Church Growth

Chrysalis Factor

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Chrysalis

There are times I feel somewhat like a sea captain who took charge of a ship that had experienced unprecedented prosperity under the direction of his predecessor, and then sprung a leak a few months into his tenure.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the church where I serve, but some of the challenges came as a bit of a surprise.  Chiefly a decline in attendance and a corresponding budgetary strain.

In some ways this was inevitable. In some ways this is circumstantial. And in other ways it is personal.

It was inevitable because nothing stays the same forever. No organization, or organism, experiences perpetual increase in prosperity.  Sooner or later, changes, challenges, and a period of decline is certain.

It is circumstantial, if for no other reason, the nature of the community where our church is located is a very fluid, very transient community, Many who live here are in the military, and so they are only here for a short time. Others who live here have retired – often early – and come to enjoy the wealth of cultural, historical, and natural amenities. However, there seems to be a pattern – when one member of the marriage, husband or wife, experience injury or become ill, the couple moves away, back home, or somewhere near their children.  Understandable. While Williamsburg is a beautiful place to settle, they have no roots here, so they move on.

It is personal in the sense that whenever a church changes pastors there is almost always some turnover among the members.  No matter how capable the new minister is, his presence is a constant reminder that things have changed; that this is not exactly the church that they had joined anymore.  And as American church culture becomes increasingly more consumeristic, the less likely folks are to stick around to get used to the changes.  After all, if they have to adjust to change, why not use it as an opportunity to trade in for a new model that has some amenities that they had not been looking for a few years ago, but would provide a pleasant upgrade.  Consequently new pastors are often not treated like people, who might have feelings, but rather as a commodity to be embraced or discarded at the whim of the customer.  Or another aspect of the personal – some church members just don’t like the new pastor’s personality (or lack of it).

I suspect differing measures of all three of these played a part in our initial decline.  Fortunately we remained stable. We have a good cohesive staff; wise and godly officers who work as a team, a band of brothers; and no panic or finger pointing from the congregation.  So despite our leak our ship has remained in pretty good shape.

As we move forward it is essential to assess where we are, and to map out where we are headed.

At present we are in what Thom Rainer calls the Chrysalis Period.  According to Rainer, during the Chrysalis Period a church or organization undergoes changes beneath the surface that are necessary to become what we will inevitably become.

The chrysalis is the pupa of a butterfly encased in a cocoon. It is the former caterpillar and the future butterfly. It is the stage when the worm-like, slow-moving caterpillar becomes a beautiful, free-flying butterfly.

I like the imagery.  It seems apt.  We are a work in process.  And not all that is going on is evident to all who take a look.

More Than Numbers

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

Miracle Gro

Here is a needed reminder:

I’m not so sure God cares how big your church is. Seriously. If your numbers aren’t “growing,” so what? I’m also not sure that the sign of a vibrant healthy church is ever-increasing growth, significant growth. It seems to me that the sign of a vibrant, healthy fully alive church is one where God’s people are growing in love, knowledge, and insight, not numbers. I’d rather be in a church like this than a church that is “growing” with greater numbers of people with shallow faiths who do not love well.

Where did Paul ever rebuke a church because their numbers were not growing by some set of hoped for percentage points?

Great point. I would add: Or Jesus, in his Letters to the 7 Churches in Revelation 2-3…

I get the church growth rationale.  And I agree with some of the foundations of it, at least as it was originally developed as a mission strategy. But the American obsession with Bigger is Better has distorted much – maybe most – of the good that the original proponents of church growth may have intended.  Many of us have misapplied the whole concept of growth and mistaken it as the measuring stick for God’s blessing.  Size of a congregation is about as good of an indicator of being blessed by God, as is wealth an indicator of worth; or better still, as height an indicator of greatness.  (In other words, not a valid standard at all.) Consequently, faithfulness and substance is often subverted by gimmicks and pragmatism.  Whatever works to get them in… right?

