Why Doesn’t A Church Grow?
I have been part of around four churches in my life. Some of these churches have grown. Some have held steady. Some have actually declined. I’ve wondered why in each instance.
Most of the time, though, I have been a part of a church that just held steady. If I graphed one in particular over a 10 year period, while there would be blips of growth, it would basically be in the same place. That causes me to wonder, why doesn’t this church really grow. I think there are three possible answers.
God
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul said that he planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. If Paul was willing to give God the credit for the growth of a church, shouldn’t we also be willing to attribute the non-growth or decline as well? Why would He do that? I’ll explore that a bit more below, but if I believe that He is in control, then I have to be willing to say that, for some reason, He does not have growth in mind for certain churches.
Leaders
Note that before God caused the growth, there were godly men who were planting and watering. You had two men in Paul and Apollos who were preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, they were focused on one thing, or one Person, in their message. Is that true in all of our churches today?
I don’t think so. Many leaders today are concerned with anything but the same thing, the one thing, that Paul and Apollos were concerned with in their preaching: Christ.
Dead Churches
I’m going to break away from 1 Corinthians for this one. Ephesians 2 tells us that we were dead in our trespasses, but have been made alive. 2 Corinthians 5: 17 says that if we ar in Christ we are new creatures. It could be possible that one reason that a church isn’t growing is because it’s made up of dead people who are not new creatures. In other words, people who have been in church, but have not come to salvation in Christ. Dead people make a dead church. I have a friend who says that you can’t teach pigs to sing. If you haven’t been made a new creature, then I don’t see how there can be growth.
Hopefully, your church is growing. If not, take a step back and try to figure out why it isn’t. It probably isn’t a new program that you need. You probably don’t need a new vision. It could be one of the three reasons I listed above.
Is your church growing? Why or why not?
This is a tricky question. When I came here (11/05) the church was averaging about 150. By 4/09 we were close to 200. Then our worship pastor changed things big time. A small group decided to take potshots at me and graduation depleted a large youth group. Within months we were floundering near 110. We stabilized by October or so and then by August of ’10 we were able to move into a purchased building. We knew it was too small when we moved in and planned to build. Then got hit with an embezzlement. We have been trying to meet in an 800 sq ft room with 10 foot ceilings. Too small. We are now close to finishing a renovation that will give us 1800 sq ft with a cathedral ceiling. There is something to be said about a room being too small, too crowded, and too confining. And yes, we tried 2 Sunday services. A Saturday night and Sunday. But neither worked. We had been doing a Sunday morning 9:00 “study” and the regular worship at 10 for a number of months before this renovation. But I also know that some of what you are talking about hinders us as well.
This sounds simplistic but it may have a measure of truth: Like a human body, if a church is healthy it will grow.
About a month ago my pastor resigned because of a moral failure. The interim pastor has been phenomenal (I’d love for him to be my full-time pastor, but I know he doesn’t want it), but the numbers have still taken a hit. We are generally around 4000-5000, but I’d guess we’ve been around 3000 recently. My guess is that things will stabilize and continue to grow once we get a new pastor–I hope.
I have seen that in so many churches. Its kind of a “the cat’s away” mentality. Kind of like Moses being up on the mountain. Aaron was still sown below, but the people didn’t have the visionary leader to hold them together.
I think growth is the natural byproduct of a healthy, functioning organism. Plants and animals don’t concentrate on growth. It happens as a matter of course if they are healthy.
Many times growth becomes the gospel in churches, Despite it being the focus, over the long haul the growth isn’t lasting. I guess to it would be smart to define what we think growth means. ie numbers, relationships, outreach, etc.
Great point, Ken. We could be accumulating all sorts of numbers in church without seeing growth. I don’t think Paul is necessarily just talking about numbers of people.
You nailed it. God and great leaders equal a growing church. The church I attend it growing, so much so they are starting a multi-million dollar church expansion.
“Dead people make a dead church.” Writin’ that one down.