Are All Healthy Churches Growing?
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, February 23, 2009
- Viewed 33
- (9) comments so far
Read more here… I’d love to hear your comments.
OK... I'll get sucked into the fray... ChurchMarketingSucks.com has a great, thought-provoking article on church size, health, what we measure and what we don't, thinking the best (or worst) of each other, and a bunch of other things. Really... they've got it all packed in there. So... what the heck... let's stir it up some. It all started last week with a post from Christianity Today's "Out of Ur" blog; then a reply twitter post from my friend Tony Morgan. What ensued is a great conversation that we've all had, in one way, shape or form in the past. Here are some basic questions for you this morning:
Is your church growing?
How is it growing?
Is your church healthy?
What makes it healthy?
Does size have anything to do with it?...
Comments
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CS on Mon, February 23, 2009
I think of it this way: is a healthy human always physically growing at a certain rate?
—
CS
Peter Hamm on Mon, February 23, 2009
Stop counting.
Are your people growing? If they are, your church is growing. Are your people getting more loving? Are your people, your church people, becoming known in the community for the great way they love one another in Christ’s name? Or just by a list of doctrinal distinctives (important as that may be)…
Remember, Jesus said people would know we were his followers by our theology and strict adherence to our proper doctrinal statements… wait a minute… He didn’t say that…
People are starting to come in droves to our church as we get ready to launch our first “multi-site”… a small campus in our town’s downtown area where people are more limited in their mobility (i.e., they don’t have transportation). We are going to them, not waiting for them to come to us, with the message of Christ, and people want to be part of it! Our congregation is getting “unleashed” on the world around us, and people want to be part of that. We had about 3 dozen people (maybe closer to 4 dozen) away on two mission trips this past weekend… and attendance was STILL up!
People find out that your church loves like Christ loved… and they want some of that!
Pastor Tony Foeller on Mon, February 23, 2009
We are trying to focus less on “growth” and more on “influence”.
It’s not about how big we are. It’s about how big our God is and what we are doing to make our community aware of that.
Kmoch on Mon, February 23, 2009
There are just too many factors to consider with a question like this: What if your community shrinking? What if you are going through a healthy transition away from unhealthy state?
I had a professor in bible college say “We count people, becouse people count”, and there is truth to that. Nevertheless, I would say that size is one indicator (of many) that speak to a healthy ministry. Shrinking may be one indicator of an unhealthy church.
I really like the way Pastor Tony put it: Let us judge our size on influence, not our attendance.
CS on Mon, February 23, 2009
Kmoch:
“Shrinking may be one indicator of an unhealthy church”
Sometimes, shrinking can be an indicator of a healthy church, too. I can think of several reasons why a reduction in the size of a church would be good:
-Some of the church leaves to go help with a new church plant.
-Some of the younger people in the church go to seminary or off to college.
-Some people leave the church because they are false converts and/or leading the church astray.
Remember, things that grow aren’t always healthy. For example, one form of real rapid growth is cancer. No one would like a cancerous church.
—
CS
Jan on Mon, February 23, 2009
Is your church growing?
Yes.
How is it growing?
Outreach, connecting to the community, people are inviting there friends and actively looking outward. We’ve worked hard to build this church’s reputation in the community (It used to be known as “the angry church”. We’ve served in our city library, we’ve done things for our neighbors, and we’ve actively evangelized.
Is your church healthy?
No. I think healthy things are happening and that we are on that road. We came to a dying church. Most of the original attenders are gone and settled into ingrown churches. We have non believers and new believers for the most part attending now. I would say we are unhealthy because our core is too small and we are maxed out with the needs in our church. And we have a $1300 a month shortfall in our budget. We are living on borrowed time here, using a fund that was given to us to get by. But that’s not going to last forever.
What makes it healthy?
The passion to see God working, a committed group of solid Christians that see needs and seek to meet them, who are following Jesus in daily life, including tithing and supporting the ministry. An outward congregation, that isn’t all that concerned about their own needs but more concerned about the revelation of God’s glory and His work among us and outside of us.
Does size have anything to do with it?..
It depends. I don’t really agree that we should stop counting. Healthy families add to their numbers. There’s an awful lot of numbers listed in the Word of God. He definitely counted. Why did He tell us that there were 5000 plus that Jesus fed, for instance?
And Paul says in Acts “And daily they were adding to their numbers” He counted too.
But are numbers the end all and be all? Definitely not. Community demographics can make a difference for sure. We have some of that in our resort community. We’ve lost two new families just this month, who joined in membership and then had to relocate because of jobs.
But we all know that a sick church does not grow.
And if we bring a ton of people in the front door who stay for a couple of years and then leave out the back because they’ve figured out that there really isn’t a place for them, then we aren’t healthy either, even if it looks pretty good, because we always have new people in the front door.
We were in a church like that. They were at 1200 and they always had a ton of new people. But they stayed at 1200 and didn’t really grow.
After about two years, people left to find a place where they could fit in a serve.
So, that church was losing people all the time, but didn’t want to know, because they looked so good to the outsider and the 30 they lost a month, didn’t hurt because 30 new people were there.
Peter Hamm on Mon, February 23, 2009
CS,
We agree again.
The big reason a church might shrink is if you more intentionally challenge the people to BE the church and not just go there. Then what happens is that some people just don’t want to do that and they leave.
Others, however, will find you. That’s our experience.
I love the cancer metaphor!
Jan on Mon, February 23, 2009
I agree that when we decide to be the church, the church will grow. It will be an outflow of God’s work among you, as long as you are looking outward and not being the church in your little holy huddle.
Honestly, out of all the churches in our valley (about 10) I can only think of one other that is outward focused at all. The rest are happy with what they are doing among themselves and are critical of those who do differently.
That’s pretty sad, when you think that the Christians here for the most part are just into themselves.
Andy Wood on Tue, February 24, 2009
Okay, since you couched this in somewhat biological terms…
Size doesn’t matter, but reproduction does. One sign of a healthy church is seen in its ability to be transformed into Christ’s image, and reproduce the life it gives in others.
Is my church growing? Yes.
How? Servant leadership, multiplying youth and children’s ministries, and seeking to be a place where people are free to BE first, then DO.
Is it healthy? I don’t know… was the church at Ephesus healthy in Ephesians? How about in Revelation 2?
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