Years ago, while I was servivng a fast growing congregation (that a year later showed the evidence of serious fractures), a good and gifted friend was “languishing” in a church that could not quite break the 100 barrier – even on Easter.  He was discouraged –  to put it mildly.  To encourage him, I offered a parallel thought.  Knowing of a huge community college in his city, I asked about the number of students who attended the school. He said he estimated 50,000 – 60,000 students.  So I observed that the school must be some impressive, prestigious place.  After all Harvard has only 6000 or so students.  The guy who is president of that community college must be thought of as having had 10 times the success as the guy who can’t lead a school any larger than Harvard!

He got the my point of my sarcasm.  It is a ridiculous analogy to compare a community college with a school with the history, the resources, and he selectivity of a Harvard.  Size is no indication of anything.  And neither is size any measure of a church.

 

To read the whole short post I quoted at the top, click: A Healthy Vibrant Church May Never Be Big

 

 

Center Church

/ Dennis Griffith / 7 Comments

I picked up Tim Keller‘s newest book, Center Church.  It hit the bookstore shelves this morning.  I have as yet read only a few chapters. But as expected it is an excellent expression of holistic gospel-centered ministry.  In short it is a book about forming a Theological Vision for ministry, and living out that vision faithfully in whatever context one may live and serve in such a way as to be fruitful.

In particular I appreciate how from the outset Keller explains the difference and navigates between the two common ministry measuring sticks, success & faithfulness.  It seems to me that too many act as if we should assume these are mutually exclusive  – as if either is a sufficient goal or gauge.  Keller instead prefers fruitfulness, seeing both benefits and limitations of success and faithfulness as the simple objectives.  Fruitfulness is the end result of the complex web of faithfulness, competence, and the work of God’s Spirit. Success, whatever that really is, is not eschewed, but seen in light of the components of fruitfulness within a particular social context.

Now while I have not read the entire book, I did have one criticism from the outset.  While the book is less than 400 pages, and the chapters are easily readable (in other words, one need not be a theological scholar to follow along), the size of the book has the odd dimensions of a textbook.  This will look strange among most of the other books on my shelf.  But, I guess, if that remains my chief gripe, there is not much to complain about.

6 Foundation Points for the Church

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

According to Dann Spader and Gary Mayes there are six foundational aspects of ministry crucial to cultivate an environment for (healthy) church growth.  While the culture has changed quite a bit in the twenty years since Spader & Mayes published their thoughts, their points are still valid.

1. Create an atmosphere of love

Jesus’ insight, “By this will all men know that [we] love one another,” (John 13:35) has never been more true.

2. Build a relational ministry

Building relationships with people was an intentional, aggressive agenda for Christ. “He spent time with his disciples” (John 3:22). He lived by the principle that people respond when we reach out to them.

3. Communicate Christ clearly

In a world that knows only caricatures of Christ, people need to know him as he really is. We must present him and his message of life and grace as he gave it, so that people might build a real relationship with the living Savior.

4. Build a healthy ministry image

What kind of vision do the people in your ministry have for the work to which God has called them? How confident are they in his ability to accomplish the task he has entrusted to them? Cohesiveness, commitment to the cause, receptivity to change, and teachability are all related to a healthy group image.

5. Mobilize a prayer base

Our task is to effect spiritual life change. This kind of spiritual work is not accomplished by human means. As we move into the arena of prayer, God moves into the arena of our lives.

6. Communicate the Word

Research has shown that even our most regular church-goers have some biblical illiteracy. We continually need to evaluate our teaching to insure God’s Word is being taught accurately

Again, while I believe all these points are valid they are not equally important. Nor is this list sufficient.

I think I would appreciate them more if they were reordered.  In particular #4 may be a practical truth but I would put it last.  In fact, I suspect #4 would be best described as a consequence of faithfully and effectively doing the other five.  To list it higher, even as high as the authors do, suggests that marketing and branding is more important to the health and success of the church than prayer and biblical literacy among the church members.  But then one must remember that when these authors wrote this book Marketing the Church was the “new” rage, so the these guys are in places merely reflecting their times.

That said, I suspect the absence of #4 in a congregation may serve as a caution flag.  If #4, as it is described above, is absent it may be like a warning light on a dashboard that tells us to “Check Engine”. Something is amiss: One or more of the other points are not functioning properly in a particular body.

