Friday, March 8, 2013
What I Learned From Lyle Schaller
In 1987, I attend a conference by Lyle titled “15 Key Elements in Growing a Congregation.” It was during this conference that I learned that 80% of the development potential of a congregation can be measured and predicted by the first 3 elements he presented. These three elements form a cluster together. They are Who is the Pastor and what does she or he know? What size is the congregation and how long has it been that way? What are the size limitations of the current facilities?
This “trinity” of dynamics helps me understand a congregation, its developmental issues and growth potential. In this blog, I will share about the issue of congregational size which is really about the present culture of a congregation.
Schaller introduced me to the research on congregations on the then 375,000 congregations in North America. This research showed that congregations tended to cluster around particular sizes based on average Sunday attendance and that this revealed particular ways of “being a church.” Schaller presented 8 different and distinct types of congregations that day.
Arlin Rothauge used this material to develop Sizing Up the Congregation for New Member Growth which was published in the late 80s. Arlin reduced this information to three types of churches. As he explained it to me, “Most Episcopal Congregations are small. I didn’t have to worry about sharing how larger congregations could be divided. Besides, Rectors of large Episcopal Congregations go to ecumenical conferences and don’t rely on denomination material.” I thought this tremendously revealing.
We now use the terms Arlin gave for these type churches: Family – normally around 20 to 40 in ASA but ranging from 3 to 75 Pastoral – normally around 110 ASA, but ranging from 80 to 150 Program – above 200 ASA
In the Diocese of Texas, we refined this adding the fourth size: Transitional – churches caught between 150 and 250 ASA
I wrote a somewhat popular book on the Transitional size (The Myth of the 200 Barrier) in which I described the difficulty congregations faced in transitioning from Pastoral to Program size.
I was asked to revise Arlin’s original booklet for TEC, but Arlin believed that I made too much out of this transition and vetoed the revision. I explained the difference in our approaches this way. Arlin had a PhD and a theory. I had only the practical knowledge of working with hundreds of congregations. Add to this that less than 5% of all Pastoral size congregations make a transition to the larger size, and I think the dynamics of a Transitional size church are significant. (I suspect the real issue was that I hadn’t done a D. Min from Seabury, but that may be a bit unfair.)
What is important here is that Schaller had very different names for these sizes. Schaller called the Family size a “Cat.” He called the Pastoral size a “Collie.” I can still remember the laughter of recognition in the room as he described these essential differences.
“A Cat isn’t owned by anyone. It owns you. It is independent and resilient. It will let you pet and feed it, but at any moment, a cat can turn and scratch or bite you for almost no reason whatever. “
“A Collie is faithful and loyal to its master. As long as you feed it, love it, and pay attention to it, a Collie will flourish. A Collie will even forgive you if you are from time to time a bit stern. It takes a great deal of abuse to turn a collie against you, but once this happens, a collie will have a mistrust of all future masters.” (Note how this description gives us a much better flavor for how clergy relate to these types of congregations and how they relate to us.)
So, what I learned from Lyle was that if you measure ASA for 10 to 20 years, you can answer these two essential questions: What size is the church today? And, how long has it been that way? His conclusion based on a great deal of research was that the longer a church operated within a particular size, the more predictable it would stay that size and resist change. This resistance was both to getting smaller or getting larger.
In more recent days with the advent of “systems thinking,” we now realized that each “size” represents a culture or “way of being the church” that becomes predictable and is maintained by the leadership. So, if you have a pastoral size church in a town that has been that way for 50 years, and yet the town has become a suburb of the neighboring city with a much larger population base, the church will predictably remain in the same size and resist growth. This also means that the denomination can go across town and start a new congregation and almost never affect the current congregation. Congregational Culture, once established, has power and that power expresses itself in maintaining what we know and what we expect.
The converse is also true. The more change a congregation has experienced; the easier it is to grow. It is also true that the newer the congregation; the easier its future can be altered. Schaller pointed out that most congregations have institutionalized their size within the congregation’s first 30 years.
I also learned this from Lyle. There are two types of growth in a congregation. The first is congruent growth. This is growth within the system. For example, a Pastoral size growing from 90 to 130 ASA has grown congruent with being a Pastoral size church. The second is transformational growth. A Pastoral size growing from 130 to 250 ASA has experience transformation from one culture to another. The first is easier. The second is much more difficult.
You may want to ask yourself these two questions. What size is the congregation I serve? How long has it been that way? The answers to these two questions will tell you a lot about your growth potential.
