The Magnetic Fellowship

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Every person needs security. Every person needs to belong. Every person needs to believe that he or she has influence. Everybody needs self-esteem. When a church lives up to the potential God has given it, no organization does these things better.
Herb Miller

What do you do if you discover your Sunday school is actually repelling instead of attracting visitors? Don Michael McDonald, teacher of an adult class in the Community Bible Church of San Bernardino, California, had a comfortable, informative class just like thousands of others, but that's the question he had to face. Knowing people join niches and not just churches, he was determined to find out what was wrong and how to make his niche attractive to newcomers.

As a result of what McDonald learned and put into practice, the class began to grow about 10 percent each month, and by the end of a year it had reached an average attendance of sixty-five. Perhaps the best indicator the new strategy was working was that 80 percent of class visitors returned. Here McDonald explains what he learned and how he made the turnaround.

David and Beverly stood in the doorway of the adult Sunday school class and looked over a sea of unfamiliar faces. Beverly had coaxed for weeks to get David there. Their first child was due in four months, and Beverly wanted that child to have a church home. David kept citing a bad experience with "religious people," but he was finally willing to try church again since they had just moved to this area.

Maybe this time I'll meet some nice people, David thought.

Maybe this time, Beverly prayed, someone in there will introduce David to Jesus.

I shudder to think how many Davids and Beverlys visited our class and walked away with needs unmet. We didn't realize ...

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