The Blessing of Low Attendance Nights
Every youth worker loves those nights when students pour through the door, energy is palpable, and there are multiple visitors. Needing to bring out more chairs is the best kind of problem. But we’ve all experienced the opposite extreme, too. A night where most chairs are empty can feel debilitating. Especially when those low-attendance weeks stack up on top of each other, you can easily wonder, “Is any of this worth it.” In this article, I want to offer you some encouragement about those seasons.
Some Perspective: Serve The Students Who Are There
A lot of us are tempted to wear our dejection all over our faces. Don’t do that. God has gifted you with students to minister to, even if it is not as many as you want. It is also not those student’s fault that numbers are low, so they deserve you at your best. Your disappointment from the stage, during worship, or a game will bleed over to them. Keeping a positive attitude while giving those who showed up your best ministry efforts communicates, “You matter! God is still going to faithfully build this ministry tonight.” I would even argue that God can use those low attendance nights in unique ways for your good and His glory.
How God Uses Low Attendance:
To Kill Our Pride
When things are blowing up we can be tempted towards pride in our programming and skill: “Look at what we built - how could they not come!” While we all know God builds our ministries and sustains them—success can do deadly things to a heart. Low attendance can bring us back down to earth and teach us humility. God brings the people; we are called to humble obedience.
To Heighten Pastoral Care
Low attendance nights often present us with unique chances to provide one-to-one care for students. When things are a little slower and a little less frenetic we’re able to relax a bit more and have good conversations. Busy nights can find us running from new student to new student, but these slower nights allow us to hear the hearts of the ones who came. This can be leveraged to deepen relationships, intentional discipleship, and godly counsel. Don’t see these nights as a chance to sulk, but to invest.
To Remind us Why We Do What We Do
It’s easy to feel like our “preparation was wasted” when only a couple of students show up. But the heart of our ministry is actually shown more clearly on these nights. Is my prep wasted when there are only five instead of ten, or when there are only forty-five instead of eighty? Of course not—because you’ve prepped to see students equipped with the Word, not to fill seats. Low attendance can help you see that your prep wasn’t wasted on those nights, but was eternally worth it. Students can come to know Jesus on a low night, they can be uniquely poised to hear the Word in a fresh way on a low night, they can make a new friend on a low night, and they can kill sin on a low night. God is still at work.
It wasn’t a waste for the creator of the universe to disciple twelve people. Your low night isn’t a waste either. Preach, teach, and disciple like God can use your low attendance nights as well as he can your big nights.
Low attendance nights are a good way to reset the way we measure our ministry. Numbers are not merely numbers, but people. In this sense, numbers do matter. But high attendance isn’t our primary pursuit. We are called to make disciples, not grow a crowd. Low attendance doesn’t mean we can’t fulfill our purpose! Even if no one shows up, we can have a prayer gathering with our volunteers for our students and their families.
Editor’s Note: March through May is notorious for poor youth group attendance. The weather is getting nicer, Spring sports tend to be more popular among students, upper-classmen are getting ready to graduate, and families are just busier. If your attendance is in a slump right now, then welcome to the club! There are rhythms and cycles in the youth ministry calendar that tend to be fairly consistent. Don’t take it personally - pay attention to these low-attendance seasons over the next few years to discern your own localized patterns.