In The Trenches: Pastor’s Church Growth Conference
Location: Manhattan Christian College Date: 31 March 2007
Acts 5:14 (NKJ) And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
Ah, the banner verse of the church-growth movement. I beleive if we want church growth we must begin to think on those terms.
I.THINK, RELATIONSHPS!!
A.The Church is a family and a smaller church has their size as an advantage.
1.I once pastured at a large church in Wichita, KS. I thought “Man, this is what it is all about.” I soon realized that I felt dis-connected with the congregation. So many faces that I had no idea what their names were.
I had a difficult time building relationships with them. I wanted so very badly to know each of them on a personal level but this seemed to be an impossible task.
2.Now, Here I sit, in a smaller church. I now know the names of my congregation and not just because of the size but because of the many benefits that a smaller town has.
3.My first summer in Glen Elder was very educational to say the least. You wouldn’t know it by looking at me but would you believe I can drive a tractor? You bet!! I learned that farmers are always looking for people to help them work their fields and it just so happens that they will even use a preacher that grew up in the city.
4.Spending time with them working with them, and getting to know them outside of the church has been one of the biggest blessings to me as a pastor. And this goes both ways, they too have become closer to me and have seen not just the guy from behind the pulpit. They now know me and we have close relationships with one another.
5.If we believe in the scriptures, which I do pray all of us do, then we must see this as something that God desires us to do. Doesn’t God want each of us to actually know Him and become as close to him as possible? Sure He does!! So shouldn’t we conduct our ministries the same way?
6.Some of us may have been told early in our ministries, “Don’t get too close, Don’t let them in.” Some pastors are afraid to open their lives up to the congregation. Some feel that we need to keep a guard up at all times and not let them see we too are human. Guess what… I feel this is something that Satan himself has placed in our heads.
7.People need to be able to relate to their pastor, not feel dis-connected from their pastor. How many of you have ever walked upon a group of people that were enjoying one another’s company but all of a sudden the entire tone stops dead cold? When they see “pastor” coming, they all of a sudden put on a mask and act as different people. They put on a show or they clam up and say nothing.
8.This has frustrated me in the past. How can I minister to those people? How can I become close to them if they will not show me who they are? I realized that I needed to build relationships with them, build their trust and become their friend in Jesus.
B.Building Those Relationships
1.Those of us in the smaller church have a perfect setting in order to build relationships.
2.In Glen Elder we have our little hang outs. You know what I mean don’t you? We have a gas station that people love to get a cup of coffee and just sit around and fellowship with one another. We even have a service station where on most days you will find some of the farmers enjoying telling stories of the day about what their farms are doing.
3.Going by these hang outs can bless your ministry and bring them in the doors. I stop by these places and allow them not only in my life but they allow me into their life. It’s much like being accepted on a team.
C.Building teams are so very Important
- We as pastors love having small teams in place don’t we? We have Greeting ministry teams, Assimilation teams, Hospitality teams; we even have teams that care for the lawn.
1.I think we too forget these teams easily and assume that they will continue to grow and bless others on their own.
2.Now, don’t get me wrong. We need not micro manage our ministry teams and we need to allow our leaders to lead. And this is where we need to focus.
3.Our focus should be on building leaders. We should meet with our ministry team leaders on a regular basis and encourage them continually.
4.I meet with the ministry team leaders once a quarter. We meet and talk about leadership, we talk about their vision within their teams, we talk about where are they going and how can we inspire others to become more involved. We even do team building activities at our meetings. I think the bottom line that I try to stress with my leaders is really very simple: FELLOWSHIP, FELLOWSHIP, and FELLOWSHIP!
5.I try to encourage them to meet with their teams on a regular basis outside of church. It may be a simple lunch or having them over to their home for a meal. Just try and get them together from time to time as a team to build those close knit relationships that can only occur outside of church services.
D.Building Fellowship outside of Church
1.I learned early on in Glen Elder that the people Love their community. Being in a small town has tremendous power when it comes to the activities of the community. Pretty much every citizen is involved in some sort of community activity, whether it be being a member of the local American Legion or running the concession stand at the little league ball games.
2.A small town is a tight knit group of people that is close because of their efforts. If they see their minister involved with the activities of the community, guess what, you are accepted into that community and will be viewed as family not just by those that attend your church but by all.
3.They need to know that you care not only about the church but also about the community. The only way they will know this is not if you say you do but if you actually get involved. Walk the Walk, Don’t just talk it!
4.We expect them to become involved with the church; we desire them to come to all the church events don’t we? Then we must in turn become involved and support that which they love and what they love and have pride in is their community.
II.THINK BIG!!
-If you think like a small church you’ll remain small. If you think like a big
church, you’ll grow.
A.Think Big with your Worship!
1.I am sure we all have either heard or have experienced first hand the no
“Fly zone” of changing a church’s worship. This is the one area of the
church that people have the hardest time with changing. Pastors receive
much resistance when it come to making changes with music.
2.The elderly love the old church hymns. I believe we should honor them and never take that away from them. But we too need to honor the next generation.
3.If we are to bring in new blood, new people, future leaders of the church; we need to honor them as well. Our younger generation is seeking music that inspires and motivates them. And the simple truth is that in their minds, hymnal music is dull and lifeless.
4.So here is our problem. Two different views, two separate styles of worship. How do we meet this challenge? How can we honor both generations? Is it possible to make everyone happy? Can we have both old and young in our church? I believe we can!!!!