These insights were originally published in in the book Growing a Healthy Church.  

4 Ingredients for an Assimilation Recipe

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

It has been said:

When people visit a church they are not so much looking for friendly people as they are looking for new friends. If all they wanted was friendliness they could go to almost any store in the mall and find it.

I have always sensed that there is much truth in this statement.  But understanding this is one thing, knowing how to practically flesh it out is quite another.  It is a question of assimilation: How do we connect new folks with others in our church, and to the church itself, to a degree that these newcomers feel they can make it their home?

There are at least four ingredients that should be integrated and implemented:

1. Awareness of the Stranger in our midst

Sometimes churches are so in-grown that the people do not even seem to be aware of newcomers. They warmly greet one another, and chat with long-time friends to catch up on the week and to get the follow-up details from previous conversations. And this may be a genuine expression of caring people.  But when the focus is so zeroed-in on the old friends, the antenna sometimes fails to pick up the presence of the newcomer.

How should we resolve this? It’s simple.  Mike it a priority to look for unfamiliar faces first.

2. Greeting Strangers

It should go without having to be said, but it does little to no good to be aware of newcomers if we do not act on that awareness.  But it is something that does have to be said.  As I have seen, many times church members may scan the room for “outsiders” yet make no effort to greet them – much less welcome and befriend them.  So ingredient two is simple: Greet the Stranger.  Make the effort. Go talk to them.  In fact, it might be a good idea to implement the 2-Minute rule in many of our congregations.

What is the 2-Minute Rule?  The 2-Minute Rule is simply this:  after the service, or during a greeting time if one is offered during the service, church members are not to talk to their friends for the first two minutes, unless no guests are present.  Find the visitors. And if they are in a crowd talking to other church members, find someone you do not ordinarily talk to and talk to them.  Some may need to extend this to a 5-Minute Rule, especially in larger, newer, or growing churches.

3. Ask Questions to Connect

Simply saying “Hello” and/or “Welcome” is certainly better than ignoring the stranger, but it does not lead to developing relationships. It is not an adequate expression of the hospitality we, as Christians, are expected to practice.  We need to go further. We need to begin to connect.  It is only through personal connection that newcomers will begin to feel at home.

One question to avoid would be: “What are you doing here?” (Though, I suspect this probably is the question most frequently conveyed, whether spoken or not, in most in-grown churches.)

But what questions should we ask?  Well, there are many that could be appropriate.  Perhaps some suggested questions can be the topic of another post.  In the mean time, just ask any of the women who were in a college sorority.

4. Connect People to Other People

There is a general rule of assimilation that people need to make a minimum of five personal connections in a church to feel at home. (This is especially true for women.  And 80% of the time it is the wife who will make the final determination about what church a family will ultimately attend.)  So while it is great to connect through questions, it is equally important to introduce newcomers to other people.

Introduce people to those you know best. Introduce them to people you know who have similar interests, or are in a similar life stage, or live in the same neighborhood as the the strangers.  Introduce them to other newcomers.  Just realize that the more introductions the more opportunities to make those connections necessary to make one feel at home.

These ingredients in no way exhaust the components of an assimilation plan, but they are a simple and significant starting point.

Is Church Growth a Biblical Expectation?

/ Dennis Griffith / 2 Comments

I was intrigued by the insights of Jay Childs in an article he wrote for Leadership Journal.  The article, titled Church Growth vs. Church Seasons, focuses on the American fascination with large numbers.  After telling some of his own story, Jay makes three primary observations:

  1. Our Situation is Not Unusual
  2. Non-Stop Numerical Growth is NOT a Biblical Expectation
  3. Healthy Churches Go Through Life-Cycles of Growth, Pruning, Decline, Blessing

While I appreciated the whole article, it was the insights of the second point that most resonated with me:

Ever since eminent missiologist Donald McGavran first published his seminal thoughts on church growth, American churches have often fixated on numerical growth. The basic assumption seems to be this: all churches should be growing numerically, all the time, and something is wrong if your church isn’t.

