How the Attractional Approach and Disciple-Making Can Come Together at Christmas
Christmas can be a “hinge moment” for many people in their journey with God, and this fact brings up an important question for church leaders: how can you nurture what’s stirring in people’s hearts at Christmas into a deeper experience of faith?
The Attractional Mindset and the Disciple-Making Mindset
At Clarity House, we guide churches to lead people beyond participation to disciple-making. There are two parts of this equation—people need to become a part of the church in the first place, and once there, they need to embody the mission and carry it out beyond church walls. This equation takes form in two mindsets:
- The attractional mindset is “come and see.” Come to our church and see the benefits of a gospel-centered life.
- The disciple-making mindset includes “come and see,” and adds “go and tell.” Go live out our church’s mission wherever you live, work, and play, and tell others about this spiritual opportunity.
At Christmas, do you focus solely on attracting people to “come and see,” or do you encourage disciples to “go and tell?” We go back to the gospels to answer this question.
Tools in the Toolbox
In the gospels, Jesus’ strategy includes both come and see and go and tell. We see Jesus throughout the Bible inviting people to follow, to come and see. Jesus’ ministry very much focused on “come and see” at the beginning and shifted to more “go and tell” over time, culminating with the Great Commission. There are multiple tools in the toolbox, and there’s no need to use only one. It’s both/and, not either/or.
However, a problem can arise when people think of this as a binary approach—focusing on either come and see or go and tell. Once people get to the disciple-making stage, they may abandon attraction. Churches will see success by viewing this as a concurrent process, not a binary one. The attractional mindset and the disciple-making mindset—when they function at their best—work in synergy.
Practical Strategies for Each Model at Christmas
The Attractional Model – Christmas is a Time for WOW
In an attraction-only mindset, churches can fall into the trap of focusing week-after-week efforts only on creating “wow” moments every Sunday. This can be incredibly exhausting and—at the same time—feed into a consumer mindset in the congregation
That’s why we encourage church leaders to incorporate the disciple-making mindset consistently throughout the year, where the week-to-week goal is not “wow,” but “a-ha.” A-ha moments shift the congregation from consumers of a show to players in a locker room. They understand more about what they should be doing when they live their lives outside of the church, following Jesus 24/7.
That doesn’t mean that wow moments don’t have their place. Christmas is definitely a time of the year to wow people, to foster that transcendence that happens more naturally during the season. One easy way to wow is to focus on the guest experience—not just the stage experience. Notice and acknowledge the visitors you don’t usually see. People will remember feeling acknowledged and appreciated at Christmas.
Practically speaking, one of the most important things church leaders can do for the attractional model is have a simple gift to give to guests as well as a specific follow-up invitation. This is not solicitation from the stage (which can actually backfire at Christmas), it’s an offer for people to continue bringing the Christmas spirit into the new year.
Along with a thoughtful, simple gift, keep a follow-up offer simple as well—an opportunity to participate in a volunteer event with the church or an invitation to a newcomers gathering in January, for example. A second visit or interaction with the church goes a long way toward retention.
The Disciple-Making Model – Tap into the Crowd Cloud
Christmas is an easy time for people to engage with others and build relationships. In other words, Christmas creates a ripe opportunity for organic, natural invitation. disciple-making.
Christmas is a fantastic season to encourage your congregation to have spiritual conversations with people in their lives—not religious conversations, but spiritual ones. The people in your church will be attending office parties, neighborhood celebrations, and other seasonal gatherings throughout December, and will be asked questions like “what are your plans for Christmas?”
If they simply tell people that their plans are centered around the church and their faith, it creates a potential opportunity for a deeper spiritual conversation. What was Christmas like growing up for you? Was church a part of that? People can also have a follow-up invitation ready, if they see the conversation leading to a next step.
For church staff, point out the disciple-making potential of the Crowd Cloud. The Crowd Cloud is the complete relational sphere of each person in the congregation. Most people average about 100 people in their relational sphere of influence, which means a church of 100 has a potential gospel impact of approximately 10,000 people.
Christmas is a true reflection of the actual size of a congregation. As you are well aware, the people in your church don’t attend every week. Your Christmas and Easter services are a more accurate representation of the reach of your church than normal Sundays. Staff and key volunteers can find encouragement in that. Going into Christmas, make sure your staff and key leaders are equipped to reach the whole cloud, and not just the crowd.
A final tip: view Christmas as a starting line rather than a finish line. Christmas opens the door to new people, and new opportunities to share the mission of your church and the Good News of Jesus.
Apply It: Questions to Guide You to Implement Learnings
- What specific next step can you invite Christmas service attendees to take? Can you invite them back for a January sermon series designed to address a felt need they are wrestling with? The more specific you can be with what you are inviting them back to, the better.
- Do you have an easy response method in place for people to let you know they’d like to receive more information about how they can get connected? Can they fill out a simple online form or text their email address right there in the service?
- What follow-up process will you use to respond to any contact information you receive through the response method in point #2? If you don’t have these sorts of systems in place throughout the year, Christmas is the perfect time to get them in place and then adjust them as needed through the rest of the year.
- How can you train and encourage your congregation to use this time of year to reach out to their neighbors and others in their Crowd Cloud other than an invitation to a Christmas service? They could bake cookies, add a handwritten note, and deliver them to their neighbors. Or, they could purchase some extra rolls of wrapping paper (everyone needs wrapping paper at Christmas) and give those as a gift. Maybe you dedicate one of your weekends to guiding your church to make a plan for how they will connect with and serve those in their sphere in other ways beyond an invitation to church.
At Clarity House, we specialize in guiding church teams in articulating a shared vision coupled with disciple-making clarity. We’d love to help you and your team. If you want us to assess your current mission statement, feel free to set up a free conversation with our team.