(Click here for the first post) Wow. If you’ve read all
four previous posts, you win a prize! (An autographed photo of myself leaping
off Mount Everest). As stated in the previous posts, make sure you’ve addressed
the preliminary questions about church growth before you get into how you might
do it. Here are the final 2 of
the 8 things you can do to help your church grow:
7.If you want your church
to grow, Invite, Invite, Invite. Most people who get involved
in a local church do so because someone invited them. People moving into town,
looking up your church, and showing up, is becoming less and less the norm. Unless
invited, many will never come. Invitations to Sunday worship are important
(especially on big days). But so are invitations to other events (i.e. social
gatherings, service projects, etc.). Different people will respond to different
invitations. Much could be said about the art of inviting others, but keep in
mind it takes practice to do well and time to see results from.
8.If you want your church
to grow, You Grow.
How are you growing as a
Christian? Can you say you understand Christian beliefs and doctrines more now
than you did five years ago? Can you say you’ve made real growth in living into
the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, Kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Galatians 5:22-23)? How about in living
out Jesus Great Commandment to “Love God” and “Love Neighbor?” (Matthew 22:34-40)
A church of growing disciples is almost by definition, a church that is
growing. The inverse is almost always true, too. Disclaimer
A
Church growth cannot be
reduced to a simple formula. There are best practices to learn from. Researchers
and practitioners have written many fine books on the subject. If you and the
leadership of your church aren’t learning from these resources, you should be. Different
settings present different challenges and opportunities for church growth (e.g.
urban, suburban, small town, rural, etc.). You can be faithful. You and your
church can try and try, and sometimes, for a host of reasons, growth in numbers
doesn’t happen. HOWEVER! (see below) Disclaimer
B
The church growth we’ve
talked about in this blog series is holistic. If you commit to a holistic
approach to the faith, it is almost certain, that church growth of some kind
will take place (including in numbers). People will grow in their understanding
of the faith. People will grow in their service toward neighbor. People will grow
as faithful spouses, friends, parents, grandparents, godparents, and more.
People will grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. (People will grow sick of five-part
blog series! Well, I hope not.)
So what’s your next step?
How will you take this blog series and begin applying it to your personal
efforts at helping your church to grow? How will you encourage your church’s leadership
to address some of these areas? In all cases, there are things church leaders
can do to encourage growth. Share your thoughts, objections, and questions in
the comments below.
Parts: 1 (here) 2
(here) 3 (here) Do you really want to help
your church to grow? Then make sure you’ve answered these two preliminary questions
first: Why do I want my church to grow? and What do I mean by church growth? (Really,
these questions are so important! Start there, first! Please!) Here are 3 more of the 8
things you can do to help your church grow:
4.If you want your
church to grow, Warmly welcome. Warmly doesn’t mean
descending on guests with frantic glee, “Oh, look, someone new!” It does mean
reaching out to each individual or couple or family graciously. There is no
formula here. Some people want a lot of interaction, other don’t. However, going
to a church where nobody says anything to you (except the pastor and ushers)
can be off-putting. If someone looks like they need some help (e.g. what page
to turn to, where a room is, etc.) gently offer to help them. They may want
your help. They may not. Respect their wishes.
5.If you want your
church to grow, Support your Pastor. Supporting your pastor
doesn’t mean agreeing with her about everything. It does mean holding
your pastor up in prayer. It means encouraging your pastor when the church, and
especially they personally, are facing challenges. It means offering critique
and disagreement in ways that will build up your pastor and not tear them down.
A healthy church supports it leader. Supported leaders tends to lead more
effectively. Leadership in a church almost always involves many leaders,
support all of them. Well led churches are more likely to grow.
6.If you want your
church to grow, Serve the Community. As discussed in an earlier
post, the kind of church growth we are talking about is holistic. This should reflect
growing in Jesus’ Great Commandment to Love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:34-40).
Yes, this means within the congregation, but also beyond the church.
Find ways to serve your community (e.g. feeding the hungry). You don’t serve
the community as a means of growing, you serve the community as a means of being
faithful Christians. However, a church that is making a difference in people’s
lives is a church better positioned to grow. While you’re waiting for
next week’s post, you can review the previous posts and see what might be your
next steps for helping your church to grow? (Some will note there were no jokes
in this post. That’s because I received a complaint from the Ecclesiastical
Anti-Fun Society). When do you think about
these three ways to grow your church? Share below.
