One local church is taking steps to build energy, excitement and commitment within its congregation at a time when religious organizations are seeing falling attendance in pews nationwide.
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church has an app, does a live stream, and on Sunday it held a giant service at a performing arts center.
The church, with locations on Raymond Road in Madison and on Highway PD in the town of Verona, drew about 550 of its members to the combined service at Verona High School’s auditorium, which it rented for the occasion.
It was the first time the 62-year-old church has held a joint service since the Verona location opened 15 years ago, said its lead pastor, the Rev. Chris Enstad.
That morning before church, his daughters asked him, “Should we dress Madison or should we dress Verona today?” the casually-attired Enstad told congregants during the service.
“The laughter means you all had the same question,” he told them.
Almost every seat was taken in the performing arts center and the church’s choir filled the stage. Children attended Sunday school in the gym, and dozens of volunteers worked behind the scenes to make sure everything went smoothly.
After the service, congregants ate lunch in the cafeteria and heard Good Shepherd’s fundraising pitch. Its “Beyond campaign” is designed to raise $3.3 million in the hopes of paying off the church’s mortgage and making upgrades at the Verona location.
The campaign started Oct. 6, and the church already has more than $1 million in commitments, Enstad said before the service. “It’s pretty cool. We have very generous people in this church. We really feel that our church exists to connect people to God, to each other and to the community.”
According to the church’s governing body, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in 2018 it had 3,798 baptized members, and an average attendance of 726, said Rick Blum, the church’s director of administration.
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