The principles of front and back doors in your church

The Principles of Front &
Back Doors in Churches
Pastor Oyewole O. Sarumi

Introduction
The Question is:
• Who is your church designed to reach?
• Is your church for everyone?
The Answer:
• You are currently reaching a segment of the
population—not the entire population.
• I don’t know of a single church that has reached
everybody.
• The people you’re reaching probably represent a
particular demographic.

The faster you get away from the idea
that your church is for everyone, the
more effective you will be as a church

Your Church has a Style, Feel, Culture
• Your church has a style, feel and culture that
attracts certain groups.
• In Western culture, people self-select based on
what your organization has to offer
• The way you do church (a combination of your
mission and vision, but even more importantly,
your organizational culture and strategy) has an
inevitable filtering effect:

• Your music is going to attract some people
and bother others.
• Your teaching style and content is going to
connect better with some than others.
• The people who already make up your
church are more likely to attract others like
themselves; like attracts like.

• Your location and even the architectural
style of the building in which you
gather (whether that’s a school, a theatre,
a gothic cathedral, a contemporary
suburban mega church, an A-frame '50s
landmark or a living room) make some feel
at home while pushing others away.
• Your leadership style is compelling to
some people and not so much for others.

Introduction cont’d
• Church research and experience has
pinpointed some good reasons why
churches are recording membership losses
[the backdoor] and the alarming rate of
membership decline in the last couple of
years.
• We hope that Holy Spirit will enlighten our
understanding as we examine the issues of
Front and Back doors in our churches
today.

Why Is Your Church Losing Members?
• The zig-zag nature of church attendance is becoming
worrisome to many church leaders today.
• There are 2 doors in every church:
• The Front door
• The Back door.
• If the traffic in your backdoor is higher than the front door,
then your church is in a state of decline, and doing
nothing to stop the leakage/haemorrhage means that
eventual death is unavoidable.

What Is The Front
Door?
• Your Front Door signifies the
passage of people into your
church.
• Your front door is the access
that people have into the life
of your ministry.
• It means that people are
aware of your church and
they come around to see
what goes on in your
church.

The FrontDoor of your Church!
• What constitute the FrontDoor of
your church:
• Strategic Evangelism & Outreaches
• Your Facility – toilets, children classes,
sign posts, well trimmed lawns, easy &
convenient parking lot etc.
• Pleasant Welcomers/Greeters
• Atmosphere of acceptance
• Well printed, attractive & rich
bulletins/Materials
• Participation and involvement in your
community
• Great & Inviting Church websites
• Interactive Social media activities
• Vibrant youth movement
• Use of language they understand
• Convey truth and grace

What Does Your Front Door Say About
Your Church?
• You see, facilities have a voice.
They communicate loudly and
strongly. Need some help with your
front door experience? Simply follow
these two steps:
• 1. Identify the items your church is
insanely passionate about.
• 2. Align your front door experience
to showcase them.
• Identify and align. Don’t make it
complicated. Showcase core values
and you’ll compel people to action.
Through action, you’ll witness life
change.
https://churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/

Still on the FrontDoor!
• If you don’t handle these
frontdoor areas strategically
and intentionally, no one will
visit your church, and those
who mistakenly do will not
return!
• Remember that people visit
churches for different reasons.
• The adequacy of the Frontdoor
helps attract new members,
while your assimilation
strategies make them stay!

Why People Don’t Come To Church
• Some questions should be asked:
• Why people not coming to our church?
OR put another way: Why is your
church not attracting new people?

• Are you wondering why your church isn’t growing, or why
it’s not growing faster. You’re not alone. The vast majority
of churches are plateaued or declining because they can’t
effectively reach new people.
• According to Nieuwhof [2015], find below a list of things
that might be holding your church back from reaching new
people.
• Once you see it, you can deal with it. Otherwise, you’ll be
the leader who’s the last to see what everyone else sees.

