How To Grow A Church - Part 2
To continue my comments (How to Grow a Church - Part 1) regarding 10 musts the church should focus on (Structuring to grow, not plateau) written by Rick Warren (famous Christian author and pastor of Saddleback Church).
Here are the last 5:
6. You must offer multiple services.
Obviously, to expand the structure, you will have to multiply, and to multiply, you have to offer multiple worship services. Why? Because more hooks in the water mean you can catch more fish.
At what point should you add a new service? I would say when you can have at least 75-100 people in that service. If you’re trying to reach new people, you have to have a large enough crowd so that the new people who just walked in don’t feel like everybody’s looking at them.
I'm not sure how to take this. Is 75-100 people too small to start another service? I think it might be, unless maybe if you've been at 75-100 for a year or two. I think multiple services are okay, but I also think that if you are going to do mulitple services why not start a new church. Or maybe we can think of each service as it's own church. Hmm.
7. You must create affinity groups to enhance community.
The more affinity groups you have, the more ways you have to connect with people. You want to avoid your church becoming a single-cell amoeba, so deliberately structure your church so it won’t become one big group that doesn’t reach out to other people.
This sounds good, but I think there is more to it than that. You have to do a lot of research and evaluate the church and see what groups would be appropriate - what works for one church may not work for another. I think this is where many churches fall short because they try to copy what is working in another church without seeing where their people are at.
8. You must intentionally break through attendance barriers with big days.
Crowds attract crowds! People like to be around crowds. When you have big, special days -- maybe Easter, maybe a Friend Day -- there’s something about seeing an extra 100 people (or an extra 1,000) that expands your congregation’s vision. They see what the church can be, and they see what it can look like. These special days help the church to see itself as bigger and growing and vibrant.
I love celebrations! And I think this is a great idea, even if they don't always attract big crowds. Getting together to celebrate is always a good thing.
9. You must add surplus seating space and parking.
When it comes to building a facility, most churches build too little and too soon. And then the shoe begins to tell the foot how big it can get! You want to build as big as you can, which means having more than enough seating and more than enough parking. Sometimes that means you’ll have to wait to build until you can build big enough. We didn’t build at Saddleback for years because we knew we wouldn’t be able to build big enough -- we were growing so fast. So don’t limit yourself by building too early.
I think adding multiple services would be a first step before building to see if you've saturated the area. I think you also shouldn't have too much more seating but determining that is the tricky quesiton. Although I don't think you could have too much parking. You can always use the extra parking for basketball and other cool stuff. You will really need to evaluate your own individual church situation to see what is viable. Maybe you should be thinking about a new church rather than growing yours bigger.
10. You must continually evaluate your progress.
Take a regular and honest look at what is going on in your church (and where your church is going). If you try to study everything you’ll end up with the paralysis of analysis, so decide to track three or four significant numbers, such as attendance or small groups.
Then compare the numbers of where you are now with where you’ve come from and where you want to be. Don’t compare yourself with a church down the road. Frankly, that won’t help evaluate the health of your own church.
Finally, decide on a standard for measuring the health of your church and shoot for it. The process is constant; you may hit the mark you’ve set today, but tomorrow is a new day. Continually evaluate your progress and make the necessary adjustments to grow healthy while growing larger.
Can't argue with evaluating. Don't just choose to evaluate the numbers though - look at how the church is effecting people. Are they moving forward on their spiritual journey? Are the people in the church speaking positively or negatively about the church and the people in it? Looking at numbers isn't bad, but it needs to be tempered with the spiritual. Don't forget to include God in the process.
There you have it - my thoughts. What are yours? Feel free to share.
Technorati Tags:
Church, Christianity
Here are the last 5:
6. You must offer multiple services.
Obviously, to expand the structure, you will have to multiply, and to multiply, you have to offer multiple worship services. Why? Because more hooks in the water mean you can catch more fish.