Friday, February 8, 2013
From ChurchLeaders.com
16 Signs Leaders Have Lost Their Minds
Provided by
A quick but important checklist from Perry Noble.
1. He refuses to admit his mistakes.
2. He begins to blame the problems on people or circumstances rather than actually seeking out what the problem might be.
3. He refuses to listen to the team assembled around him.
4. He fights every idea that isn’t his own, thinking his originality is what must keep the church afloat.
5. He refuses to face reality.
6. He is unwilling to make the necessary changes because it would be highly unpopular.
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7. He tries to listen to what everyone has to say about every situation.
8. He begins to believe God’s favor on his life is because of how good he is rather than because of how good God is!
9. He believes he can’t learn anything from churches that are smaller than his. (This would be arrogance!)
10. He abuses his staff to accomplish his agenda rather than leading them to accomplish God’s.
For the rest of the article:
http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/165175-perry-noble-16-signs-leaders-have-lost-their-minds.html?p=2
Monday, February 4, 2013
From Sermon Central
Bill Hybels, a seasoned church planter with nearly 40 years' experience, shares his insights on how church planting has changed.
The suburban Chicago church plant, launched by a 22-year-old Bill Hybels back in 1975, would dramatically impact the face of American Christianity. What later became one of the nation’s first megachurches, which now draws some 25,000 worshippers each week, Willow Creek Community Church began in a closed-on-Sunday-morning movie theater and was mostly staffed by teenaged volunteers passionate for Jesus Christ. As Willow grew, sharing what it learned with other churches became one of its highest priorities.
In this interview featured in the new Exponential Resources Series eBook MOVE for Church Planters: What Willow Creek and 1,000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth, Hybels shares what he has learned in 37 years of ministry; how his experience might impact his actions were he planting a church today; and what advice he would most like to share with those whose passion is to share the good news of Jesus Christ with unchurched people in a relevant, compelling and successful way.
Welcome to that conversation.
Before we start talking about what you might do the same and differently if you were planting a church today, let’s talk a little about our current environment. What societal factors have changed in the past 40 years that would impact your decisions today?
Bill Hybels: I think that there's even more resistance/cynicism to the idea of the institutionalized church now than there was then. And I think that’s the result of all of the skepticism created as too many well-known pastors — and even some denominations — have broken trust. People who are starting a church today have to present an even stronger argument than we did in the mid-‘70s for "Why another church?"
So I would spend a lot of time coming up with the rationale for why I would be starting another church. What's going to be different? What's going to keep it from becoming like these others? That would be very important, because I think there's a general feeling that there are already enough churches.
In short, if you are going to launch a new church, you have to start with a white hot, differentiated, compelling vision, or why take up more real estate?
With this current environment in mind, can you give us an example of what worked well in your church plant 37 years ago that you would duplicate if you were planting a church today?
Bill Hybels: One thing I really got right is that I started Willow with my friends. The founders are still with me today and we're still best of friends. I had an incredible team of proven people around me, and we had established a loving and joyful community before we held our first service. That I did right, by the grace of God. So if I were starting fresh, the minute I felt I had clarity on the vision for starting a new church I would present that vision to close, trusted friends who I wanted to come along with me on this adventure.
Do you have an example of something you would do very differently?
Bill Hybels: Something that I didn't do well — and this is a common problem all across the world — was to adequately capitalize our ministry. Therefore, the financial pressures were terribly destructive to the life of our church for the first five years. And it didn't have to be that way. Most church planters and church planting organizations these days say you’ve got to raise X amount of money, so you’re sure people can survive — like making sure your rent payment can be made.
That kind of information was not widely known because there weren't many church plants going on in our era. So I rather naively said, “God's leading us to do this, so God will provide. We're going to hold the first service and pass a plate around and it's all going to be good.”
Well, we didn't have a big enough core. We didn't have people who had professional careers and resources to be able to invest, and we sank further and further into debt. All of us had to do things like take on part-time jobs and bring boarders into our homes, which led to a chaotic, unsustainable lifestyle.
Any other practical steps you’d recommend to church planters?
Bill Hybels: I can think of two. The first is how to decide where to locate their church. When I talk with church planters, I always start by talking about vision. But quite quickly after the vision talk, I ask this question: “What demographic do you think calls the best out of you?” When you’re with a certain kind of people, do you get a sense of exuberance — that these are the kind of people you want to do life with?