• 1. You’re not Authentic: Too many Christians have a
gap between what they believe and who they are. The
word authentic means: “not false, but real… therefore
reliable and trustworthy”. Closing the authenticity gap is
simple: be more honest in your public talk, and live with
greater integrity in your private walk.

• 2. You’ve Lost Your Passion: Too many church leaders
are more passionate about tradition than about the
mission. They aren’t even passionate about anything. In
declining churches, sometimes it’s hard to find a pulse of
any kind.

• 3. You’re In Conflict: If you’re constantly bickering and
arguing, why would any new people stay? It’s not that
Christians shouldn’t have conflict, but we should be the
best in the world at handling it. Growing churches handle
conflict biblically, humbly and healthily.

• 4. You’re More In Love With The Past Than You Are
With The Future: This can be true of churches that are in
love with tradition and churches that are have had some
amazing days in the past. If you want to grow, be more in
love with the future than you are with the past.

• 5. You’re Not That Awesome To Be Around: Fake.
Judgmental. Hypocritical. Angry. Narrow. Unthinking.
Unkind. Those are adjectives often used to describe
Christians. Let Christ reshape your character or social
skills so that people would like to be around you.

• 6. You’re Focused On Yourself: Too many churches are
focused on their wants, preferences and perceived needs.
They are self-focused organizations and self-focused
people. It should be no surprise that outsiders never feel
welcomed, valued or included. A life devoted to self
ultimately leaves you alone.

• 7. You Think Culture Is The Enemy: If all you ever are is
angry at the culture around us, how are you going to
reach people in that culture? If you treat your unchurched
neighbour like an enemy, why would he ever want to be
your friend?

• 8. You’re Afraid To Risk What Is For The Sake Of What
Might Be: If you’ve had any modicum of success recently,
you’re going to be hesitant to risk what is for what could
be. The greatest enemy of your future success is your
current success. When you’re perpetually afraid to risk
what is for the sake of what might be, you might as well
cue the funeral music now.

• 9. You Can’t Make A Decision: Governance will
become a major issue for future churches. When your
decision making is rooted in complex bureaucracy or
congregational approval for every major change, it
makes decision making difficult and courageous
change almost impossible.

• 10. You Talk More Than You Act: Most church leaders
love to think and love to debate issues. Effective leaders
add one more component. They act. Most church leaders
overthink and underact.

• 11. You Don’t Think There’s Anything Wrong With
Your Church: Many leaders and church members love
their church, but can’t figure out why anyone else does
not. Those churches are on their way to having not much
more than congregants of already convinced.

• 12. You’re More Focused On Growth Than You Are On
God: Some leaders get so engrossed with growth that
they forget it’s about God and His mission. This is a
danger every motivated leader needs to keep in mind.
We’re leading people to Jesus, not to ourselves or our
awesome church. Keeping the focus on Christ ensures
genuine life-change happens and lasts.

• 1. They don’t know that we exist
• 2. They have a wrong perception about Jesus
• 3. They have a wrong perception about our Church
• 4. They have been discouraged due to past negative
experiences with “church” people
• 5. Our church does not have a vision to bring them in
• 6. Our church culture discourages guests from visiting our
church
• 7. There is uncertainty about what to experience when
they come
Summary:
Why People Don’t Come To Church

Importance Of Opening The Front Door
Of Your Church
• 1. It gives you the avenue to come in contact with people
for whom our Lord Jesus died to save.
• 2. It is the only avenue for numerical increase: the more
the people that come, the more your chances of
assimilating them to your church life.
• 3. It gives your church the manpower necessary for
impact – locally and globally.
• 4. It guarantees sustainability of your ministry efforts. That
is, you will have more people who can carry on with and
spread your message and legacies.
• 5. It helps your church to fulfill the Commission Mandate
to make disciples of all Nation

How To Open The Front Door Of Your
Church
• 1. Invitations: Invite them to come.

• 2. Testimonies: Share testimonies of what God is doing
amidst the members of your church.

• 3. Needs-Focused Programs: Do programs that focus
on areas where people feel a high sense of need, e.g.
marriage and relationships, financial empowerment, etc.

