Church growth and the Church
Growth Movement are two different things. The former is simply what it
Church
Growth Movement and the matter of increased attendance (growth) are not
wholly separate, it is not my intention to examine the Movement per se. Ed Stetzer, in his blog The Exchange, has explained the Movement quite well here
and here.
My intention is to look, symptomatically, at reasons why local churches do not
grow. Certain key, and basically universal, reasons listed here should not be
divorced from the larger discussion of church health. What are presented here
are symptoms, not root causes. They are symptoms which, quite often, betray
deeper issues of church health that must be rooted out and addressed if the
symptoms are to be negated. In short, if a local church is to grow, it must
first get healthy – or healthier, depending on the particular church. An
analysis of the symptoms, which did not originate with me, can help church
leaders and laymen alike to identify, address, and rectify barriers to both
growth and health in church ministry.Unclear Mission
The mission of the Church is the big, overarching,
theologically driven purpose, given by God in Scripture, and applicable for all
churches everywhere. Jesus, based on his own authority, empowered and commanded
his disciples to make disciples who make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). Jesus also
commanded his followers to love God with every ounce of our being and to love
others like we love ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). Acts 2:42-47 reminds the Church
of our obligation to one another; to fellowship in unity. Ephesians 4:11-12
clearly instructs the Church that her leaders’ primary responsibility is the
equipping and training for ministry. Weaved through all of this is the Church’s
responsibility never to grow cold in our love and zeal for the Lord and the
accomplishment of our mission (Rev. 3:15-16).
When a local church gets distracted from her mission, she
won’t grow. When it becomes an inbred commune secluded from the world around
her, a community center intent on rectifying the world’s ills, or a sanctified
social club rather than the church of Jesus Christ on mission to glorify God by
evangelizing and making disciples growth is impossible. Furthermore, such
distraction from our mission betrays a theological sickness that, of not confronted
and changed, will become pandemic.
Comfort & the Problem of Outsiders
People, by our very nature, are adverse to change; we all
like a comfortable status quo.
However, when a church longs to maintain that status quo rather than itch to reach people with the gospel and
make disciples she will not grow. The symptom of comfortableness comes from
stagnant thinking. It’s too much work to change and grow and new people don’t
think like we do, and that only brings problems; it’s easier to stay like we
are.
Outsiders, new people, only bring change. They bring so many
new things into a church that the church must, of necessity, change the status quo to accommodate and assimilate
them. This is a very healthy thing for a church. The problem arises when the
church is too comfortable with her status
quo to welcome new people.
It’s good for churches to be challenged and moved outside of
their comfort zones and welcome new members. The symptom of comfort and fear of
new members can demonstrate several deeper issues that need to be ferreted out
and addressed. Once an affinity for the status
quo sets in, it is difficult to remove. Often times the pastor may see that
his people are growing too comfortable and may seek to lead them out of it, but
when comfort becomes systemic it takes a radical, God-ordained shake up to wake
them out of it…if at all.
Participatory Democracy & Power Groups
I was raised in a congregational form of church polity and
believe it can work. However, when most decisions are made by the congregation
as a whole, she can get stuck in the monotony of process. Decisions move from
committee to committee and eventually to the congregation before a real
decision can be made and action taken. The congregation of the local church
needs to know that decisions are being made and large decisions probably should
be made by the congregation, but too many churches have decision-making
processes that only lead to discouragement. Pastors are not empowered to lead
and make decisions and leadership teams are not truly representative of the
congregation. Pastors, visionaries, get bogged down in the process, nothing
gets done, the church gets off mission, and pastors take the position that
trying to lead the church to grow isn’t worth it anymore. Decision-making
processes need to be examined, defined, and refined throughout a church’s
life-cycle if she’s going to continue to grow and stay on mission. Pastors and
leaders need to be empowered and released to cast vision, make day-to-day
operational decisions, and lead the body in the accomplishment of her mission
without fear of being quagmired by a participatory democracy.
The fear of power groups, influential people who control the
majority of the decision-making in the church, is a very real barrier to
growth. Most often a participatory democracy gone awry is driven by a few
influential people with an unhealthy agenda. If these kinds of power groups are
on mission they can be very helpful in motivating people toward change and
growth. However, if not won to the church’s mission, these power groups only
undermine the leadership and unity of the church and distract her from her
mission.
Ministry Misplacement & Pastoral Care
There is an old adage in churches that says that 10% of the
people do 90% of the work. It’s an unhealthy thing for a church to suffer from
this malady. It can, and often does, happen in a church when members are not
serving according to their Divine design – that combination of Holy Spirit
giftedness, upbringing, natural talent, and learned skills – but are assuming
roles they were not designed to fill. Failure to disciple people to discover
their divine design and enlist/engage them in ministry accordingly only leads
to ineffectiveness and hinders the health and growth of the church.
Side by side with ministry misplacement is the problem of
pastoral care. Many times, particularly in smaller churches, the pastor
shoulders the pastoral care of the entire congregation. As churches grow,
pastors sometimes train deacons, elders, or others to help him shoulder this
burden. The problem arises when the attitude of the congregation, regardless of
church size, becomes, “I haven’t been cared for/visited/attended to properly
until the pastor shows up.” When this mentality infects a church it only
hinders the pastor’s ability to lead and strips the body of its ability to
minister to itself. This will, in time, bring the church to an unhealthy place,
wear the pastor out, and hinder real growth.