At what point should you add a new service? I would say when you can have at least 75-100 people in that service. If you’re trying to reach new people, you have to have a large enough crowd so that the new people who just walked in don’t feel like everybody’s looking at them.
I'm not sure how to take this. Is 75-100 people too small to start another service? I think it might be, unless maybe if you've been at 75-100 for a year or two. I think multiple services are okay, but I also think that if you are going to do mulitple services why not start a new church. Or maybe we can think of each service as it's own church. Hmm.
7. You must create affinity groups to enhance community.
The more affinity groups you have, the more ways you have to connect with people. You want to avoid your church becoming a single-cell amoeba, so deliberately structure your church so it won’t become one big group that doesn’t reach out to other people.
This sounds good, but I think there is more to it than that. You have to do a lot of research and evaluate the church and see what groups would be appropriate - what works for one church may not work for another. I think this is where many churches fall short because they try to copy what is working in another church without seeing where their people are at.
8. You must intentionally break through attendance barriers with big days.
Crowds attract crowds! People like to be around crowds. When you have big, special days -- maybe Easter, maybe a Friend Day -- there’s something about seeing an extra 100 people (or an extra 1,000) that expands your congregation’s vision. They see what the church can be, and they see what it can look like. These special days help the church to see itself as bigger and growing and vibrant.
I love celebrations! And I think this is a great idea, even if they don't always attract big crowds. Getting together to celebrate is always a good thing.
9. You must add surplus seating space and parking.
When it comes to building a facility, most churches build too little and too soon. And then the shoe begins to tell the foot how big it can get! You want to build as big as you can, which means having more than enough seating and more than enough parking. Sometimes that means you’ll have to wait to build until you can build big enough. We didn’t build at Saddleback for years because we knew we wouldn’t be able to build big enough -- we were growing so fast. So don’t limit yourself by building too early.
I think adding multiple services would be a first step before building to see if you've saturated the area. I think you also shouldn't have too much more seating but determining that is the tricky quesiton. Although I don't think you could have too much parking. You can always use the extra parking for basketball and other cool stuff. You will really need to evaluate your own individual church situation to see what is viable. Maybe you should be thinking about a new church rather than growing yours bigger.
10. You must continually evaluate your progress.
Take a regular and honest look at what is going on in your church (and where your church is going). If you try to study everything you’ll end up with the paralysis of analysis, so decide to track three or four significant numbers, such as attendance or small groups.
Then compare the numbers of where you are now with where you’ve come from and where you want to be. Don’t compare yourself with a church down the road. Frankly, that won’t help evaluate the health of your own church.
Finally, decide on a standard for measuring the health of your church and shoot for it. The process is constant; you may hit the mark you’ve set today, but tomorrow is a new day. Continually evaluate your progress and make the necessary adjustments to grow healthy while growing larger.
Can't argue with evaluating. Don't just choose to evaluate the numbers though - look at how the church is effecting people. Are they moving forward on their spiritual journey? Are the people in the church speaking positively or negatively about the church and the people in it? Looking at numbers isn't bad, but it needs to be tempered with the spiritual. Don't forget to include God in the process.
There you have it - my thoughts. What are yours? Feel free to share.
Technorati Tags:
Church, Christianity
2 comments:
I really liked this article, and i think alot of the 'older' advice still rings true when looking for wisdom in planting a church. i noticed alot of times when the article suggested more service times, or building a large church to accomadate alot of people, you suggested starting another church. That's what alot of churches do, but alot of the time that puts huge extra pressure on the staff of the first church, who often help staff the new one until it gets off the ground. it's alot of resources and time an energy on the Pastor and the church to start another one, although that usually the best path. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the article, and i generally agreed with them. good post.
-aurora
In my suggestions of starting a new church, I was not expecting the planting church to use their staff, but to develop leaders from within or to have the existing staff move to the plant and the mother church hire new staff.
I wonder if this make sense.
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