But as I’ve searched the New Testament and read countless other books on the subject, this assumption seems to be alien to the Bible. There is simply no biblical expectation that a local congregation will continually grow in size, uninterrupted. That seems to be an American presupposition forced onto the Scriptures.

If anything, Jesus told us to expect the opposite. He did promise that the gates of hell would not stand against the church, but he also commended the church in Philadelphia for standing firm though they had “little power.” He never criticizes any of the seven churches in Revelation for not accumulating numbers. He does scold, however, for moral and theological compromise.

Lesslie Newbigin writes in The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, “Reviewing the teaching of the New Testament, one would have to say, on the one hand, there is joy in the rapid growth of the church in the earliest days, but on the other, there is no evidence that numerical growth of the church is a matter of primary concern. There is no shred of evidence in Paul’s letters to suggest that he judged the churches by the measure of their success in rapid numerical growth. [Nowhere is there] anxiety or an enthusiasm about the numerical growth of the church.”

Continue reading →

7 Ways to Be a Great Host

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

There is an ancient rule among the Benedictines: 

“Let every guest who arrives be received like Christ. For He is going to say, ‘I came as a guest and you received me’.”

This would be a good concept for all churches to remember and instill.

Unlike most churches in our country, the church I have the privilege to pastor frequently and regularly has new visitors.  But like most churches, we have much to learn before we could claim that the Rule of Benedict is an accurate description of our congregational practice.

I am confident some would feel it is true of us already. I have never been part of a church that better demonstrates a love for one another than Walnut Hill Church does. And that love is frequently extended to our guests.  That’s why many of them are now part of the family.

But I also suspect that there are others, for whatever reasons, who have come and gone without necessarily having experienced the same thing. While it is obvious that we will never get to the point where we will keep everyone, I am concerned about those who do not stick because they did not feel loved, or perhaps even welcomed.

Studies indicate that the typical church needs to keep 16% of first-time guests in order to have a growth rate that roughly keeps pace with the annual national birth rate.  Churches that are growing and healthy generally see a 25-30% rate of assimilation/integration of those who visit.  (By the way, on average, 85% of guests who return the following week generally join with that church.) 

Gary McIntosh, in his book, Beyond the First Visit, offers seven suggestions about how church members can move beyond being friendly to becomming great hosts:

  1. Invite your guests with a personal invitation.
  2. Arrive early and make sure everything is prepared for your guests’ arrival.
  3. Greet the guests warmly at the entrance and escort them to their seats.
  4. Assist guests with understanding what is taking place.
  5. Anticipate as many questions as possible in advance, so guests do not have to ask.
  6. Do something extra to make your guests’ visit special.
  7. Walk guests to the door and invite them back.

Let me suggest that these suggestions be adopted by individual church members. Don’t try to program this as much as cultivate it.  There is no need to wait for the pastor, or some formal committee, to be hospitable.

How to KEEP Your Church FROM Vitality & Fruitfulness

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

There are conferences, seminars, articles, books, curricula telling us how to grow a church. It’s high time the other side of the issue be considered. While I don’t guarantee these easy-to-apply steps will always keep your church from health and vitality, they will, with proper application, certainly increase the chances of stagnation.

1. Change Pastors Every Few Years.

This will assure that no pastor gets too much “power.” It will also discourage members from committing to any long-term goals or growth efforts. And those brought into the church by the pastor’s personal ministry will feel insecure because “their” pastor may not stay more than a couple of years.

2. Don’t Allow New People to Serve.

This applies particularly to those who have never been a church member before, or who were recently converted. These people tend to identify strongly with the group from which they came and offer many unwanted suggestions for reaching others from those groups. By insisting that they serve a proper and lengthy “probationary period” before participating in church decision-making, they can be stalled until they lose their enthusiasm and relationships with the un-churched.  Once this happens, THEN they can be used for church work.

3. Split Up Small Groups & Ministry Teams Regularly.

This will greatly frustrate the people who are most active in the church. They won’t have a chance to build and strngthen meaningful relationships; and they will not develop any deep sense of belonging, ownership, or empowerment.

