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There are only two real obstacles to church growth. Not the Devil, the neighbours, the location, the colour of the carpet etc. But the pastor and the congregation. Pastor A survey was carried out of 5,000 ministers across denominations in the USA. Overwhelmingly the emphasis was on maintenance and not growth. If a pastor has a maintenance mind set, growth is very unlikely. Congregation In the USA, the United Presbyterian Church commissioned a task force and in 21 areas of church life, evangelism came out rock bottom. The report concluded that 'One theme that really stared out at us is that we United Presbyterians have not grown because we just don't care about growing'
Why we don't grow a) We lose our focus, we get side-tracked. It doesn't necessarily have to be something negative that diverts our energy, it can just be the busyness of general church life that causes us to lose vision for growth. b) We become too comfortable. This can happen when a church reaches a certain size and people start to settle instead of continuing to pioneer. c) We don't want to pay the price. Growth is hard work and particularly if it is a decent sized congregation already, we are deterred by the workload that comes with a growing church.
a) Has to assume responsibility. The leader cannot pass the responsibility to the elders, the deacons or the congregation - or even in some ways, to God. A pastor that wants to see numerical growth has to lead from the front. By doing so, he invites failure, and this can be a massive psychological barrier to many leaders. Positive church growth policy is about stating that the church will grow and then producing goals, instead of saying that we are hoping for growth and so let's all do what we can generally and let's trust God. There is no ultimate accountability with the latter approach, but the former puts the pastor on the spot. b) Has to share ministry. The pastor who is like a cork in a bottle, where nothing can happen except through him will always have a church that has definite limits on its growth potential. The desire to be in complete control means that growth will be hindered; the insecure pastor will never see numerical extension because he cannot let go. Church growth means that the pastor can no longer be the centre of the work, in some ways they have to lose control. c) Has to work hard. One aspect that we find in growing churches around the world is that the pastor works hard. Laziness will hinder growth. However the pastor also needs to avoid becoming a workaholic. We need to burn on for God not burn out to ourselves.
The price that the congregation has to pay for growth a) Has to agree to follow growth-motivated leadership. Support the vision that the leadership has; get behind the challenge of a growing church. When the pastor and the congregation are pulling in different directions, the church will go nowhere. b) Has to be outward looking. If we want to see real growth we have to avoid an inward looking mentality. The church doesn't exist purely and simply for us and our needs and wants; it is not to be built around us. Growth can be painful - someone may even sit in our seat on a Sunday morning! c) Has to work hard. If this applies to the pastor, then it does so equally to the congregation. The leaders can't do it on their own, everyone has to get involved. For a church to grow numerically it needs an effective body of workers behind it, not just a pastor doing all the work.
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