A few weeks ago, some of us attended a workshop on churches breaking the 125 barrier. It was one of the best workshops any of us had ever attended.
My message today is based on the thoughts and notes from that day. I have had some time to chew up what we learned and digest it and figure it out so it would totally clear to me so I could bring it to you. I believe that this is very important.
Our church is on the move. We are moving closer to God. We are moving closer to each other. We are moving closer to being the church that we are supposed to be.
If we are going to continue to be a church on the move, we need to be “a whatever it takes” church.
Whatever it takes to reach people.
Whatever it takes to bring Jesus to people.
Whatever it takes to see people grow in God.
Whatever it takes to see our church grow in numbers.
Whatever it takes to bring the manifestation of the power of God into our lives.
In other words we are going to do whatever it takes to bring the kingdom of God into our area. As long as whatever it takes lines up with the Word of God we are going to do it. No ifs ands or buts about it.
Whatever it takes to reach the generations for God we are going to do it and it doesn’t matter the cost; money, reputations, time; it doesn’t matter what others think, it doesn’t matter how much work it is going to take, whatever it takes we are going to move forward.
We all need to ask ourselves a fairly serious question. The question being, do we want the church to grow?
Most of us would agree that we would like to see the church as a whole grow and we are committed to helping that happen, but what about Winfield Open Bible? Do we want WOBC to grow?
Research tells us that over half of the churches in the United States are below 100 people. The average church in America has an average attendance in Sunday School of 66 people. We are slightly below that average.
The average church in America has an average of 87 people who attend their primary worship service.
We are right around that mark. In December we averaged about 95 and last week we had 120 people in our service.
We are already moving in the right direction. We are moving forward. We are growing. And we need to make sure that we continue to grow.
Statistics show us that some churches will never become larger than 100 people. I think that this is a sad commentary on the church. What that tells me is that the church is not doing what the church needs to be doing to grow. It tells me that Christians are not doing what they need to be doing. It tells me that pastors are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.
We need to have a desire to grow.
And when we have the desire to grow two things must happen. Each person must change and the church must change.
You may not like change but in order to grow we have to be open to change.
I am not suggesting that we change the message. That is something that will never change. But our methods, they are going to have to change and they have been changing.
In order for churches to grow some things must die. It is the principle of pruning. Change has to take place. People have to grow up. People have to mature in Christ.
The neat thing about this is the older you get the more desperate you become. The older we become in God brings us to a point in our lives that we are more desperate for God’s touch than we are for anything else.
That is the way we need to be. We need a greater desperation for God in our lives, in our homes, in our work places, in our schools, and in our churches.
Church growth expert and author Rick Warren states, “The wrong question to ask is what will cause my church to grow. The right question to ask is this, what is keeping my church from growing.”
This is the question I want to answer today. Is it God’s promise for our church to grow? If so, what would keep our church from growing?
The truth is, God is on our side and He does want our church to grow and He has even promised us that if we keep our eyes on Him and we are obedient to His will, the church will grow.
READ 2 Peter 3:9 NLT “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
This is God’s desire. He wants the church to grow. His desire is for people to turn to Him through Jesus Christ. The alternative is to spend eternity in hell, which is not God’s desire.
LET’S PRAY
Father we ask for Your anointing on us today. Place Your anointing on me as Your messenger today. God move in our lives. Rip open the heavens and visit Your people today.
Open our eyes so that we may see Your Word. Open our ears so that we may hear Your Word. Open our minds so that we may understand Your Word. Open our hearts so that we may receive Your Word today. AMEN
What is it that keeps churches from growing? To answer that question we must first understand the characteristics of a small church. By small church I mean any church that has an average attendance below 80 people.
Dr. Jim Brewer, who pastured a small church of 65 people and watched it grow to 600, identifies seven characteristics of a small church.
First, small churches have a strong sense of belonging.
How many of you have heard this before? “I go to this church because my parents go to this church, my grandparents go to this church, and by great grandparents went to this church.”
Or how about this one? “I was born in this church and I will die in this church.”
Small churches have strong family and blood ties within them.
This can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. For example, when a visitor comes to the church and he is introduced to everyone. “Hi I’m Sam Citizen” and he is met by John Smith, Jim Smith, Anne Smith, Fred Smith, Paul Smith, Jeanne Smith, Sister Smith, Brother Smith, Francis Smith and about ten other Smiths.
Because of those family ties and blood ties the church becomes a place that places a lot of importance on traditions of the past and the philosophies of the past family members.
On the positive side, families that have been in the church for a long time who have invested their time and efforts into the work of God and are behind the vision of the leadership can be quite helpful.
Second, there is no structure for intimacy in a small church. Intimacy is not valued.
In larger churches you are forced to meet people and build relationships with people. This is a good thing because it helps you get to know others deeply and it helps you to be accountable to others.
Intimacy today is misunderstood. The most common thought regarding intimacy in our society is based on a sexual experience between two people.
Don’t get me wrong, when a man and a woman are joined in the bonds of holy matrimony then they should have that kind of relationship. But there is more to intimacy than just sex.
I found the word intimacy in one translation of the Bible, in the Amplified version. It reads;
But if one loves God truly [with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of His blessing], he is known by God [recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love, and he is owned by Him]. 1 Corinthians 8:3 AMP
The Biblical thought of intimacy is best defined as an absence of fences so that neither party would know privacy
Intimacy is an emotional connection with another and that connection is returned. It has the elements of sharing, caring, giving, receiving, and trusting. It is the ability to communicate with the other person and it includes vulnerability and self-disclosure.
