MO Church Seeks Innovative Ways to Engage Community

In every religious group in the country, worship attendees are getting older, and younger people are less likely than their parents and grandparents to attend church regularly. One poll reported that 48 percent of adults sixty-five and older attend church regularly, while only 27 percent of those ages eighteen to twenty-nine do.

St. Luke United Methodist Church in Columbia, Missouri, noticeably bucks that trend. Now averaging around fifty people in worship each Sunday—up from thirty to thirty-five the previous year—the church hasn’t just grown, says Reverend Kim Jenne, Director of Connectional Ministries for the Missouri Annual Conference. It has grown younger.

A 2024 Recipient of the One Matters Award from Discipleship Ministries, the church recently confirmed and baptized seven middle school students. This follows their remarkable growth of the previous year, when eleven individuals joined the church, and one adult was baptized.

A historically Black church on the cusp of downtown Columbia, St. Luke is less than a mile from the University of Missouri, whose students sometimes volunteer in the church’s tutoring program on Wednesday evenings. The church has invested in educational resources to help students and provides them with a meal after the tutoring sessions.

Reverend Dr. Ayanna Shivers, appointed to St. Luke’s in January 2023 and named senior pastor later that year, constantly seeks innovative ways to engage people with the church. One such offering is line dancing. Using gospel music appropriate for the setting, the church opens its doors to those interested in exercise, fellowship, and fun. Anywhere from five to fifteen people, most not affiliated with the church, attend.

Pastor Shivers is no stranger to the area. A native of nearby Mexico, Missouri, where she serves as that city’s St. Luke UMC pastor, she is a professor at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, a short drive away. Because of her busy schedule and the widely varying schedules of church members and others in the community, flexibility is key.

After people began returning to in-person worship following the COVID pandemic, Pastor Shivers found that some had fallen out of the habit, so she continues experimenting with online options to engage members and prospects. Accommodating the ever-changing needs and schedules of those in the church and community is one of her biggest challenges.

The church’s size works to its advantage because members can easily spot newcomers, acknowledge and greet them, engage them in conversation, ensure they feel welcomed, and introduce them to worship, service, and fellowship opportunities.

A visible presence in the community, Pastor Shivers represents the church by speaking at various conferences and events. St. Luke’s hosts the city’s Black History Month observance and participates in the annual candlelight vigil for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. The church also serves as a wellness hub, seeks to address community health needs, and provides low-cost CPR training. St. Luke’s also allows a local funeral home to use its building for services.
Building on the solid Methodist movement in Columbia’s Black community that began shortly after the Civil War and the foundational role that it played, St. Luke’s is primed for continued growth—into its identity, commitment to identifying and meeting the needs of people, and its responsibility to reach others who need to experience God’s love, grace, mercy, and community among God’s people.

Jan Turrentine is a writer and editor living in Nashville, Tennessee.