Swedish church's new recruitment ploy: wine
A Swedish church with dwindling parish numbers has turned to the pulling powers of alcohol in the hope of bringing in new members, and has invited people who’ve recently turned forty to come in for a wine tasting.
“We want to meet the people who we don’t otherwise meet,” said Pastor Rickard Grügiel to Svergies Television (SVT).
“We have no special events for people in their forties and so we thought that it was a good opportunity in the church to meet them and show that we are just like everyone else,” he said.
The church, in the city of Växjö in southern Sweden, has been steadily losing members, not an unusual development for the Church of Sweden over the past few years, with a nationwide loss of 5,000 members annually, according to the paper.
While the wine-tasting has been advertised as a harmless attempt to get people socializing, some members have complained that the Öjaby church has taken things one step too far.
“I think it’s sad that the Swedish church embraces the idea that people need to have a glass in their hand to be able to socialize with one another,” said Lars Larsson, member of the Swedish church and Swedish temperance organization IOGT-NTO.
“It’s a bad idea and I don’t think this should it will lead to good things for the member acquisition process,” he said.
Comments
See Also
“We want to meet the people who we don’t otherwise meet,” said Pastor Rickard Grügiel to Svergies Television (SVT).
“We have no special events for people in their forties and so we thought that it was a good opportunity in the church to meet them and show that we are just like everyone else,” he said.
The church, in the city of Växjö in southern Sweden, has been steadily losing members, not an unusual development for the Church of Sweden over the past few years, with a nationwide loss of 5,000 members annually, according to the paper.
While the wine-tasting has been advertised as a harmless attempt to get people socializing, some members have complained that the Öjaby church has taken things one step too far.
“I think it’s sad that the Swedish church embraces the idea that people need to have a glass in their hand to be able to socialize with one another,” said Lars Larsson, member of the Swedish church and Swedish temperance organization IOGT-NTO.
“It’s a bad idea and I don’t think this should it will lead to good things for the member acquisition process,” he said.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.