• 4. Opportunities: Make your church an atmosphere of
friendliness and opportunities. People go to where they
feel they can be better in areas of felt need.

• 5. Deliberate Relationships: Encourage your members
to build deliberate relationships with unbelievers and un-
churched people, especially your matured members.

• 6. Respected Personalities: Bring in important
personalities to speak at your church. Note: These may
not necessarily be pastors.

• 7. Junior Church: Develop a robust Children and Youth
ministry.

• 8. Music: Let your music appeal to the people you desire
to visit your church. When the news of how good your
music is goes it, more people will come to experience it.

• 9. Ambience: Your church structure, amenities,
decorations, and so on, determine a great deal whether
people will desire to check in or not. Physical
surroundings convey strong messages.

• 10. Acceptance: Create a culture of acceptance in your
church. Teach your members to make guests comfortable,
especially those that would be termed as outcasts. Jesus
was not selective in the people that could approach Him.

• 11. Digital and Social Media: Create a strong digital
(television, radio, magazine) and social media presence
for your ministry. If people like what they experience on
the digital and social media, they may want to come
around to have a firsthand experience.

• 12. Community Projects: Let the impact of your church
be felt in the community where you are situated. If they
know that you care, they will care to let you know that you
exist.

Keeping the FrontDoor Open…
• It is your responsibility to keep
it open by being relevant in
serving the people you are
sent to, and in servicing their
needs.
• The more you do this, the
more impact your ministry
makes, and the more souls
are being won into the
kingdom.

The Backdoor
• Getting people in the front door of
your church is not the end rather,
it is just the beginning.
• A study conducted a few years
ago by David D. Durey of Mission
Portland in the United States of
America (USA) showed that in
the average congregation, only
12 percent of first-time visitors
returned the following Sunday or
eventually became members.

Stages Of Church Leavers
• First Doubts.
• The people at this level are beginning to dislike
some activities of the church or group. They
usually become critical of the service style and
begin to gradually move towards the exit. The
sometimes find the sermon irrelevant and are no
longer energized by the church leadership. You
can quickly identify them by their low attendance
of meetings and services.

• Seeking Alternatives.
• Leavers at this stage are trying out other
services and building support networks
outside the church. The feeling is that they
don’t belong to the church, and are only
seeking the slightest opportunity to get of
the church.

• Turning Point.
• At this stage, the leaver has already
concluded he will be moving away from the
church only in a matter of time. Often they
give church leaders “good enough”
excuses for not making the services and
are only waiting for crystallize their choice.

• Developing a new sense of identity.
• This is the transition stage for the leaver.
He has obviously relocated into a new
environment where he seeks to belong. It
can be very challenging winning people at
this level back into the church. Though, it is
not impossible.

A Revealing Research!!
• In a recent church survey, 92%
of leavers said that no one from
the church had talked to them
about why they left.
• The survey further revealed that
over 45% of them would have
returned if they had been
followed up.
• Can you beat that?

Some Questions that concerned Church
leaders must ask:
1. Why is the church experiencing membership loss
almost every year?
2. How many souls/people have been lost through the
backdoor?
3. What are the reasons that makes them to leave?
4. Which of our systems/strategies or approaches
aren’t functioning well?
5. Why is our stable or old members leaving us?

6. Why is the assimilation of new members difficult and
losses frequent?
7. Where are those leaving going to and what’s the
attraction?
8. When are we going to act and stop this people
haemorrhage before it kills the church?
9. Who are those leaving? Old, New, active or inactive??

When To Panic And When NOT To Panic
When People Leave Your Church
• Most leaders fear losing people,
• “Paradoxically, one of the best
ways to grow your ministry is to let
the right people leave.”
• Sometimes losing people in your
church or organization is a bad
thing. Surprisingly, other times it’s
not.
• Knowing the difference is critical to
effective leadership.
• Only sociopaths don’t care when
people leave.

• Whether you are a good leader or not, people will leave
you when their time is up – [99% to 1%]
• Never let the fear of losing a few override your desire to
help many.

