"My Dad started this congregation back in 1958. He mortgaged our house to buy a second-hand school bus and to make the down payment on an old frame church that was being sold by a congregation that was relocating to a larger site at a better location," recalled this 52-year-old pastor. "The church he started now averages nearly 1,000 in the Sunday school. Instead of trying to persuade unchurched parents to come to this church he was starting, Dad promised them he would pick up their children, bring them to Sunday school, and deliver them safely back to their homes about three hours later. In effect, he offered them free child care for three hours every Sunday morning. He also enlisted adults who were committed Christians to teach in the Sunday school or to drive a bus. A year later, he had built up a congregation of about 100 adults with nearly 200 children in the Sunday school. When I graduated from Bible College, I joined the staff as one of three associate ministers. My first assignment was to oversee the bus ministry. Twelve years ago, in 1993, I was promoted to the position of senior associate pastor. That took place on the day we celebrated the 35th anniversary of our first public worship service. Four years ago, when Dad was diagnosed as terminally ill, the elders asked me to prepare to take his place when the time came. Three months after that, he passed away. Six weeks later, the elders recommended to a special congregational meeting that I be called as the new senior minister. I accepted. Currently we average about 1,600 at Sunday morning worship, and about one-third of those folks originally came into our fellowship as children via our bus ministry. Today, however, our television ministry is our No. 1 evangelistic outreach. Most of our newcomers tell us their first contact with our church was our television ministry. We still run 12 bus routes on Sunday morning and pick up close to 300 kids every week, but that's only half what it was back in the 1970s."

Five Trends
That is a brief summary of the early history of a large independent Protestant congregation. That congregation illustrates several trends in American Christianity over the past half century. One is the growth in the number of independent or nondenominational congregations. A second is succession. What happens when that visionary and entrepreneurial personality who was the founding pastor disappears after three or four decades? One common solution is for the son, or son-in-law, who (a) has never known any other congregational culture, (b) has earned the trust and respect of both the volunteer leaders and paid staff, and (c) has served as the No. 2 person in the chain of command is ready to be promoted to become the successor. In other independent megachurches, the successor is the long-tenured senior associate minister.

A third pattern is the importance of continuity in ministerial leadership in building very large congregations. While there is no evidence that long pastorates produce big churches, most very large congregations have enjoyed at least one pastorate of more than two decades.

A fourth trend illustrated by this congregation is the impact of technology. The combination of the widespread ownership of the private motor vehicle and good roads has led to the gradual replacement of the small neighborhood church by the large regional congregation. The development of the school bus in the 1930s also marked a technological innovation. That not only led to a reduction in the number of one-teacher public schools from 190,655 in 1920 to 20,213 in 1960 and 4,146 in 1968, but eventually those second-hand buses also became a useful tool for the entrepreneurial preacher determined to organize a new church.

A fifth trend is that new technology often makes the old technology obsolete. The colored 35mm slides of the 1950s were replaced by the camcorder in the 1980s, and a variety of digital cameras are now making videotapes obsolete.

How do we attract new people to help pioneer a new congregation? In the 1950s, one answer was instead of inviting them to come to your place, the creative minister offered, "We'll come to your place, pick up your children, and three hours later return them to your place. You don't have to leave your house if you don't want to bring your children to church. We'll do it for you."

Television now allows the minister to offer, "If you want to try us out, but you don't want to leave home, we'll bring the message to you. All you have to do is tune your television set to the right channel at the appropriate time, and you'll be able to get acquainted with our church and our ministry while you sit in your living room or family room."

If the goal is to reach the really busy people, the next technological advance brought a new version of "we'll come to you." Tune in the congregation's Web site on the Internet. The menu will enable you to find the answers to any questions you have about our congregation and our ministry. You can take as much time as you wish to see what we have to offer. In addition, if you wish, you can compare our church with other congregations by looking at their Web sites without leaving your computer."

What's the Difference?
Have television and Web sites replaced the old ways of inviting people to come to your church? The best answer is, "Yes, but..." The rest of that sentence is filled with reservations.

What did the school bus do that picked up children, brought them to church, and returned them to their home? First, it provided an opportunity for the children to meet and make new friends on the bus. Second, it often offered the older teenagers an opportunity to be engaged in doing ministry by volunteering as the chaperone or bus captain or overseer or troubleshooter or bus minister. Third, how do you assimilate newcomers into the fellowship of a worshiping community? One indicator is that you know you belong when you know you are needed. That teenage chaperone and that volunteer bus driver were reminded twice every Sunday morning they were needed.