Some church planters actually think that's an illegal question. But let me give you an example. I was talking with a church planter who was on the verge of quitting. I knew his family background. These were very sophisticated people — grad school trained, excellent educational institutions and all that. And the church planting organization had put him in a blue collar, lower education level, semi-rural setting that was boring this guy to tears.
These were lovely people. It's just that they didn't call the best out of him. He would want to discuss complex subject matters and things that are going to shape the future of the world. But they were not willing to engage in those conversations—the kind that gave him a lot of life and excitement. So I said, “Before you quit and go back into the business world, why don't you see if there's another plant that can be done in an area with a demographic that you actually feel fairly excited about?” And he said, “I couldn't ask for that because that would be arrogant.” I said, “I don't know that you ought to feel like that’s so bad, because a certain environment is going to call the best out of you and in another environment you're not going to feel like such a great fit.”
And I think "fit" is key. God can always overrule it and call you to do anything. But if you have a choice in the matter, why don't you choose to locate where the demographics call the best out of you? I heard from him several years later. He had relocated. It was like talking to a different guy. And he said, “I wouldn't have stayed in ministry in that setting. But this is the group I'm supposed to be with.”
It works the other way, too. Sometimes working with the poor and uneducated calls the best out of very sophisticated people. But they know that it does, so it works. The main thing is, find the fit. You have to have the self-awareness to know who calls the best out of you.
A second practical issue is how to think about using volunteers vs. adding staff. In my opinion, the more a young church can get done through volunteers, the better. The fewer the staff, the better. As I said earlier, when we started Willow, we were undercapitalized and one of the downsides of that was tremendous financial stress. One of the upsides was that every week I told everyone attending the church — we need you! And they knew it was true. We needed everybody to step up — to take care of kids, to help set up and take down chairs, and eventually to help us find a piece of land. That brought people forward. At one point, I think we were dangerously close to having 100 percent of our attendees serving because we didn't have any paid staff.
What you describe sounds like a strategy to Create Ownership, which is one of the four best practices discovered by REVEAL. Can you elaborate on how REVEAL has influenced your thinking about how a church can best fulfill its mission to help people become fully devoted followers of Christ?
Bill Hybels: I’d start by going back to something that was a miss in the early days of Willow, and it's still a mystery to me why it was so much of a miss. It may be due to the fact I was still a fairly recent Christian when we started the church. In fact, I had only been a Christian five years. So when I started Willow, I loved reading God's Word and I loved communicating with Him in prayer and reading good Christian books. I liked that just because of my relationship with God.
But I dramatically underestimated how often my colleagues and the people in the church practiced the classic spiritual disciplines. I just thought everybody spent time with God and surrendered their spirits before Him every day. That everybody worked hard to receive promptings from God, quieting the ambient noise in their lives so they could hear Him. I misjudged that, and the few times that I preached on it, I remember seeing the semi-confused faces of the people in the crowd and thinking, “I must be doing a terrible job of teaching this because they are not getting it or they are not interested. I'm not getting the same kind of feedback that I get when I teach on other subject matters.”
So, I wound up not teaching on the spiritual practices very often. It's hard to do, and I got mixed response. Decades later I found out, primarily through REVEAL, that I should have stuck with that. I should not have been dissuaded by the kind of feedback I was getting. I should have done a major series on the classic spiritual disciplines every single year, whether I saw confused faces or not. I should have just dug in and made that a regular part of the menu.
We also had some feedback that went like this: “Yeah, well, interesting. But I'd really like to know something more practical than this, like how to be a better parent. Why don't you teach this other stuff at a seminar, not on Sunday morning?”
Well, we didn't have the facilities or the teachers to hold those kinds of seminars. So, it wasn't until decades later when we found out—through REVEAL—that you can strip away almost every other thing the church does. But at the core of the core of the core, growing people into Christ followers is all about helping them engage in God's Word and inspiring them to invite God to be at the center of their lives. I did not emphasize that as much in the early days as I do now.
So you would do things differently today?
Bill Hybels: Absolutely. Now at Willow we have what we call the Getting Started Classes. The second movement in the Getting Started Classes is the spiritual practices: how to read your Bible, how to pray, how to surrender, how to confess your sins. We get people on track with these very basic things that will help them walk with Christ as soon as they show any movement. In the early days of Willow, when someone showed spiritual movement we would congratulate them and point them toward a ministry where they could serve or a group where they could get to know other people. But we didn't instill a strong awareness that, more than anything, people need to know how to relate to God through His Word, and how to hear His prompting. How to navigate a day with Him in your head, in your heart, at your side—and all of that. It's a deep regret I carry.
