What would the best summer look like for an active church?
My first church, in small-town Mt.Vernon, Indiana, experienced a community-wide Shutdown every July. For two weeks every July, the giant General Electric plastics plant closed down: 95% of the employees got two weeks off of work. The remaining people worked with massive crews of outside crews who installed new machines, cleaned existing machines on the assembly line, and paint crews who refreshed everything.
In Mt.Vernon, Shutdown meant that 3/4 of the town went on vacation.
If our churches have their Shutdown, why do this in the summer? More people move in the summer than in any season, so people are coming to our communities looking for a new church home. Do we have entry points for these new people?
The easy answer to why churches do Shutdown is that our regular attenders are traveling to cottages, on boats, or to see family so attendance goes down. But what if our attendance is down because the church is coasting in the summer.
Summer Ministry Template
Keep reading to see a template of ways to do ministry even as the staff take a vacation and try to get home for dinner1 while they are serving.
Worship
Do worship outside for July and August, moving inside only for rain. Bring in special music like a bluegrass band, jazz trio, worship band, to spice up the music every other week.
Offer alternative 45-minute worship on Sunday night or Wednesday at 6 p.m. during the summer for those who do the cottage or weekend soccer tournaments. Promise that this will be the 10 best sermons from the past two years repeated for your enjoyment.2
Do a 3-year rotation of Blessing of the Animals, a Patriotic 4th of July, and a joint ecumenical or interfaith service with another worshipping body.
Children’s Ministry
Find a great summer camp and have your children’s leaders go along with the children that week so that you are all experiencing camp together.
Find a great summer camp to go as entire families and singles as an all-church week at the camp in cabins, tents, or RVs.
Do a long weekend camp weekend like #2.
Offer two fun events per month like:
Family Lake/Pool Day
Trip to County Fair as a Church Family
Church Picnic
Family trip to Hiking, Mini-golf, Baseball game
Youth Ministry
A week-long mission trip. Partner with another church to get a fuller experience and so share the workload.
A 4-week event at a different older adults’ home for dinner and a Bible study with that individual or couple participating.
Offer two fun events per month like:
See the Children’s list above
A day trip to the big outlet mall paired with swimming somewhere new.3
Race cork “boats” down a local creek, stream while wading in it.
A YUCK Day. YUCK is biodegradable applesauce-like slime.
Parish Life / Fellowship
The number one reason people choose one church over another is that they like the people. So one-way churches could be more welcoming to new people is to bring them in not through worship, but low-key events.
Church Picnic - where 1/2 of the church is to bring a friend or a new family. The other half of the church focuses on a great event. Next year reverse.
One Day Mission Project - Offer four one day projects that you can invite friends and coworkers to come to help out doing:
Serve a meal at the shelter together
Serve a meal at the local Ronald McDonald House
Do a Habitat for Humanity workday together
A random selection of dinners at people’s homes where friends could be invited to come together. This could be choir/Deacon/CE Teacher dinners or something like a Dinner For 8 with a random mixture of people with their guests.4
Church Barbeque after worship. We would have a member bring the full mobile smoker to the church driveway. The smoking would begin at 6 a.m. and they would do turkeys, pork, and chicken. Great meal, visible, and fun.5
In Summary
The key to a successful summer of ministry is planning it now. By planning ahead volunteer and paid staff can make sure they are getting in their rest and vacations. Putting the focus on doing community-building activities during the summer (rather than committee meetings) puts the focus on getting to know each other better. Keeping the evenings mostly free will support family life.
The best gift we could give staff is fewer evening meetings. I’ve worked hard to work 2 nights a week (3 nights one week per month). This meant stacking meetings, trusting lay leaders, and prioritizing family.
People remember the best sermons. People still ask me about the chocolate chip cookie sermon, the Van Morrison one, the water into wine one, and the live-action Angel or Jonah or Scribe sermons.
We would drive two hours north to Birch Run Outlet Mall for the morning, do Uno’s Pizza, then drive to Covenant Camp where for $5 per car we could go swim in their lake, use paddleboats, and fly high on the giant bounce float. Lifeguard provided.
Be careful with the 1970s favorite the Progressive Dinner. This often becomes an insider party and new people have trouble actually meeting people with all the driving about which makes people experience so much newness it becomes overwhelming. If your church has done this successfully, share in the comments.
Yes, two cooks would miss worship. It did not harm them long term.