Side doors into the church

 A few years ago I heard about the ways some churches were using side-door ministries to reach out to unchurched people. Although I have shared that with some church leaders, I've recently become more interested in the opportunities side-door ministries offer the church. A few weeks ago I read Side Door: How to Open Your Church to Reach More People by Charles Arn. The book was filled with helpful ideas on how to create side-door opportunities for churches.

Let me try to explain the concept of side-door ministries before proceeding. For decades the church has focused on front-door evangelism. We tried to find ways to get people into our churches through the front door. We invited them to worship services, revivals and other special events. While that was an effective form of outreach for a time, the continual decline of church attendance proves it's not an effective means of reaching people outside the church today.

Arn writes that "A side door is a church-sponsored program, group or activity in which a nonmember can become comfortably involved with the church on a regular basis. It is a group that provides an ongoing opportunity for a nonmember to develop meaningful and valued relationships with people in the congregation." These side-door events can be built around virtually any activity or life event. Some examples might be a group that enjoys quilting or bass fishing or camping. It might be a group of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren or a group of single moms. A side-door ministry can be built around almost anything in which a group of people share a common interest. As people come together with common interests they begin to build relationships with one another. Some of these relationships will turn into friendships, and these friendships will lead to conversations about spiritual things. We know that more people are open to attending church services when invited by a friend.

The book gives some great tips on how to create side-door ministries, but the one thing I want to focus on in this post is the importance of a ministry coach. The author writes that "A ministry coach is your church's 'contractor' for overseeing the construction of successful side doors." This is a key person who will oversee the overall strategy of side-door ministries in the church. Any church serious about using this approach to outreach needs to add this position to their leadership team.

As churches are being forced to adapt to new ministry challenges due to the pandemic, perhaps this is a good time to consider side-door ministries as part of your ministry strategy. As I wrote in yesterday's post, it is unlikely we will ever return to "normal" in the ways we minister in the future. Since we need to reinvent ourselves and our approach to ministry we may want to explore this as an option.