Part 1 (here) Part 2
(here) Do you really want to help
your church to grow? Then make sure you’ve answered these two preliminary questions
first: Why do I want my church to grow? and What do I mean by church growth? If
you’ve answered these questions, hurrah! (I’m happy!) If not (I’m sad). Here are 8 things you can
do to help your church to grow. 1.If you want your church
to grow, Pray for it. Yes, pray. The kind of
holistic growth we’ve been taking about in this blog series requires God’s
help. No Christian individual and no Christian congregation can become all they
should be without the power of God’s grace operating in their life. Pray
individually for your church’s growth and pray regularly. 2.If you want your
church to grow, Be there. In terms of numbers alone
(which is not the end goal of Christian growth), you can increase attendance in
a congregation in one of two ways: 1) attracting new attenders and 2) by
encouraging current attenders to worship more regularly. Be there each Sunday,
unless there is some good reason for you not to be there (e.g. staying at home
to watch my latest yodeling video). When there is a major event, be there. A
church can’t grow without a core base of faithful worshippers and attenders. 3.If you want your
church to grow, Worship well. It’s not enough to just
show up and do time in a pew week after week. Worship well. Participate fully
in the service, sing (even if you don’t have a good voice), pay attention to
the sermon (even if it isn’t that great), respond with energy to shared
responses, and in general be dialed into what is happening. Not only will this benefit
your own spiritual life, but potential newcomers pick up on the dynamics of
worshippers when they visit. A church full of half-engaged worshippers isn’t
very attractive, a church that is worshipping well is.
We’ll have to
stop here, my yodeling class starts in a few minutes. So while you’re waiting
for next week’s post, you can ponder this very difficult riddle: You find me in
December, but not in any other month. What do you think about
these three ways to grow your church? Share in the comments below.
Part 1 (click here) In the first post of this
series, we set aside the question of how you can help your church to grow, in
order to first address an important preliminary question: Why do you want
your church to grow? If you aren’t clear about the why stop here and start
over again. Assuming you have a good
reason for wanting your church to grow (e.g. more pews to clean) then you need
to answer a second preliminary question: What do I mean by church growth?
This is a complicated question. Church growth can be measured by numbers. Increased
numbers of members, attenders, and so on. Attendance and membership numbers are
not insignificant. They can be worth tracking. However, our obsession with
numbers can result in a skewed understanding of growth. People will often say
to me, “Wow! That was a great service. There were so many people!” or “It’s too
bad, so few showed” (Also, people often say to me, “That joke you told was the
funniest I’ve ever heard…”). But what if I told you
(insert meme here), that at the service with the high attendance, the music did
not go well, the preaching was subpar, and, the large number of guest attenders were
mostly ignored by the regular congregation? In this case, the “high
attendance” service sounds less than successful, right? And what if I told you
that at the service that was sparsely attended, a man who had been away from the
church for years, had a quiet but meaningful spiritual experience (with simple
music and preaching) leading him to begin to make some important life changes
and to become active in that particular congregation? (Sounds pretty, good, right? So does my yodeling, btw). High attendance by itself
doesn’t translate into individuals, couples, and families growing seriously in
their faith. It also doesn’t translate by itself into outreach and difference
making in the wider community (e.g. The Great Commandment, The Great
Commission). There is growth in faithful habits (prayer, worship, service,
etc.). There is growth in the fruits of the Holy Spirit (e.g. love, joy, peace,
patience, etc. see Galatians 5:22-23). There is growth in understanding and
living Christian beliefs and practices. There is growth in people giving the
pastor gift cards to Starbucks. This is all church growth (Minus the gift the
cards, that’s what we call a joke folks). Now that you’ve answered the
what you mean question and previously answered the why question,
we can now move back to the original question: How Can I Help My Church to
Grow? (While you’re waiting for the next post, you can clean the pews at your
church. Fun, right?) What about you? Why do you
mean by church growth? Feel free to share in the comments.
