How to break the top five barriers to church growth.

You are trapped? Has your church growth stabilized or even started to slow? I will relate

Most churches seem to face barriers to growth on five levels: when attendance reaches 65, 125, 250, 500, and 1,000. In training pastors across the country, I’ve found that we all deal with the same inevitable barriers, so remember that he is not alone. However, simply by becoming proactive in learning to detect and break through these types of barriers, we can sustain our every impulse and continue to increase to the glory of God.

First of all, to be a pastor looking to grow your church, make sure you are constantly asking yourself the right question regarding growth.

The Wrong Question: How do I grow my church? Your job is simply not to force growth. When you think that growth is your responsibility, you will inevitably make bad decisions. Church growth is ultimately not about what we can accomplish in our own power; it is in relation to the power of God and his choice to work through us. Refuse to settle for anything less than God’s vision for your church.

The right question: What prevents my own church from growing? Healthy microorganisms grow. If you feel like you are stagnating, obstacles are inhibiting your growth. Implement a plan to eliminate them.

Growth Barrier No. 1: Space

Space is one of the most fundamental barriers we all face, and the best one to overlook. As church leaders, we love packed rooms, so we say, “Pack it up, there are still some seating designs!” But the truth is that when a room grows to 70 percent of its seating volume, it’s full. Period. Here is a four-step training to perform frequently as your church evolves:

Step 1: Determine how many seating layouts you have in your main worship space.

Step 2: Multiply that number by 0.7 (70 percent).

Step 3: Determine how many people you actually averaged in attendance during the

last thirty days.

Step 4: Is the number in Step 3 greater than the number in Step 2? If the answer is of course, you need to open up more car seats or find a bigger location, fast.

Growth barrier No. 2: Self-development

Growing churches are led by growing leaders. Therefore, if you have stopped making personal progress, your church does not have much power.

When a shepherd is not growing:

-Sermons are boring.

-Congregation’s passion for ministry wanes.

-The workforce stops growing.

-The church stops growing.

Growth Barrier No. 3: Sharing

Churches stop expanding when they focus internally (as opposed to outside the body). If you notice a drop in first-time guest numbers plus an increase in discussion of interior-focused shows, look out! You are about to become a victim of the sharing barrier. Church Growth happens when people in the church are sharing.

In my experience, healthy growing churches will have a ratio of five first-time guests to every 100 regular attendees. Consequently, if you average 200 men and women per week, you should average ten first-time guests per week. Look carefully at this particular relationship and take your decline as a red light. When this barrier begins to block your growth, here are some ways you can break through it:

Growth Barrier No. 4: Worship Service

Your weekly worship service is the door through which people are introduced to your own church. If not done correctly, it can become a huge barrier.

To keep the service strong, always try to look like a church twice your size. If you are a church of 100 people, intentionally create a worship service that looks like it belongs to 200 people. Take those who preach to a higher level. Energize your worship period. Create the excitement that would be seen in a larger crowd. Also, it’s important to get in the habit of looking at your service from the point of view of your regular guests and attendees. What kind of impression have you been giving them?

Improve the quality of your respective service in the following approaches:

-Modify your transitions.

-Establish feedback and develop evaluation systems.

-Visit larger and growing churches and compare what they are doing.

-Attend cutting edge seminars and leadership conferences.

Growth Barrier No. 5: Personal

If your congregation suddenly doubled in size, would you have the staff to serve them? For the church to keep moving forward, it will need to hire people of faith so that it can expect to receive the harvest that God wants to send it.

Hiring staff is truly a matter of faith. Many pastors want to lay off staff until they have the money to support the positions. It seems like a practical plan, but unfortunately it doesn’t work. You will never have enough money up front to hire the staff you will need.

To overcome this barrier, modify your perspective on what it takes to hire a new staff member. It states that you need to fill a position that may require a salary of $48,000. Don’t think of it as a one-year position. Instead, sit in blocks of three months. If you use the new position as a three-month $12,000 risk, rather than a $48,000 risk, you’ll feel more comfortable filling the item. Then if the staff member you hire is a good one, the positioning will start to be paid only after three months.

When you approach staffing with a faithful heart, you will be much more prepared to handle the growth that the Almighty brings you.