Project

Ok, help me out here please. What is it that makes people get involved with a church or small group instead of just showing up?

In my opinion, people start to get involved when they feel a personal connection beyond just the niceties of seeing each other now and then. You show up to an acquaintance's BBQ to eat, but you show up to your brother's BBQ to help set out food before you eat. In other words, as a leader you have to invest in them a little bit before they will invest back. Everyone wants to feel loved and appreciated, so we go back to places where we feel a little bit noticed, and then we wait for positive reinforcement. If you find out why they come, what their real interests are, what motivates them, and THEN you suggest a way they can step up and get involved and there's a chance that they will. You can have the greatest production around, and people will show up; but you can have the most junk production around, and people will still show up if they know you are going to give them a hug and a thank you after like they really matter to you. It is this way that Jesus lures us, by meeting us more than halfway and showing us that HE loved us and died to serve us first.