Christ-centered leadership is at the heart of REVEAL’s best-practice findings. How do you keep your passion for Jesus fired up?
Bill Hybels: In Romans 12:11, Paul says: "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." He's saying don’t let your zeal burn low, but he’s also saying you're responsible for your zeal. I like to remind myself of that. It's my responsibility to keep my passion hot. It's no one else's. So if mine starts running low, I have to discern what cooled it off and then I’ve got to stop letting that happen. I have to figure out who the people are, what the books and the experiences are, that refresh my spirit—and then lean into whatever works to re-fire a passion for Jesus.
For example, whenever I'm around certain people for any length of time, I feel my pulse rate increasing. They fire me up. I need to be around them a little more. And, besides the Bible, the book I’ve turned to more often than any other for inspiration and encouragement is Dallas Willard’sThe Spirit of the Disciplines. If I need spiritual refueling, that book works for me. So, who I'm with, what I read, where I go — that’s what keeps me charged up.
To close, do you have a final word of advice or encouragement for church planters?
Bill Hybels: You're one of the luckiest people on the planet — because the most important thing happening on earth is the establishment and building of local churches. God selected you to be able to form a community where this incredibly important work is going to be going on under your direction for perhaps the next 40 years. You won the lottery!
Enjoy it! Every day realize you don't have to stand at a drill press. You don't have to load and unload trucks. You get to traffic in kingdom ideas and work with great people who are pulling with you to try to form this Acts 2 dream of Christ's church. You should fall on your knees and say, “God, what an incredible privilege to be invited by your Holy Spirit to play a key role in the most important thing happening on planet Earth.”
I tell pastors all the time that I've had a ball! We've taken our hits. There are bad days. But I've had an astonishingly blessed ride. And I think God would have that same heart toward every pastor. I think he wants every pastor to love His Word and love the adventure of His work. I don't even know what it's like to lay my head on the pillow and say that today was a waste. Every night, I feel like we moved the ball. We may have only moved it a foot, but we moved the kingdom ball ahead a little bit today. That's good enough for me.
A high percentage of the human race hits the pillow at night feeling like their day was a waste. They didn't move anything eternal ahead. They didn't touch any lives. They didn't do anything that's going to outlive them. So my final word to church planters is this — you won the lottery! You get to lead the coolest endeavor on planet Earth, the only agency God said he was going to predictably bless and favor.
You get to be a part of that!
Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and the chairman of the board for the Willow Creek Association. Both visionary and passionate about seeing every local church reach its full God-given potential, he speaks around the world on strategic issues related to leadership, evangelism, and church growth. He's a best-selling author of more than 20 books, including The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God, Having the Guts to Respond.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Greg Laurie: 4 Dangerous Church Growth Myths
A ministry might appear to be thriving, but the inside reality might tell another story.
Once I had a friend—I’ll call him Bill—who worked out every day at the gym. When we got together, he liked to flex his bicep and say, “Greg, feel this!” Bill’s muscles were rock hard.
Then one day, I heard terrible news: Bill had died of a heart attack. Even though he appeared robust and powerful, his heart was diseased. Inwardly, as it turned out, Bill was a weakling.
I keep Bill in mind when I think about the church today. Outwardly, everything can look promising. A ministry may appear to be going very well.
Yet the inside reality can be another story. What makes a church body grow big doesn’t necessarily make it grow healthy.
The past two decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of large churches, including “megachurches” (congregations of 1,000 or more), around the country. As a result of pastoring a large congregation, I’m frequently asked about our success at Harvest Christian Fellowship. What kind of church growth formula do we follow? Can what we do at Harvest be applied to any church, anywhere, with similar results?
I understand these questions and the motivations behind them. Pastors would rather preach to people than to open spaces. And let’s face it, something would be terribly wrong if Christians weren’t interested in seeing churches grow. But it’s time to take a hard look at what church growth means.
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In an article entitled “The Myth of Church Growth” featured in Current Thoughts and Trends, David Dunlap cites some troubling statistics.
For example, during the very time megachurches have sprouted across the landscape, the proportion of Americans who claim to be “born again” has remained a constant 32 percent. According to Dunlap, growth isn’t coming from conversions but from transfers—up to 80 percent of all growth taking place today.
He goes on to quote C. Peter Wagner, one of the leading spokesmen for the church growth movement, who admits, “I don’t think there is anything intrinsically wrong with the church growth principles we’ve developed … yet somehow they don’t seem to work.”