4. Try to Reach Only People in ‘Stable’ Situations.

Since people are often more responsive to the Gospel following geographic, social, vocational, or life-situational changes, concentrate on people in stable circumstances to minimize contacts with the kind of people that often lead to responsiveness and change.

5. Don’t Send Your Pastor to Conferences or Encourage Him to Read Books on Evangelism & Mission.

If he insists on attending such a workshop, make sure no other church leaders go with him. Enthusiasm for outreach and mission can be easily squelched as long as the pastor is the only one who gets enthused.

6. Emphasize “Quality not Quantity.”

This one almost always works!

Make it sound like those who want to see new people join the church are playing the ‘numbers game’.  The myth that numerical growth automatically and spontaneously comes as a result of spiritual growth – without actual outreach and evangelism – is believed by many, so take advantage of it. 

Also, point to unmet needs of your own people as the only real concern of the church, and the primary concerns for the pastor.

7. Don’t Be Friendly to Visitors.

If this seems too extreme, be friendly to them at first – THEN ignore them! Don’t visit them.  Don’t invite them to church activities.  Don’t talk to them during the week. Above all: DON’T become friends with them!

8. Don’t Invite People to Visit or Join Your Church.

 We can justify this by saying: “We don’t want to force church membership on anybody.”   To neighbors and guests it says: “You don’t belong here.”  But that’s all we need. 

One variable to this is to allow the pastor to be the only one to do the inviting and relationship building.

 9. Try to Reach Everyone In Your Community the Same Way.

Ignore racial, social, economic, linguistic, and cultural differences. Assume all people are like you – or they should be. 

A  church out to “reach everybody”, without considering even subtle cultural differences, using the same old strategies used in the past, often reaches nobody. Churches are effective when they recognize these distinctions, and develop relevent strategies to serve the different segments of their community.

If you don’t want to grow, don’t aim at a target.

 10. Make Growth Entirely Dependent on the Holy Spirit.

 This not only encourages prayerlessness and evangelistic laziness on our part, but it gives us a convenient excuse if growth doesn’t occur.  We can always blame God.

 11. Don’t Staff & Don’t Budget for Outreach & Mission.

Our resources are precious and limited. Staff and budget for Christian Education, Youth Ministries, etc. first.  Staff and budget for outreach & mission ONLY after these priorities are perfectly met.

 12. Insist on Using Evangelistic Methods That Were Used During the ‘Good Old Days’.

 Don’t consider methods that God may be using today.  Stick with crusades, simplistic tracts, and answering questions no one is asking.

By all means avoid meeting actual needs.  A church that adresses the needs of the poor – like Jesus & Paul said we should – might be accused of Liberalism and promoting a Social Gospel.

13. Don’t Set Goals.

Say that goals produce frustration. Discourage measurement of any kind. Label statistical analysis as ‘worldly’. If that fails, label it ‘demonic and destructive’.   Though that may be unfair, and UNTRUE, it will certainly discourage goal-setting and statistical analysis as a diagnostic tool.

 14. Say that God Doesn’t Want the Church to Grow.

 Though this statement may be false, you can dig up enough proof-texts to make it seem believable.

 15. Don’t Advertise Your Church.

 Any advertising should be avoided. Especially don’t let newcomers to your community know where your church is, when services are held, and what ministries might be most beneficial to them.

If you must advertise, put the ad on the church page where only those already churched are likley to see it. And put a picture of the pastor or the building on it, not something that would be of interest to anyone outside your church. And never put a picture of people enjoying themselves together in Christ. Never promote something that might connect with the un-Churched.

 16. Don’t Pray for Kingdom Advancement.

 Pray for people in hospitals and on sick lists. Pray for generic “spiritual blessings”.  Pray for missions, but not specific prayers for individual missionaries; Not prayers informed about the challenges missionaries face in their particular locations and work. Pray only for un-named people who you will never meet.  Pray only for people to be healed.  NEVER pray for un-churched neighbors and friends. NEVER pray for God to change you and/or your church to become more godly.

