The mix of programs at church facilities also has taken on a less traditional flavor, venturing far beyond Bible studies and choir practice. Increasingly, churches are offering workshops that feature both moral lessons and secular topics.
A men's conference held last month at Celebration Church in Columbia, for example, included sessions on estate planning, winning at work and how to battle sexual temptation. A women's conference in May covered financial planning, maintaining a commitment to God and tips for making one's husband happy, among other subjects.
Celebration Church has about 50 ministries for its 1,500 members. Many of the programs seek to provide congregants with practical reasons for following biblical teachings, rather than focusing solely on the threat of eternal damnation, said the Rev. Bob Washington, 39, the church's pastor of evangelism.
For example, officials at some churches have brought in men who had affairs so they could talk to other men about the damage that adultery wreaks on a marriage or invited in women whose husbands were unfaithful to discuss the pain of being cheated on.
"The focus is not only on not doing these things, but on why you shouldn't -- the joys of doing things God's way," Washington said.
But churches also are striving to be an alternative to the public library or community center in providing classes on secular topics such as entrepreneurship, tax preparation or parenting a child with attention-deficit disorder.
The more diverse the services, the bigger the pool from which to recruit members, Washington said, adding that a church can offer some programs at a lower cost than a community center because of professionals' willingness to donate their time to a house of worship.
"If they come to one of the events or workshops and like it, we hope they will come back and check the church out," he said.
For people who want a more intimate and interactive experience than a traditional worship service can provide, a growing number of churches are sponsoring small discussion groups. The groups, typically with six to 12 congregants, meet regularly in homes to discuss the previous Sunday's sermon or other theological topics.
Small groups are a throwback to an era in which church officials believed that people "grow spiritually best in a community," Heard said -- important when mega-churches have thousands of members who don't often interact.
At Woodstream Church, participants in the dance ministry say they are reaching people who "receive the message of God through dance," said the ministry's co-director, Rosalena Thompson, 38.
"One of the main purposes is to evangelize, and God uses the art form of dance to win souls to Christ," she said.
Churches will need to continue to launch unconventional activities if they are to fulfill their outreach mission, Heard said.
"People who take their belief in Christ seriously have that belief all over their lives, and hence there is not a sharp distinction between the religious and the rest of their lives," she said. "So churches that are interested in being alive and vital in the 21st century are saying it's not just about Sunday and formal worship. It's: 'How do I live in my office?' and 'How do I raise my children?' . . . And they are giving people a way to explore those issues."
