Summertime at church yields an all-too-familiar reality. Half-empty parking lots. More people watching the live stream at home. The youth pastor gets his own weekend to preach in the main service (we’re cheering for you, youth pastor!). 

For about two months, it’s like the rapture happened at a barbecue. For any number of reasons, people tend to drift away from churches in the summer, and when August rolls around, school resumes, and they start thinking about coming back. 

The Back-to-School Surge

The back-to-school season also brings re-established rhythms from a summer of travel and rest, and new people are likely to try church for the first time, or for the first time in a long time. Maybe they just moved to town and are exploring, or maybe they’re finally getting around to that New Year’s resolution. Whatever the reason, this time of year reliably brings a surge in church attendance, and it’s likely the time you, as a church leader, are rolling out new plans and programming for the year.

So how do we design for that moment of return? How do we think creatively and strategically about engaging (and re-engaging) people coming back to church?

I’m Drew Kimball, President and Founder of Braintrust Creative. We’re an experience design and production agency based in Atlanta, and we build strategic, transformational experiences for churches and non-profits. We’ve been thinking deeply about creating lasting change through shared experiences for over 20 years, from giant events in stadiums to portable setups for a local church-plant.  

Head, Heart, and Hands

Here’s a secret we’ve learned along the way: the most transformational experience you can give someone has very little to do with how “cool” or “big” or “immersive” a moment is. In fact, sometimes big-ness and immersive-ness actually get in the way of transformation.

Before we design anything – a stage, a lobby, an activation - we ask three strategic questions:

• What do we want people to think?

• What do we want them to feel?

• What do we want them to do?

Think deeply about those three goals, and you’ve got a destination. Now ask those questions in a different way:

• What do our people currently think?

• What do our people currently feel?

• What do our people currently do?

You can’t reach a destination if you don’t know where you’re starting from. Don’t assume this information; research it. That’s your starting point. Head. Heart. Hands. Connect the dots, and you’ll build lasting transformation instead of a fleeting Instagram moment.

Take the fall as an example. People are settling into new rhythms — work, school, sports, the return of a normal week — and rhythms are the one thing people are genuinely willing to renegotiate right now. In January they make resolutions they abandon. In September they make schedules they actually keep. Let's run the think/feel/do list for those people:

Think: I'm rebuilding my whole week from scratch anyway, but I had no idea that [X] out of 10 adults in my community say they don't have a single person they could call in a crisis.

Take what your people know, and expand it to what they should know.

Feel: My calendar is already full, but I'm doing almost everything on it alongside someone. I can't imagine walking into this season without that.

Offer moments of reflection, both inwards and outwards.

Do: I'm going to bring one person into a rhythm I already have. Not a new commitment — just the Thursday morning coffee I'm already buying.

Offer specific and attainable follow-up actions that build on existing plans.

A wall of blank week-at-a-glance cards where people write down the one rhythm they're starting and the one name they want in it. Two coffee cards at every seat, one to keep and one to hand to somebody. A neighborhood map where people pin where they live, so a newcomer can stand there and see six pins on their own street. A table of pre-stamped invitations with the fall calendar printed on the back, so inviting someone costs nothing but a name.

The creative ideas flow easily when you have a solid strategic foundation. And these questions work for both your members and your first-time visitors. A member sees a nudge to bring someone in. A visitor sees, in 30 seconds, that this is a church where people actually know each other.

Oh interesting, I didn't expect a church this size to feel this connected. I feel like I want that in my week. I'm going to find out what it takes to be part of it…

Authenticity Over Aesthetics

Many environments only ever answer the feel question. It’s what we usually call “attractional,” and it’s why so many spaces look beautiful, but end up changing nothing. We believe feeling without thinking is fleeting sentiment, and feeling without doing is entertainment.  

Data suggests we’ve been overcorrecting towards “feel” for a while. Barna’s research in Making Space shows that around 80% of unchurched adults prefer a calm church experience to an exhilarating one. People are telling us they’re looking for refuge from the noise, not more of it. At Braintrust, we say that creativity without context is noise. That’s not to say an environment can’t be fun, engaging, and a “wow.” It just means that if it’s only doing that - it’s noise. 

So if we can engage the head, the heart, and the hands in a thoughtful way that meets our people where they are, we’re much more likely to trigger actual change.  But how do we make sure that change is lasting and not just a blip on the radar? Well, to maybe state the obvious: think beyond the moment.

Always take in the larger context.  Ask yourself: what are we already saying in sermons and announcements? What are we building towards this Christmas?  What vision do we have for our people over the next two years? If the environment you’re planning isn’t a step towards that, it’s noise, even if it looks fantastic. Maybe, especially if it looks fantastic. 

That’s the hard part: An environment can never guarantee a transformation. It can’t guarantee a visitor feels welcomed, seen, and safe. What it can do, really reliably, is expose whether the rest of your church is telling the truth. A back-to-church weekend, without a consistent community outreach strategy, exposes a gap really quickly. A lobby with a “You belong here” banner, but a clique insider culture, erodes trust faster than no lobby at all.

And nobody spots that gap faster than a first-timer. Especially if they’re under 40. In Making Space for Millennials, Barna found young adults preferred classic over trendy (67% to 33%) and sanctuaries over auditoriums (77% to 23%). And with young adults leading the trend in church attendance, maybe we should listen? People are gravitating toward authentic over “professional,” and first-time guests don’t have the relational equity to give you the benefit of the doubt. The takeaway? Don’t let your environment write a check your culture can’t cash.

Your Weekly Action Plan

Here’s something you can do this week. Get with your team and make a simple list. What is ONE (not ten!) thing each of us wants our people to know, feel, and do? Then ask yourself: Does this push us toward our goal for the season? If so, that’s your destination. Then make a simple list about what your people currently think, feel, and do. (Pro tip - if this is hard…. Go ask them). That’s your starting point.

You may find your creative environment designs itself, or you may find that it takes hours, but that’s actually the point: spend time thinking about it and debating about it with your team. Get into the minds of your people. Exercise that muscle, and the more you do, the more the creative ideas will just come out of the process.