The Christian Post has a great article by Nelson Searcy of The Journey Church (New York City, NY) on how to deal with five common church growth barriers. Here is a list of the five barriers with a quick summary of Searcy’s thoughts on each. My comments are added in bold italics…
Space
When a room reaches 70% of its seating capacity, it’s full. Most churches face growth barriers when attendance reaches 65, 125, 250, 500, and 1,000. It is better to grow to 300 or 400 before starting a second service. We’re at 70% on good Sundays, and over it on great Sundays. We’re over the 65 mark, and we’re still growing. We’ll talk more about that second service…
Self-Development
If the church leaders have stopped maturing spiritually and progressing personally, the congregation is not far behind. Warning signs include stale sermons, the congregation’s passion waning, and the halt of staff and church growth. If the sermons are stale, someone needs to speak up. Passion is a tricky thing. Our growth continues, even if we aren’t adding staff positions constantly.
Sharing
Churches stop growing when they become inwardly (instead of outwardly) focused. Healthy churches should have a 5:100 ratio of first-time guests. We are skirting the danger zone of being inwardly focused. That’s something we’ll be working on for the foreseeable future. Our visitor ratio is above average.
Weekly Worship Service
To keep your service strong, always try to look like a church twice your size. Just one question: If the church that is twice our size is acting like a church twice ITS size, does that mean I should try to act like a pastor of a church that is FOUR times our size?
Staff
Hiring staff is a faith issue. So is the rest of the job. The point remains, however, that we should hire staff BEFORE there is a need, and that has to be done on faith.
For more on each area, read the full article from The Christian Post.
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