In order to have intimacy it will be intense and it will take a lot of work.
The bottom line is that we need to know each other, we need to connect with each other, we need to be sharing, caring, giving, receiving and trusting with each other. When we have that kind of intimacy we can be accountable to each other, we can nurture each other, and we can help each other grow.
Third, small churches base their identity on the past.
Our heritage is good but it is not our legacy. Our legacy is what we leave for the future.
We get stuck on the fact that we never did it that way before and because we never did it that way we resist doing it any other way.
Small churches that do not grow are resistant to change.
People no longer look for churches that base their existence on what they did 10, 20 or 50 years ago. They look for churches that are moving forward not backward.
Fourth, many small churches are an end in themselves.
People think that coming to church is all about what they want and what they can get and that is not the right mentality.
It’s not about you and it’s not about me, it’s about following God.
Fifth, churches under 80 tend to be facility based.
In other words, people have their part of the building and you better not sit there. How many of you are sitting in the same place you always sit? How many of you get upset when someone sits in your place?
I have heard horror stories from other pastors who have had people in their churches actually ask visitors to move because they were sitting in their seats.
We have to remember, this is not my church, this is not your church; this is Jesus Christ’s church.
Sixth, small churches by their very nature are resistant to change.
This goes back to number three and back to some of my opening statements. If we are going to grow then things have to change. The message doesn’t change but methods do change.
In order for churches to grow some things must die. It is the principle of pruning. Change has to take place. People have to grow up. People have to mature in Christ. Some programs have to be cut, some philosophies have to change, some traditions have to be abandoned.
In order for this to happen the church must be mature. It takes maturity in order for the kingdom of God to advance. Matthew 11:12 “the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”
You cannot be forceful if you are a little child. You can’t go up against the enemy if you are not ready to fight. We have to grow, we have to mature.
Seventh, small churches are strong and resilient.
This is the positive aspect of the small church. They have staying power. They are hard to get rid of.
Once we have figured out what keeps churches from growing then we need to set some principles for growing.
Authors Rick Warren and Nelson Searcy identify 9 principles to aid a church in growing past the national average.
1. Determine it is God’s will for our church to grow.
The Word of God tells us that it is God’s will for the church to grow. The words of 2 Peter 3:9 should be enough to prove that but if they are not then look at Mark 16:15-18.
“He (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mark 16:15-18
Go and preach to all. That is enough for me to understand that it is God’s will for the church to grow.
2. The role of the pastor must change from minister caregiver to minister leader.
Look at Moses; he had to go through this change in Exodus 18. Moses was caring for one million people and it was wearing him down. He served as judge for all the people and when his father in law saw this he gave Moses some good advice.
Paraphrasing it he said, “Moses, you need to delegate. You need to have a team. You are the coach so get some assistant coaches and some trainers. Get some help!”
God has gifted people in the church to help out so get them to work. If you don’t believe me look at Ephesians 4:11-12.
“He gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-12 NLT
Pastors need to take their hands off some things. And I have been doing that.
3. Take it slowly if the church has hit a plateau.
If the church has stopped growing you have to carefully get it moving again and then. And then move with the movers.
4. Compile a leadership inventory. How many leaders does our church have have?
We always need to be on the watch for upcoming leaders. And then once we identify them we need to mentor them and train them to lead.
5. Plan big days where you intentionally break through the barriers.
This is something we have been doing here for the last few years. Big days like on Christmas and Easter and even Memorial Day. Services in which we plan something big so that we can fill the church.
Something like last week when we had 120 people in church.
6. You must have enough space for more people because if the space fills up people will stop coming.
We all need our space. There are two ways to fix this problem, either build a new meeting place or go to multiple services.
Experts say that when a church reaches 70% capacity they are done growing.
7. Be prepared for conflict because it is going to come.
Because people are resistant to change there will be conflicts and because Satan hates to see the church grow there will be conflicts.
We need to be ready for it and we need to deal with it. There is nothing worse than sweeping a conflict under the carpet without resolving it.
When it is unresolved we call it an open loop. We need to close the loop and resolve the conflict so that we can be unified and ready to move forward.
8. Think big for the harvest.
How big do we want to think for WOBC? 120 people? 200? How about 250 or even 500?
Does that seem impossible for you? Then I would say you are having a faith problem, because my bible tells me that nothing is impossible for my God.
9. Have the mission of the church make sense.
Our church has a mission statement. As a matter of fact we changed it a little at our last board meeting and put it in the bulletin. I am not sure how many noticed it.
Let’s look at it.
(Have the helpers hand out mission cards)
Winfield Open Bible exists as an instrument of God to bring transformation into the lives of men and women, young and old, to convert the sinner, bring healing to the sick, and equip people to change the world for God. Here is the change. This will be accomplished by focusing on five areas. By investing our time and energy in reaching out to others and inviting them to Christ. By preaching and teaching the un-compromised Word of God and directing people to prayer which will lead to the demonstration and manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. By cultivating meaningful relationships with others in the church. By serving each other. By our praise and worship of an awesome Lord and Savior.
In order for this to make sense we have explained each of those five things on the other side. It tells us how we are going to do it and it makes sense.
(Look at other side of the handout.)
The mission of this church is to see that the final command of Jesus is the first concern of the church.
If we set our hearts to this we will grow which is what God wants us to do.
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