Theological Drift
If a church’s
theology is unbiblical their growth cannot and will not be blessed. Churches that
abandon, either in practice or officially, theological issues related to the
lostness of mankind, the reality of hell, the authority of Scripture, the
exclusiveness of the gospel, the substitutionary atonement, and the necessity
of repentance and faith, to name a few, will not have Divinely blessed growth.
Churches that drift away from the clear doctrines of the Bible in an effort to
become more culturally palatable may see an increase in numbers in the seats,
but they aren’t truly growing. There is a statement that should guide us here, “What
you win them with is what you win them to.” If a church abandons “the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people,” (Jude 3),
then it’s not winning people to the truth. I ask, what, then, is it winning
people to? It’s growth is not proper growth for a church. This is a very real
problem. No matter how quickly or slowly a church grows, it cannot let
theological drift entrench itself in her ranks.
Small Church Mentality
Small churches often have one, two, three, or (God forbid!) more
people who like it and want it to remain small. Growth is feared for a variety
of reasons. They see themselves as small in the past, present, and future.
Consequently, they assume everyone must know everyone else, that they must be
cared for by the pastor/senior pastor, and fail to pray, plan, and prepare for
growth. But this symptom is not unique to small churches. Medium and large
churches can suffer from the malady of the small church mentality too. Oh, they
may not have elderly Aunt Bessie who voices how much she likes the church small
and wants it to stay that way, but the small church mentality prevails
nonetheless. It becomes evident in how they do church and ministry, their
governmental and decision-making structures, their staffing, their finances,
their programs, and even how their front office personnel conduct themselves.
The small church mentality can pervade any church, regardless of actual size. It
goes without saying, but I will, the church with a small church mentality won’t
grow as it ought.
Staffing Issues
There are two prevalent problems surrounding a church staff that
hinder or thwart real, sustained growth. The first is stepping-stone pastors.
This can be, and most often is, the senior pastor. The average senior pastor’s
tenure today is somewhere around the 5 year mark. When you consider that the
honey-moon period typically vanishes for most pastors around year 3, then they
really only engage in ministry to a church for 2 years before they move on and
have their resumes out for at least a year before they leave. They never invest
in people emotionally or spiritually, but have the “I’m just passing through”
mentality. This is never healthy for a church and will lead to stilted growth,
and even decline, as the trend continues from pastor to pastor. Now, let me
say, I am not opposed to a pastor moving on after a short tenure. Sometimes
pastors overstay when they should move on. There may be real reasons why God
would keep a pastor at a church for a shorter tenure and that short period may
be very healthy for the church in the broader scope of God’s grand design. The
problem I am describing here is the pastor who comes to a church with the
underlying intention of not staying more than a handful of years, but moving on
to the greener grass of the next church. This philosophy is unhealthy for both
pastor and church.
The second staffing issue in most churches is profound and
harmful. Most churches are understaffed with either professional or trained lay
staff. There simply aren’t enough trained leaders and too many people are
trying to fill leadership roles they aren’t designed to fill. The problem becomes
either a lack of staff or the wrong staff. Both problems hinder real church
growth.
Neighborhood
This barrier to church growth is simple, obvious, but too
often ignored by churches. Simply put, the culture inside the church no longer
reflects the culture surrounding the church. For example, a predominantly white,
middle-income congregation wakes up one day to find itself in a neighborhood
which has become predominantly a lower-income, ethnically Hispanic community.
It can work in reverse, a predominantly upper-income African-American church
finds itself in a predominantly middle-income, ethnically white community. The
examples are endless, but the truth is the same. When a church’s congregation
no longer reflects the community which physically resides around it, something
becomes crystal clear; that church is not reaching and assimilating its
community. There may be very real reasons why this happens. Regardless of the
reasons, the church is faced with a strategic decision: make significant
changes to reach and assimilate its surrounding community, or relocate. Failing
to do either will kill the church in the long run.
Finite Facilities
Limited space is a very real problem for every local church.
There is a rule in church growth: 70% full is too full. When a church fills its
main meeting space to 70% capacity, it’s done growing and will shrink if it’s
not addressed. In addition, are classroom space, fellowship space, foyer, parking,
etc., ad infinitum facility considerations
facing every local church. These issues are only compounded when you consider
the increasingly stringent local, city, state, and county infrastructures which,
in many areas of the United States, make it financially and physically
prohibitive for churches to expand their facilities. Churches are faced with
the need to re-evaluate and think outside the box when it comes to their
facilities if they are going to grow.
Money
For many churches, the issue of money is simple; they don’t
have much. For them, it’s a matter of learning to use the money God has given
them in the most strategic way possible to effect growth. For some churches, the
issue of money is much more complex. Their funding is fine, but they just aren’t
using their resources intentionally and strategically to facilitate growth. For
a minority of churches, they have such a surplus of money they don’t know what
to do with it (I’m dreaming, I know). In these instances, power plays, poor
decision-making, and a lack of strategic/mission-driven planning thwart real
growth and the best use of finances. Unfortunately, problems surrounding money
seem to compound in churches when they have enough or more than enough money.
In every case, money can hinder growth.
Conclusion:
The Church Jesus established was intended and designed to
grow. When a church is growing, it is increasing its ability to fulfill its
mission of glorifying God through evangelism and discipleship. When it’s not
growing, the church isn’t fulfilling her mission as she ought. Each of these
barriers to church growth can be symptomatic of deeper issues that must be
addressed theologically and biblically if the church is truly going to witness
lasting health and growth. Knowing these barriers, and others brought to light
in recent years, should help churches to intentionally evaluate themselves and
take strategic steps to rectify the problems.
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