I would suggest one reason they don’t work is because they tend to approach church as if it were a business.
For example, some church growth experts are telling pastors their “customers” no longer attend to commune with God but to “consume” a personal or family service.
In a recent survey of 1,000 church attenders, respondents were asked, “Why does the church exist?” According to 89 percent, the church’s purpose was “to take care of my family’s and my spiritual needs.” Only 11 percent said the purpose of the church is “to win the world for Jesus Christ.”
These attitudes concern me and many other observers deeply. A business-driven response may only make things worse. In the long run, if we train consumers instead of communers, we’ll end up with customers instead of disciples.
It might fill up an auditorium, but it will never turn the world upside down for Christ.
For page two, go to: http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/164991-greg-laurie-4-dangerous-church-growth-myths.html?p=2
From Church Leaders.com
Friday, January 25, 2013
The Dream Year - what do you think of this process?
OVERVIEW
Each year, a group of audacious people goes through a process to achieve a larger than life dream in one year. The participants include everyone from filmmakers and advocates to entrepreneurs and authors. No dream is too big, and no idea is too far-fetched.
The journey is called Dream Year.
There are two ways you can be a part of it: Weekend retreats hosted in various cities where you can get a crash course in Dream Year and connect with other leaders. And one-on-one coaching limited to a community of 12 people. Let the journey begin.
PROCESS
- January
- Authenticating your dream (tracing its history, assessing your readiness, testing the idea, defining a clear project, raising your capacity, preparing for risk)
- February
- Building your platform (moving from beggar to influencer, finding your audience, trading value for information, becoming an expert in your field)
- March
- Defining your values (determining what you won't do, then determining what you will do, on the subject of excellence, building a team to bring your idea to life)
- April
- Funding your dream (great ideas are spreadsheets with skin on, identifying revenue sources, shaping your strategy, cash flow is everything, the art of making the ask)
- May
- Branding your dream (developing a total user experience, a field guide to designers, developing a creative class around you, design as the foundation for what you do)
- June
- Creating milestones (working backward from the goal, productivity tools, the sacrificial substitution principle, the order of action)
- July
- Leveraging influence (if you don't have influence you borrow it, if you already have influence you still borrow it, creating social movements around your idea, networking with leaders who matter)
- August
- Developing partnerships (creating win-wins, the art of negotiation, rooting out great partnerships, angles of benefit, value exchanges, approaching partners)
- September
- Rainmaking (sales for people who hate sales, how to put yourself out there without losing dignity, systems that produce revenue, closing deals, invoicing, merchant gateways)
- October
- Shaping an organization (organizational systems, proprietary versus outsourced, contractors versus employees, legal issues, how to make your idea your living, etc.)
- November
- Positioning yourself (navigating the world of media, agents, publishers, and conference makers, marketing in an over-saturated field, differentiation)
- December
- Sustaining your dream, last-month epiphanies, unresolved issues, feedback and last minute-ideas, charting the future connectivity of the class of 2013
- http://www.dreamyear.net/
The "Klondike Bar Effect"
I'm highly distrustful of generating momentum in places outside of our church's mission. Our church's mission ~ making disciples who can make disciples of Jesus Christ ~ happens in 3 environments in our church: Sunday mornings, small groups and our leadership communities. It's so tempting to put lots of energy into side events that could yield high turn-out, but have very little carry-over into our three foci. Things like carnivals, festivals, movie nights, etc. I'm not saying they're wrong; I'm just distrustfulof their effectiveness.
I think of it as "The Klondike Bar Effect." People will do anything and say anything toget free stuff or take their children to incredible, free events... but it doesn't seem to impact the church on Sunday mornings. The other month, when Honey Bunches of Oatswas giving out free bowls of cereal in the Town Center, I told their marketers how incredible they were, how delicious it was, and how revolutionary their approach was. But once I got my free bowl of cereal... I was outta there.
Ben Arment: http://www.benarment.com
Top 3 Mistakes Churches Make with New Believers
Date Published:
10/31/2011
Discover the three mistakes churches make that keep new believers from "sticking."
I started Calvary Fellowship in Miami, FL 10 years ago. My goal was to reach people far from God and disciple them to maturity. Here was my problem: after 18 months of ministry, we hadn’t seen one person come to know Christ at Calvary. This realization led to serious changes that took place in our church. Let me fast-forward eight years to the last 18 months at Calvary. In the last year and a half we’ve seen over 1,000 people make first time decisions to follow Jesus. If you count the recommitments to the Lord, that number is closer to 3,000. Whenever I tell that story people ask me, what happened? What changed?
