Churches keep momentum going after holiday rush

With Christmas services in the rearview mirror and many New Year’s resolutions already broken, church attendance might seem a likely target for seasonal lethargy come January. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in Las Vegas, a quick survey indicates.

A mix of special programs and a focus on sermons about renewal are keeping attendance steady.

“You have your Christmas and Easter people. After the holiday, it’s an opportunity to offer more, but my hope is to offer them something that makes them return all year long,” the Rev. Shannon Leach, rector of Grace Desert Episcopal Church, said.

“Epiphany is about how they (parishioners) understand themselves. It’s about how we are serving Summerlin and the world,” he added.

“I came from Portland, Ore., where they have seasonal affective disorder,” Leach said. “What I like about Las Vegas is the light. Still the people don’t take it for granted. How do we capitalize on that? How do we tie these together: Re-creation and light?”

One approach may be in music.

“We are doing some rebuilding in our musical program,” he said. “Our Saturday nights are musical. People are drawn to that. Now we’ll have a more formal choir and children’s choir and give people a chance to participate. We have two new very musical young members.” A youth ministry has also been started.

“I think,” Leach said, “that the miracle of Christmas, of Resurrection, is that Christ came into the world to prove that the world is good, that people are good. Not so much by words, but by action.”

At Good Samaritan Lutheran Church and School, the Rev. Don Lorfing, senior pastor, also is looking toward special programming.

“We do schedule special sermons after Christmas,” he said. “The key we’ve found, from other churches, is to make it exciting — a small group push, with activities immediately after Christmas.”

“Christmas offers a great opportunity to remind people how special having Jesus in your life can be,” he added. “We do everything to make it a part of their routine, so that their lives can be fuller and better.”

Good Samaritan also runs a skiing retreat each winter. “We do devotions in the morning then ski during the day,” Lorfing said. “We go to Brian Head Resort (in Utah), rent a big house for 40 people, or we go to a ski camp.”

The church also added a youth minister who is developing a new program for children, Lorfing said. It will join such offerings as Sunday school, other youth ministries and a prayer contest.

January can be a challenging time for other reasons, particularly for a church with an outreach to the homeless.

“We are a low-income congregation with a great diversity — Asians, blacks, Latinos and Caucasians,” said the Rev. Adolph Kunen of Westminster Presbyterian Church. “The chronological age of our parishioners has been going down.”

“We walk the streets and talk to people. We do healing prayers. We talk about freedom and release from things that are holding them. We are welcoming. People frequently come to our door requesting those healing prayers.”

He keeps his sermons timely.

‘”I don’t follow the year in Scripture,” Kunen said. “I go with what comes out of my reading from week-to-week. Sometimes I plan a few sermons in a row. It’s what I’m inspired by. I try to maintain a close connection with people and about happiness and the Bible. I believe in preaching the Gospel as unconditional love in God and Jesus Christ. We speak as gracious people in a world where many people are hungry and alone. The more you are responsive to people, the more you see the capacity of God to lift up the fallen. This life is full of joy.”

Still, special programs can help.

“We just developed a special Sunday class for the children,” Kunen noted.

At Life Baptist Church, the focus is on connecting with the community year-round.

“We are an exception to the rules of getting people in the church,” said the Rev. Paul Gotthardt, lead pastor. “Gimmicks are short-lived. Our focus is over the entire year with our ministries and children’s programs.”

“We have people from 20 denominations in our church. They didn’t walk away from their former church thinking, ‘This is working in our life,’ ” Gotthardt added. “We must make it real and do this every week. If you have to dream up things to get people in the door, when you no longer have events and gimmicks, they no longer come through that door.”

That doesn’t mean Life Baptist isn’t affected by the holidays.

“People are together over these holidays, but not right after,” Gotthardt said. “We’re spending a couple of weeks focusing on visions of what happened last year, what’s coming this year, a move from corporate to personal, to make things more cerebral, more personal.”

“We start a new message series with ideas of starting over again and New Year’s resolutions,” he said. “These ideas fit with human nature. People get a little more connectivity.”

“A lot of what the church does is help people get from where they are to where they want to be in their lives,” Gotthardt added. “People turn to church because of one of three things: a change in their life, a crisis or children. We want to help them get acclimated after a move, a divorce, a death, having children. … Some people are focused, some are moving slowly, and some are static. We give the opportunity to get involved.”

Life Baptist’s biannual ladies conference happens at the end of January with a special speaker who will help women with their busy schedules take time to get spiritual and to share about the holidays and what’s coming in the new year.

The church also has an annual men’s conference. Children’s opportunities happen all through the year. And their popular couples’ night out happens every five to six weeks, while the congregation baby-sits the children.

Each of these valley churches takes its own approach to keeping its flock interested and invested in what’s next — no matter the season.