Fourth, what is the image of a congregation that should be communicated to prospective future constituents? One is of the minister. Another is the word congregation is a synonym for committed lay volunteers. That bus ministry suggested the best answer to that question of image is "Both."

Fifth, what image was projected to the adult who was a first-time visitor back in 1959 when this congregation celebrated its first birthday? It was not, "We really don't need any more people. We're comfortably full now." With children in the Sunday school outnumbering adults by a two-to-one margin, the image was more likely to be, "We need you!" For those first-time visitors who returned a second or third time, the opportunity to meet and make new friends by being engaged in doing ministry was there and waiting.

Sixth, who are the most persuasive people when the goal is to invite unchurched adults to come to church? The pastor? Lay volunteers on an evangelistic task force? Neighbors? Colleagues at work? A semi-retired pastor who serves as the part-time minister of Evangelism? A child's Sunday school teacher? High on that list would be the parent of that child who is a happy member of a Sunday school class and that parent now enjoys the friendship of several adults in that congregation.

Seventh, what is the No. 1 point of continuity in the relationship of a recent newcomer to a Christian congregation? The pastor? That sacred meeting place? The place I always sit when going to church? Lots of familiar faces? The music? The prayers? A circle of new friends? The denominational affiliation? A weekly routine consisting of several mutually compatible and reinforcing events such as leaving the house to board that familiar bus, being welcomed by the driver and/or bus captain, a reunion with several friends on the bus, getting off the bus at the church, going to the same room to be welcomed by another adult friend, and joining with friends in the familiar routine of learning more about Jesus and the Bible?

What Happened?
One big difference between 1955 and 2005 is the small neighborhood congregation is being replaced by large regional churches. Many of them do not carry a denominational affiliation. A second is the erosion of inherited institutional loyalties. A third is the erosion of kinship ties. A fourth is the computer, the large public school, the cell phone, the movies on the television screen at home, the Internet, and the lengthening of the journey from home to work or to shopping or to church or to recreation have made it more difficult for adults to create a continuing personal social network.

One consequence is the denominational affiliation is a far less cohesive component of that continuing relationship between worshiper and congregation. Another is a smaller percentage of the worshipers are neighbors, friends, and relatives who meet and greet one another several times during the typical week. A third is the larger the size of the congregation and/or the larger the number of worship experiences scheduled every weekend, the greater the degree of anonymity. One consequence is the assurance, "If I don't go, no one will miss me."

In other words, the larger the number of strangers coming to your church and/or the larger the geographical area served by your congregation and/or the more worship experiences scheduled for each weekend and/or the weaker the denominational ties and/or the shorter the tenure of the current pastor and/or the smaller the attendance in Sunday morning learning experiences for adults, the more important it is to create a redundant set of meaningful and memorable experiences to help assimilate the newcomers.

Shared Experiences
That second-hand school bus that gathered children together for two to three hours every Sunday morning became a shared experience that transformed strangers into acquaintances and acquaintances into friends.

The computer, the Internet, the ipod, the cell phone, and MySpace provide new electronic channels of communication, but they fail to create meaningful and memorable shared experiences for groups of people. One consequence is that increasing number of large churches have two choices. One is offer high-quality and relevant worship experiences where individuals come and worship God in a room largely filled with strangers.

A second choice is to create a series of short-term (varying in length from two hours to six months) shared experiences that enable people to meet and make new friends. These range from the two-hour Tuesday evening Bible study and prayer group to helping staff the Vacation Bible School to singing in a vocal choir or playing in the church band to serving for 10 days at a volunteer missionary doing ministry with fellow Christians in a sister church on another continent to six months as a member of a volunteer team launching a new off-campus ministry to a weekend bus trip to learn from a self-identified teaching church how to do ministry with mature adults in the 21st century.

That second-hand school bus was not simply a vehicle to transport people; it was a vessel to create meaningful shared experiences for both children and adults.

For more than four decades, Lyle E. Schaller has served as a parish consultant to hundreds of congregations and scores of denominational agencies. His latest book, From Cooperation to Competition, was published by Abingdon Press in May 2006.

Copyright 2007 Lyle E. Schaller