First, let me say that this was not an overnight change. Much like losing weight physically, it was a process that happened as a result of some key decisions we made. What we learned is that just because you reach people, that doesn’t mean you have the infrastructure in place to keep people. So while our initial challenge was that we weren’t reaching anyone, our next challenge was our lack of being able to keep those we reached. Today, 85 percent of those we reach decide to call Calvary home.
Unfortunately, there’s no magic wand to fix this problem. This changes as a result of identifying the reasons new believers fall through the cracks and fixing the problem areas.
So what are the reasons that prevent new believers from “sticking” in your church? I have found that there are several, but three major mistakes that churches make in particular. If you fix these areas, you’ll be well on your way to doing what you and I are called to do: reach people and disciple them to maturity in Christ.
Mistake #1—New Believers Aren’t Asked To Indicate Their Decision
You cannot follow up with someone if you aren’t aware of the decision they made. The only way to ensure that you can follow with a new believer is to give them the opportunity to indicate their decision. This can be done in several ways. The “Come Forward” invitation became popular because when people came forward they were clearly identifying their decision to follow Jesus. While I cut my teeth in the “come forward” style of evangelism, this is not the method we use. We use a connection card for several reasons, the most important reason being the opportunity for them to put their contact information on the front of the card. This contact information now gives us the ability to implement our follow up system so these new believers can take their first steps of faith.
Mistake #2—New Believers Aren’t Given A Clear Next Step
Many churches get the contact information of new believers yet still find most of them falling through the cracks. The reason they disappear is because the church has not given the new believer a clear next step. I have found that churches tend to go in one of two directions here:
1. They give too many next steps. They tell the new believer of every opportunity available to them and the new believer is overwhelmed by the options. It’s like taking someone to the Cheesecake Factory for the first time. There are so many options, that without a friend to help you decide, you’d probably eat the free bread and go home. New Believers have just made the biggest decision of their lives. Quite honestly, many wouldn’t be able to even completely explain the decision they just made. That’s why the church needs to give them a clear next step.
2. The step is too big. Imagine going to a church for the first time and sitting in an auditorium with 500 other people. You enjoy the message and when the pastor gives the invitation for people to pray and receive Christ you respond to the call to salvation. A few days later, you get a letter in the mail from the pastor inviting you to a small group because “that’s where the real life change happens”. The majority of people wonʼt make the jump. It’s not because they’re against small groups (they might not even know what small groups are). The issue is, the jump is too big. An auditorium gives a person a level of anonymity and freedom. A small group of 12 has zero anonymity and little freedom to “kick the tires” and investigate their newfound faith.
(*Free Download: Starting Point: First Steps for the Journey, a free eBook to help new believers from Bob Franquiz.)
Mistake #3—New Believers Aren’t Valued In The Church’s Culture
It’s next to impossible to reach new believers and help them grow to maturity if your culture says that new believers don’t matter. Reaching new believers and retaining them only happens when your entire church is in alignment with the vision of reaching people and discipling them. I have learned that while the pulpit steers the ship, the church’s culture can lean the ship in a certain direction. A church culture that doesn’t value new believers cannot help them take steps of faith. The reason is, new believers don’t know the basics, much less the “inside baseball” needed to function in many churches. So, they move on. Even worse, many times they just stay home.
Your staff, leaders, volunteers and congregation need to value evangelism and those who respond. Simply put, you can’t help new believers grow without the help of the congregation. If people aren’t inviting their friends, there won’t be much evangelism needed. If those who do invite their friends won’t engage them after the service and help them take next steps, few are “Type A” enough to seek discipleship without the encouragement of someone else.
If churches are going to be experts at anything, we should be experts in reaching people and seeing them grow to maturity. I believe that your church can be the kind of church where people can stay a lifetime because they never stop growing. But for that to happen, we need to be great at following up with the most precious gifts a church can be given... new converts to Jesus. The greatest stewardship given to us by God is the stewardship of people. I pray we gain the skills necessary to overcome these mistakes and get about the business of making disciples.
Bob Franquiz is the Founding and Senior Pastor of Calvary Fellowship in Miami, FL. Bob is also the founder ofchurch-strategies.com, an organization that provides training and resources to Pastors and Church Leaders. Bob is also the author of Elements: Starting a Revolution in your World, Watermark: An Explanation of Baptism and Zero to Sixty: 60 Principles and Practices for Leading a Growing Church.
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