1. When One Of Your Best People Walks
Out The Door
• It’s never a good thing when one of your best people
walks out the doo
• When they start leaving, sound the alarm. If there’s ever a
time to panic, this it it.
• The best people usually leave quietly. Toxic people never
do.

2. When There’s A Vision Shift
• Vision shifts usually happen when a new leader comes in
and changes the direction of the church.
• It also happens when an existing leader pursues a new
direction.
• During a vision shift, a variety of things can change—the
music changes, the programming changes, the preaching
changes or the whole DNA of the church shifts.
• Ask yourself this clarifying question when you see
someone leaving: “Is this the kind of person we can build
the future of the church on?”

3. When Someone Who Doesn’t Care
About The Mission Leaves
• There are people in every church or organization who
care more about themselves than they care about the
mission.
• Losing them is not a reason to panic.
• People who are off mission will never help you realize
THE mission.
• Don’t focus more on who you want to keep than who you
want to reach. You’ll die trying.

4. When Someone In The Crowd Leaves
• By ‘Crowd’ mean people who attend but never engage.
• Every church has a ‘crowd’ — even small churches.
• The 2 types of crowd in your church are:
• those who are leaning in [new to faith or new to your church]
• those who aren’t. [old members who never get committed]
• When you start losing people from section 1, pay
attention. For section 2, you will lose some, there’s
nothing you can do.

5. When A Serial Church Shopper Leaves
• Serial church shoppers are those who left 5 churches in
the last 5 years, they’re probably leaving your church
soon.
• That’s their stock in trade. Let them go evaluate
someone else’s church.
• They don’t need to take up energy at yours.
• NOTE: There are some key differences between a
unchurched person and serial church shopper.

6. When You’ve Lost A Toxic Person
• There are toxic people in this world and in your church.
• An unhealthy person can infect your team like toxins
infect the human body. After some exposure, everyone
feels sick.
• OPTIMIST: Unhealthy people can grow healthier with the
right care and attention in a healthy environment.
• PESSITIMIST: Some toxic people just don’t change.
Some remain difficult, despite all attempts, and can
negatively influence others! When they leave, be grateful

Leaders spiritualized Backdoor Traffic
• Quite a number of church leaders have spiritualized the high
traffic of the backdoor saying things like:
• “Those who left are not part us”,
• Those who left are sons of perdition”,
• “No matter what happen, people will still stay”,
• “If they go, they are cursed”,
• “It is the trouble makers that are leaving” and
• “Those who belong to me cannot go away”.
• These are myths and legends that many have used to
rationalize the challenge of back door syndrome. However, it
does hold water, as those who leave are driven away due to
various reasons like ineptitude, rigidity and sundry mistakes of
the church leaders.

• According to surveys, 87% of people say “I
feel judged” at church and a whopping 91%
of people say that “church people are a
bunch of hypocrites.” With stats like that,
it’s no wonder most churches aren’t
growing. Even worse, churches are closing
at an alarming rate of 10 per day.
http://www.group.com/lifetree-cafe?source=outreach

Three Kinds of People in Church
• Leaders need to know the 3 kind of people that come to
their church:
• Those who come to help your vision,
• Those who come for training, and
• Those who are just passing by.
• Do your best, but focus on the first and second set, they
are more likely to stay with you.
• Now find below some reasons [backdoors] why your
church is recording low membership. If you do the
opposite, you will be empowered to retain them in your
churches.

Some Glaring Church Issues Today
• Today, mobile membership is a plague in
African churches.
• There’s a lot of movement from small
churches to big churches. Why?? Healings,
prosperity, connections etc
• NOTE: majority of growth of churches are
through transferred membership.

• Sustainable growth remain a problem in most
churches.
• There are so many Christians now who have
no place of worship on Sundays.
• Lack of formal training on church growth as
many pastors and leaders don’t have required
information on several issues confronting the
church.

• There’s no church without a member as church
exists for the people.
• A church without members is a serious indictment
on the pastor.
• A church experiencing consistent membership
losses speaks volume about the life and ministry
of the pastor.