5.We can do it if we go slow, and blend both styles. I can’t stress going slow enough to each of you. This is a process that can not and will not change over night. This is a process that takes time and patience.
6.What we have done in Glen Elder seems to be working for us. Each month we open our service with a new contemporary song and use it through out that month. This allows the older members to learn it through out that month. Once the song has been learned we then incorporate it with in the worship set through out the year, always bringing in new music each month.
7.No matter how many new contemporary songs we gain, we always have our traditional hymns in place. We have a blended service that meets both generations. And you know what I have found out? Some of our elderly even prefers the contemporary over the traditional hymns!!
Illustration: Think about it like this: How are you doing as a church?
Are you sitting pretty with many in attendance? Bills are being paid and
seats are being filled. That’s great!! Is your church an elderly church, with
mainly seniors? Some day they will go home to be with Jesus, they will not
always be there. Ten years from now, where will your church be?
If we don’t start trying to bring in the younger generation, our church will become a dead church that once was full of life but has become somewhat of a ghost town all because we didn’t seek future leaders for the church. We need to always think of the future for our churches and have a vision. We can’t allow ourselves to become complacent.
b. Thinking big with our worship doesn’t end with new modern music.
1.Are you operating with poor audio and visual equipment? We are in the computer age. An age of technology, and we need to learn the benefits of what that brings within our churches.
2.Overhead projectors are a thing of the past and have been replaced by computerized projectors. It is much like how the old eight tracks have been replaced by compact disks.
3.Our society is one of visual stimulation. We do it with our sermon illustrations to give the listener a visual picture that will have application into their lives. Why not do it with our worship? We have power point and movie clips that can aid our services and inspire our congregations in a way that nothing else ever could.
Illustration: Could you imagine driving in your car to Wichita, KS
from here with out air-condition during the heat of the summer? No
radio, hard wooden seats, tires also made of wood with very little shocks
and being pulled by a horse.
That doesn’t sound too appealing to us does it? We have been blessed with new technology, automobiles that can take us to distant destinations in an enjoyable manner that definitely beats the horse drawn buggy.
What about our church services? Can technology do the same for us? Do you think with technology, church may be able to bring us closer to God in a more enjoyable manner?
B.Think Big with your Media!
1.We live in a computerized world; a world of computers and web
sites is no longer the future but is the present.
2.I have found that if you present a web site address to someone, they
will generally check it out. Regardless of what it is. People for some
reason, love to check out web sites.
3.Refer to your web site during announcements, have it listed on your
Business cards, News letters, and even pens and brochures. You
may be surprised at how many people will check it out and pass it
on to others.
4.I believe web sites are important in today’s world. Maybe some of
us feel incompetent when it come to computers and especially the
internet. Good news, getting a web site up and going is really easier
than you could have imagined. So many sites are out there that will
walk you through it and simplify it. We all should give it a shot.
5.You heard me mention brochures. Brochures are also an excellent
way of reaching those that are seeking a church home and also a
fantastic way in which we can help utilize our member’s gifts and
talents.
6.Generate brochures that tell about each of your ministries: Youth
Groups, Music Ministries, Men’s Groups, Woman’s Groups,
Children’s Ministry, You can have one for just about any and all of
your ministries within your church.
7.Use them in your welcome packets, Visitations and even have them set out when you host various church events.
8.Are you doing church events? Events that will draw the community into the life of the church. It seems to me that too many churches today only see having church events as a way to raise money and I feel this is one of our downfalls.
Illustration: Each year our IMPACT Youth Group holds a Chili Cook-Off. The teens break up into teams and create a pot of their own special chili. They also create a name such as “Aloha Chili”, which were our winners this past year. They will set up a booth and decorate it to fit their team. Some of the booths are really something to look at I might add.
They compete against one another to see who has the best chili by placing a can on their booth for money votes. People come to the cook-off and browse each booth eating their fill, they will place money donations at the booth that they enjoyed the most. You wouldn’t believe the amount of money they raise each year!!
9.Yes, this is a fantastic fund raiser but more importantly, it is an awesome tool to draw others into our church. The amount of people that will come out to attend this event is phenomenal. Just from this one event, we are reaching people that would never have walked through our doors. This is and should be the main reason for doing events in our churches!
10.Getting the word out on our events is also something we should
really focus on.
11. Publicize, Publicize, and Publicize!! Television, Radio, Flyers, and news papers. These are all resources that many of us have so why not use them? We need to be passionate about each event we host and keep in mind that we are trying to reach souls that need to hear the good word!
Conclusion: Do events, big or small. Stay active, stay alive. Don’t let
people view your church as a “dead church”. After all, who would want to
attend a church that has no life and does not do anything other than meet
on Sunday mornings to hear some boring person preach to them from a
pulpit?
I look at it this way: People rarely want to build a home in a dead area. No
one want to live in an area that has dead trees and dried up steams. We are
attracted to life. We all want to live in areas that are thriving with life.
The church is the same way. We will attract people to it if we are alive and
staying active. How about it? Are you staying active, are you stuck in your
office all week working on your sermons or are you out trying to make
relationships with those around you? Are you planning events and
executing them?
I believe we all owe it to our churches to keep pressing forward and keep it
exciting, Keep it alive. We serve a risen Saviour, He is Alive. Likewise, our
churches should exemplify that and stay Alive!
