Growth

Mission

         Monthly

 

Has anyone else noticed that we don't talk about growth much anymore? It was the buzz word twenty or more years ago, but now we seem to be more concerned with holding onto what we have got, maintenance not mission. Were we in love with techniques rather than dependent on the Spirit? Or did we just not want to pay the costly price that growth always demands?

Despite the dangers (and they are real), numerical growth must be moved up the priority list of the local church.  God wants people to get to know Him – and then go on growing while they help other people to meet Him.  If God’s will is to get done there will have to be lots of big churches and/or lots and lots of small churches to get them all in!  It is God’s ‘norm’ for the church to grow, and the local leaders have to take the initiative in this. Grass-roots opinion may spur them into action, but without their genuine commitment to it, growth will not happen – the pastor's role in all this is crucial. In the thrombosis of the church the minister is often the clot!  They are the ones usually causing the church’s decline, or allowing it to do no more than simply ‘hold its own’.

There are three key characteristics I have found in the leadership of growing churches. They have vision, they are prepared to actually lead, and they know where they are going and how to get there.

We must be leaders with a prophetic vision. Brilliant administrative gifts, a sound theological education and a multitude of clever ideas cannot make up for a lack of vision.  The urgent task of the leader who has a desire to see church growth must first be to see God and get his vision for the church.  Armed with this vision, we can go on to explore the specific needs of our own locality to arrive at an ‘earthed vision’, that is, God’s mandate specifically applied to our situation.

Good leaders who lead are in short supply. Invariably, a growing church has leaders who are not afraid to make unpopular decisions, suggest major changes or take risks.  They are usually enthusiasts and always hard workers.  Churches with an unhealthy emphasis on democracy or an unwieldy committee structure tend not to grow.  And while  responding to pastoral crises, congregational pressure groups and fabric needs are important, what about our pro-active role?  Shouldn’t godly leadership be having a positive input into the life of the body?  Examine a few of the agendas of your leaders’ meetings.  How much material is there because of pressure from God and how much because of pressure from members?  Growing churches need at least as much pro-active material on their agendas as reactive.

Setting Goals

Leaders in growing churches know where they are going. Real change will require us to be ruthlessly objective.  Why are we doing this?  What is it accomplishing?  Can it be done better?  Should we be doing something else?  Don’t be fobbed off with ‘We’ve always done it’, ‘People are blessed (oh dreaded cliché!) by it’, or ‘You mustn’t upset those who attend.’ Are people being converted or discipled?  Is worship improving?  It is so easy for churches to drift for years without accomplishing anything significant.

And how then do we motivate the church to grow? Firstly, we have to defeat fear. People are so often resistant to change, and while they say they want growth, they may want it without thinking through the implications of it. Growth inevitably means change.

Finally, we need some goals.  I’ve found that, to be effective, they need to be agreed, shared, achievable, measurable and reviewed regularly. You cannot impose them without consultation. You need to keep people up to date on their progress. You need to stretch faith but not snap it, know when you have met the goal, and assess where the church is regularly. Almost all of church life would benefit from having faith-goals.  Whatever we decide to go for . . . let’s go for it!

(first published in the Baptist Times May 2010)