Membership is not automatic
• Membership is not automatic, but a
process. Stable members are those that
are:
• born again in the church,
• made the church their home of worship,
• identified with the vision of the church and
• are contributing morally and financially to the
well-being of the church.

Stable Members made through
Assimilation Process
• Such stable members comes through an
intentional movement of people:
• from the awareness of the church
• to regular attendance,
• to commitment and
• finally contributing to the church.
• Such Assimilation process take time, planning,
effort and commitment.

1 ABSENCE OF VISION (PROVERBS 29:8)
• Where there is no vision, goal and
purposeful direction in the church, the
serious minded ones tend to leave and find
a church that has and vigorously pursue
their God-given vision.

2. NEEDS NOT BEING MET
• People come to church because of needs
and when the problem facing the people
are not being addressed, their suffering
with sickness, diseases, poverty,
joblessness, barrenness, bad-luck and
demonic oppression remain unsolved
despite months and years of coming to the
church, they take off.

3. LACK OF SPIRITUAL
NOURISHMENT
• Here proper and balanced diet is missing.
The messages are shallow, uninspiring and
above or below people. Though they might
be physically okay but they are spiritually
malnourished and underfed; the serious
ones who care for their spiritual life will
surely drop out.

4. NO ATTENTION AND LOVE SHOWN
TO THEM (2 Sam 30:11-15)
•If this is the case in our churches, the
people will not stay because everyone
loves to be given attention and
acceptance. If they are not cared for in
their trying times they will surely drop
out.

5. CURSES AND CRISIS
• In churches where there is crisis between
the leaders, choirs, workers, serious people
will always go.
• In churches where preaching often turn to
curses, doom and destruction, those who
value their spiritual well-being will stop
attending.

6. WEAK PASTOR
• Only strong, dynamic and extraordinary
pastors can cause growth in a church.
People love to follow and serve under such
pastors.
• But in a situation where the pastor is weak,
spineless and visionless, people will drop
out. People today don’t want to serve under
the command of General Apathy!

7. WEAK PRAYER BASE
• Growth will happen when the church has
truly become the house of prayer. This is
not selfish, self-centered, monotonous and
routine prayers but dynamic, earnest,
fervent and importunate prayers both in
private and public. In churches where such
prayers are absent, people will leave in
droves.

8. PARTIALITYAND RACIAL/ETHNIC
UNDERTONES
• Many pronouncements in the church
showing traces of partiality, race or ethnic
preferences will result in those of other
races and tribes to depart from the church.
• Many of the Pentecostal churches in
Nigeria have ethnic colouration with the
leadership in the vanguard of this.

9. TIME MANAGEMENT
• This is common feature in many fundamental
churches. They believe they should not rush
things and therefore are ready to close the
service that started 9:00am. by 2:30pm! Well,
while we do not believe in disobeying the Holy
Spirit, yet we want to say that time wastage has
resulted in people leaving the church. Time is
precious today. Time is money, we must learn to
close in time latest 12 noon, when people are still
asking for more.

10. NO DELIBERATE EFFORT TO
ASSIMILATE THEM
• When there is no deliberate programme for
membership assimilation such as
welcoming second and third time visitors,
guest class, sharing class, feeling for gifts
etc. They will drop out without anyone
noticing from your church.

11. ORGANIZATION INEPTITUDE
▪Many losses arise out of this important
fact. This was the problem faced by the
apostles in Acts 6. They could have
solved it in any of these three ways:
 ‘Shut up, if you are spiritual you wont
complain’
 ‘Shut up, if you are not satisfied you may
leave the church’ and
 Proper organization to meet the need

▪They chose the latter option and retained the
people. Looking at Apostles we discover these:
 Acts 1 – God moved upon men.
 Acts 2 – God gave them a ministry.
 Acts 3 – God gave them multiplication.
 Acts 4 – Turned into a movement.
 Acts 5 – Murmuring arose.
 Acts 6 – Solved by administration.
▪We discover these occurrence in churches of
today also but they are not choosing the option of
the apostles and losses result.

