Q&A: How Can I Prevent a Mass Exodus…Before the Service Ends?
Q:
Every week at the end of our worship service, there is a mass exodus out the back door during the closing song. How can I change that?
[from the 2024 blog survey]
A:
This introductory paragraph is where I’d usually get us all on the same page as to why this is an important question that needs to be answered. But I think we can all agree…cutting our participation in a worship service short simply because we want to beat the traffic is a bad idea. So let’s just jump right into the answers.
1. Don’t make your “closing song” the closing. Or just one song.
Let’s start big picture. If the end of your service is a predictable formula (Final point of the sermon > pray > one song > dismiss), your congregation might feel like they’re “not missing much” if they simply skip out after the prayer.
Rather, experiment with and maybe expand the end of your service. Make the “closing song” an additional time of worship (two or three songs) and a response to the message they just heard. Save some of your application points / next steps / vision-casting announcements until the end. Make sure the final words of the service are missional in nature to tie what they heard inside the walls to how they’ll live life outside the walls.
I’m not saying that skipping out on even one single song is okay, but if you back-load your order of service to have an additional round of meat after the message, you might find that it causes people to rethink their early exit.
2. Address it directly.
I’m going to guess that very few people try to sneak out during the final point of your pastor’s sermon. Rather, they likely start quietly packing up during the prayer and then bolt with the first notes of the “closing song.”
So that means you have a captive audience to speak directly to those who might be thinking about beating the Methodists to Ruby Tuesdays. As the pastor is heading into the prayer time, he might say something like, “We’re going to continue in worship now. And this is not a great time to leave. I encourage you to let the Holy Spirit speak to you as we continue to sing, and as we send you out here in just a few moments.”
You don’t have to be heavy-handed, snarky, or a bully in order to gently remind people that the worship service is not over. Shepherd them well, and you might find that the sheep are willing to hang with the flock.
3. Don’t create environments where people have to leave.
I fear that in many of our churches, we set up scenarios where volunteers have to get back into place or parents have to get to kids or people want to rush to their car to avoid the nightmare of gridlock traffic in the parking lot. Usually, this can be attributed to too little time between services, a volunteer culture where you attend and serve the same service, or a poorly executed plan to get large groups of people in and out quickly.
So before we put the blame on our people, we should ask if we have to own some of the blame. And we should adjust our own deficiencies in schedule so people feel the freedom to stick around.
4. Post people at the door.
This is a very small tweak that won’t affect the actions of a lot of people, but it’ll change the actions of a few. Staff the doors. You should have volunteers close to the auditorium doors at all points of the service, but they should be standing in front of the doors (on the auditorium side as people are heading to the lobby). Now, as a guest approaches the volunteer and the door, the vol can open it for them and give them a great goodbye. But this small adjustment communicates something subtle to the guest: this exit isn’t a free-for-all right now, this man (or woman) is having to physically open and close the door for me, and I’m not really playing by the rules.
And speaking of playing by the rules…
5. Keep the bigger picture in mind.
Let’s not call ’em rules. Let’s not let legalism creep into this situation. It would be very easy for us to make this situation about us: these people don’t like the service that we carefully crafted.
Rather, let’s make this situation about them: what is it that God may want to do in their life right now? What could they be missing by slipping out early? How can we best serve and shepherd them so they get all that God wants and intends for them this morning?
That means that we can’t see the mass exodus as an “everyone problem,” but we view it as individual opportunities. We must love our people really well – while pointing them to the God who loves them so well – so that they want to stick around for all he has for them.
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