studies there, who leads a growing Christian group during lunch times once a week, who may be able to help.

MMU is a problem - every person I've spoke to in the Christian Union there hasn't got us anywhere. I've been speaking to a guy who travels round unis in our area, who 'runs' / 'is involved with' the Christian Unions in the universities. I'm waiting to see where that takes us.

Other than that, we're out of ideas. So any suggestions or advice is welcome.

Please pray for us all over the next coming weeks.