12. CAREFREE & NONCHALANT ATTITUDE
• Some church leaders just doesn’t care.
They are not concerned about the decline,
growth and wellbeing of their church. They
justify and exercise the declining nature of
the church. Such attitude have done havoc
to the health churches.

13. MISTAKES FROM LEADERS
• This is one major reason why many are leaving
the church. The leaders who are held in
reverence, awe and honour descend low to do
evil and unimaginable things.
• Many see the pastors and leaders as angels and
therefore are flabbergasted when they hear and
see much carnalities, sin, evil and corruption in
supposed high and holy places!

14. THEYARE INACTIVE AND
UNINVOLVED
• When members are just kept there as
numbers, untrained, inactive and
uninvolved in the programmes of the
church, it will be easy to drop out and go
where they will be utilised and engaged.

15. FEELING OF NEGLECTAND AIR OF
HOSTILITY
• When members sense that their presence
is no more welcome and meanings are
being read into whatever they do, the
easiest thing to do is to drop out and find
peace of mind somewhere else.

16. INABILITY TO ENDURE THE TRUTH
• When people are not ready or willing to
abide by truth of God’s word, they will
surely leave.
• Those who have itching ears not to hear
the truth, they feel ‘persecuted’, and
change church.
NOTE: Don’t change your message of truth,
for the truth purges and sanctifies.

17. SPIRIT OF ABSALOM
• When rebellious spirit and pride enters the
people, there would be serious bickering
that would lead to dwindling membership.
• This is like the company of Korah &
company in Num.16:1-3

18. THE PASTOR’S WIFE AND KIDS
• The pastor’s wife and kids are very important to
the church. They can make or mar the progress
of the church.
• The wife could drive people away through
demonic influence, bad character, backbiting and
ungodly manners. The kids, through bad
examples and rough living can contribute to
membership losses.

19. NO MISSIONARY OUTREACH
• When there is no fresh and new challenge
to evangelize and reach out to other
places, the people tend to be idle, inward
looking, monotonous and tired. They will
surely leave for where there are
challenges. When the church is only
seating oriented and not sending oriented,
it will decline.

20. REVIVAL FIRE HAS DIED OUT
• This is true of many traditional, fundamental,
evangelical and Pentecostal churches. The life
and vibrancy they once knew is gone and
everything is now cold and lukewarm.
• Past glory and dealing of God are remembered
with nostalgia, then the church or denomination
will surely and steadily lose members to vibrant
and lively new churches.

21. CONSTANT TRANSFER
• When pastors/leaders are being constantly
transfer from churches, it usually lead to
membership losses and decline.
• Short term pastorates of 2 to 3 years have
done much havoc to the health and well-
being of the church where this occur
regularly.

Summary: Reasons Why People Leave
Church
• We can summarized the above into:
• 1. Relational Problems
• 2. Emotional Disconnection
• 3. Cultural Differences
• 4. Lifestyle Mismatch
• 5. Theological Imbalances
• 6. Spiritual Growth Levels
• 7. Unmet Expectations
• 8. High Cost of Commitment
• 9. Leadership Deficiencies

CONCLUSION
• The church is all about people. The people
are more important than the building,
tradition programme and methods.
• Everything must be done to win, woo and
retain the people for the Lord. Losing
members is one sure sign of church
sickness.

• One major problem of the church is the
inability to retain members for considerable
number of years.
• Mobile membership is a plague of many
churches – as new ones enters, old ones
are going out.

• If churches will labour to implement the
OPPOSITES of the above points, they will
be able to:
• Attract
• Retain and
• Transform people to become disciples in
our churches.

• Church health requires that we take note of
these points and change where necessary.
• When the church is healthy, it will naturally
grow. 1 Cor. 3:6; Col. 2:19.

Your church should be
open to everyone, but
you will be best at
reaching a
particular someone.

Churches that try to be all things
to all people often end up being
nothing to no one and lose their
effectiveness in the process.

The principles of front and back doors in your church

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