The first thing you can do
to help your church to grow is put this question down (on your immaculate
kitchen counter) until you’ve answered preliminary question number one:
Why do I want my church to grow? Is it because your church
is getting smaller and the volunteer workload is becoming unbearable? That is a
difficult situation, but not a great reason to want to grow your church. There
are lots of organizations out there with an aging and shrinking volunteer base,
but does this reality motivate you or me to join these organizations to solve
their problem?Yeah, not really. Wait
you say! What about our declining budget, surely people will want to come help
solve our church’s financial problems? Yeah, not really. Ok. How about I want my
church to grow because my church has been important to me? You've grown in faith
there, made friends there, been supported through the best and worst moments of your life there. You've been challenged and equipped to live life differently and impact your world with love at your church. Those are pretty good reasons to want your church to grow. Those reasons aren't just about you and your church’s needs, but about how other people
can be blessed because of your church, too. There are other reasons. All sound
reasons for church growth should align with Jesus’ Great Commandment to “Love
God and Neighbor” (Matthew 22:37-40). Speaking of God, that I
hope, would be an obvious reason to want your church to grow. There are lots of
organizations, groups, and movements that help address social ills or bring
people together for mutual support (like my Thursday night Texas yodeling
class) but it is only the Christian Church that exists specifically to help
people encounter God through the person of Jesus Christ in the power of the
Holy Spirit. Jesus’ Great Commission, “Go…make disciples of all nations”
(Matthew 28:16-20) should also motivate our efforts at growth. The Great Commandment and the Great Commission should complement one another, resulting in growing numbers of disciples, growing in the practice of love. Now that you’ve answered
the why question, you’re ready to answer a second preliminary question: What do
I mean by church growth? (Yes, for original readers that means you’ll have to
wait until next week for the next post. You can clean your counter in the
meantime). PS: Feel free to share in the comments why you want your church to grow.
When was the last time you
stripped in front a gathering of your hometown, with the local bishop and your
own father in attendance? When was the last time you kissed a leper? When was
the last time you walked unarmed into the camp of your civilization’s enemy, to
preach Christ? These colorful events are a few of many in the life of the saint.
On another occasion, Francis preached to the birds. I preached to a parrot once,
but he said he’d only accept the Gospel if I gave him a cracker (I apologize to
members of Polly’s family for this joke). Francis was born in Assisi,
Italy, in 1182. His father was a wealthy cloth merchant. Francis showed more
interest in parties and poetry, friends and fanfare, than he did in God. As a teenager
he wasn’t particularly interested in his father’s business or his academic
studies. He was enjoying the good life. At twenty, he joined the local army in
a battle against a rival city state. Perhaps Francis saw this as an opportunity
to become a romantic hero and win renown for himself through valor on the
battlefield. Instead, he was captured and imprisoned. After his release, he
began to encounter the poor and they began to affect him in a new way. In one
encounter, he exchanged his expensive attire, for that of a poor man’s
clothing. During this period, he began to reflect upon his life and to pray
over his sins. These and other incidents culminated in his renouncing his
wealth and position in order to live simply among the poor. This move was
directly inspired by the words of Jesus, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23 NRSV). He preached simple sermons. He cared
for the sick and the outcast. He begged for his food. I know what you’re
thinking: "Wow! That sounds like an exciting life, with comfortable accommodations
and interesting people with glittering Instagram accounts. Sign me up." In fact,
that is exactly what happened! (Minus the Instagram accounts, Francis’ handle @Liveswith
Lepers never went viral). Women and men, from many walks of life began to
follow Francis as he followed Christ through the path of poverty. Francis was
not sullen. Francis radiated joy. He passionately loved God, people, and of all
of creation. (Oh yeah, his feast day is October 4). Very quickly, men joined
Francis in being “little brothers” or friars minor. Thanks to Clare of Assisi,
women soon followed. Over 800 years
later, people continue to be inspired by the life and witness of this poor man from
Assisi. In popular devotion, Francis is near the top of the heavenly all-star list.
Did he love animals? Yes, from the birds to the wolves. Did he love creation?
Yes, from brother sun to sister moon. Did he love people? Yes, from the prince
to the peasant. But most of all, inspiring all his other loves, was Francis’ love
for God.