prayeramedic.com » church growth

Should churches compete with each other?

Dan — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:30:51 +0000

Should they? If the emphasis is on making disciples, then there really is no competition. In John 4, when Jesus finds out people have taken notice that he baptized more people than John (his disciples did, anyways), he gets out of the way, interestingly enough.

Yet when churches use marketing tactics and strategic business planning more than biblical discipleship to encourage growth, they often find themselves in competition with area churches, a practice known as “sheep stealing.” Christians who switch churches are often labeled church “hoppers” or “shoppers,” and members become consumers of services rather than disciples called to serve.

What do you think? Does your church measure progress by making true disciples (who make other disciples)? Or is your church following marketing and business strategies for growth?

Numerical growth as a double standard

Dan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:06:07 +0000

I’ve been reading Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion lately, and I ran across a great point I wanted to share:

“Fix-the-church books almost always figure that declining church attendance … means the church has messed something up. Even though the new crop of church books decry the old church-growth models, they still operate with the same basic assumption: namely, that churches should be growing and something is wrong with the church that isn’t.

This assumption, however, is alien to the New Testament. Didn’t Jesus say tell us that “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:14)? Wasn’t the early church of Philadelphia commended by the Lord Jesus even though they were facing opposition and had “little power” (Rev. 3:7-13)? There is simply no biblical teaching to indicate that church size is the measure of success.

I’ve written before that ministry progress is not measured by numerical growth, but by the creation of disciples who make other disciples. But this post is exposing the double standard, those who would “have their cake and eat it, too.”

Authors like George Barna like to use statistics showing the decline in church attendance to damn the church, but then quickly defend the 5-person house church because “progress is not measured by numbers.” So if the institutional church is losing numbers, it is always because they are doing church wrong. But if organic churches are not growing, then it’s for some other reason. All I’m asking for here is fairness. Isn’t it possible that a particular church isn’t growing because it is rightly teaching Law and Gospel and people don’t like to hear it? Isn’t it possible that a particular organic church isn’t growing because of the home leader’s pride? It works both ways, which is why numbers are not a good indicator of spiritual maturity nor ministry progress, no matter what church model we’re discussing.

Jesus' Church Growth Chart

Dan — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:10:26 +0000

Attracting true followers isn’t so easy.

I saw this over at iMonk.