***

This post is satirical and sarcastic.  I have edited and adapted it from a chapter titled: 17 Way to Keep Your Church from Gowing.  from a book by Mike Grogan, then-pastor of the Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH.  I don’t know if he is still the pastor there. Nor do I recall the title of the book.

Mere Marketing Misses the Mark

/ Dennis Griffith / 2 Comments

target

This had to be one of the more irritating telemarketing calls I can recall. 

Some guy cold-called me at my church office yesterday and wanted me to give him a blow-by-blow of our Outreach strategy.  He had a service to sell that would “enhance” our attractiveness to the community.  To listen to him it sounded like a can’t miss thing.  One problem with that ‘can’t miss program’… I had used similar services in past churches, and my present church had used it prior to my arrival.  All previous tries were whiffs. We attracted ZERO.  And we blessed no one – except, maybe, the sellers of the service.

But the “selling” of the church is not the only thing that gauled me.

One thing that rubbed me the wrong way was the pretense of selling this service, not for the money but for the benefit of the Church.  What c-#-@-p!; err, what a joke.  Who did he think he’s kidding? (Or, is he kidding himself?)  I have no objection to people being in business to make money.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Even in the church supply business there is nothing wrong with profit.  Scripture speaks against dishonest gain, not against  legitimate gains.  So this guy had no reason to hide the fact that he is in business. Just own up to it. To deny it leads me to mistrust him even more.

A second thing, and what probably bugged me most, was that he had the audacity to demand that I explain to him about our Outreach program.  He really insisted. Ordinarily I am happy to share our vision. But this was a cold-call telemarketer.  I don’t have time for that.  Trying to get off the phone, I simply expressed: “We’re doing fine.”  Yet, he kept pushing, even asking sarcasitcally: “Doesn’t your church want new people to come?”  Since when did I, or our church, become accountable to this guy?

Finally, in retrospect, I am also a little disappointed.  I finally gave the guy a brief synopsis of our Outreach strategy. Our plan is simply:  “To Bless the community where God has sovereignly placed us.”  Though we are happy our church has grown significantly in both members and attendance over the past two years, that’s not what we want to be about. It is not about us. It is about God’s glory & grace. It is about loving our neighbors. We are intentionally becoming more Incarnational than Attractional. In other words we are measuring our health more-and-more by the way we go out into the community to serve those around us than by the number of people we put on our rolls.  Therefore we are engaging in things like Prayerwalking, Servant Evangelism, and equipping and unleashing our members to serve in a number of ways throughout the Mountain Empire.  We are learning to express the love of Christ in practical ways to our neighbors.  Eventually we hope to be able to express the love of Christ in significant ways…

But marketing, while it may have a place for the church, will never of itself help us meet those objectives.  Marketing by it’s very nature is about selling of self.  Marketing is about “US”.

What was disappointing is that this guy didn’t comprehend what I was telling him.  Not at all.  His paradigm only allowed him to digest the work of the church in one way – mere numbers attending our church.

What is more disappointing is that I suspect this guy reflects the majority understanding of mission permeating American Evangelicalism: “It’s All About Us.”   And with that perspective – even when we sincerely think we are doing God a favor when our churches grow – our influence has steadily diminished throughout our society. 

We have ignored the covenant mandate made with Abram in Genesis 12, that the Lord’s plan is to bless all Peoples through us; we have neglected Christ’s madate to love our neighbors (Mark 12); and have have forgotten the example of the early church (Acts 2).  How else can we explain this narcissistic myopia in Evangleicalism?

Let me finish with this: I’m not opposed to church growth.  I agree that healthy churches do grow; and that ‘non-growth’ is nothing to take pride in.  But I have learned that not all growth is healthy; and that sometimes a period of stagnation or even decline may in reality be an opportunity for a chrysalis period.  Again, I have the privilege to pastor a church that is showing growth.  But either way, when our focus is primarily on ourselves it is not where it needs to be: first, on God; and second, significantly on blessing our neighbors.  (Mark 12.28-31)

When we learn to effectively place the emphasis in the proper order, God is glorified, our neighbors are blessed, and we are all better off.