If a church wants to break growth barriers, here are some of the principles pastors need to follow:
- Equip church members to do ministry, not just have ministry done for them
- Train the people you have to reach out to the people you don’t have
- Be friendly and welcoming to your guests
- Preach in a way that is clear, biblical and action-oriented
- Simplify your ministries and your discipleship process so they’re easy to understand and follow
- Have a clear understanding of what your church is called to do – then do it
Why Does That List Look So Familiar?
On the other hand, if you want a church to be healthy, missional and effective, whether-or-not you break growth barriers, what do you need to do?
The same list.
Why do we need the incentive of numerical increase to inspire us to lead our churches according to sound biblical principles?
Shouldn’t we all be leading our congregations to be healthy, loving, Bible-believing and evangelistic simply out of obedience to God’s Word?
When we require the promise of numerical increase to motivate us to behave biblically, something is wrong.
Faithfulness First
A healthy church always contributes to the growth of Christ’s kingdom, even if they don’t experience numerical congregational increase from week to week.
That should be enough incentive for us to break bad habits, establish new ones, keep learning how to pastor better, and continue equipping church members to live more worshipfully, compassionately and evangelistically.
If a church growth book, conference, podcast or blog can remind us of the need to keep applying healthy church principles, I’m grateful.
But as we mature in our faith and in our leadership, breaking attendance records should matter less, faithfulness to God’s simple commands should matter more.
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