The lay leader joined in: ‘What shall we change?
The program, the worship, our recruitment style? I’m not sure
we are doing everything wrong, but we and hundreds of other mainline
churches are losing members…!’

However some churches are growing – inner-city, inner
urban, suburban, small-town churches – even in our secular Western
societies. Some are predominantly working-class, others are middle-class,
and some churches are growing among more affluent groups. Pentecostal/charismatic
congregations are generally growing much faster than others -
all round the world – but some ‘fundamentalist’, ‘evangelical’
and ‘mainline’ churches are growing too.

* There are two Baptist churches in Melbourne and
one in Brisbane with larger pastoral staffs than any Baptist church
has ever had in Australia’s history.

* The Assemblies of God in Australia formed only
20 new churches from 1937-1966. They are now starting a new church
every six days! The catalytic year was 1977, when Paul Yonggi
Cho, senior pastor of the world’s largest church (in Seoul, Korea,
with 385,000 members) came to their General Conference in Melbourne.
This was followed by an airlift of pastors to visit Korea in 1978.
* Churches of Christ statistics throughout Australia began an
up-turn following the visits of church growth specialist Win Arn
in 1975 and ’76.

So what makes churches grow?

I first attended a seminar for church leaders sponsored
by the Fuller Seminary School of World Mission in 1975. Scores
of seminars and hundreds of books later, my summary of the main
points the ‘church growth movement’ is making would be:

* The growth of the church – everywhere – qualitatively
and numerically, is God’s will.

* The New Testament is full of metaphors, examples,
and celebrations of the church growing.

* Churches are most likely to grow where the pastor
is a ‘possibility thinker’, the laity are well-mobilized, the
congregation is large enough to provide varied ministries, there
is a proper balance between large, middle-sized, and small group
encounters, the membership is fairly homogeneous, effective evangelistic
methods are used, and where priorities are biblical. Both the
pastor and the people must want the church to grow, and be willing
to pay the price.

* An important factor is the assimilation of new
members and their involvement in the church’s program.

There are some controversial issues here: Is the
notion of a homogeneous membership biblical? Isn’t ‘numerolatry’
a serious temptation? What of the tensions between sociological
analysis and prayerful dependence on a sovereign Lord? Haven’t
we bought into an American ‘success mentality’? And many more.

Church Growth is now a sophisticated study. There
are dozens of variables common to growing churches, among them
these nine:

1. The Leadership Factor.

All growing churches have leaders with the ‘gift
of faith’ (1 Corinthians 12:9). Their main function: equipping
others for ministry (Ephesians 4:12, Colossians 1:28-29). They
affirm the apostolic idea of the ‘priesthood of all believers’,
avoiding, at all costs, the idea that ‘ordained clergy’ alone
‘supply the religion’. When a church is growing, someone is hustling
somewhere! It’s hard, glorious work. Effective leaders are visionary,
they transmit enthusiasm, but they also model an authentic Christian
obedience. (They are ‘like everyone else only more so’).

Two other important leadership-variables: (1) Leadership
style varies from culture to culture, denomination to denomination,
church to church. It will be a function of each church’s ecclesiology,
the expectations of the group and its opinion leaders, and the
special gifts of the leader/s involved. Christian leadership can
be (benevolently) autocratic, strongly authoritarian, ‘charismatic’,
or ‘consensus’. (2) Competence. In a television-age, people expect
their leaders to operate efficiently and well. Sloppiness won’t
do any more. When looking for a church, mobile moderns ask ‘Does
he/she really care?’, ‘Is the preaching good?’ (Good preaching
won’t necessarily fill a church, but poor preaching will empty
it!).

2. The Spirituality Factor.

Do the people in this church seem to be ‘true Christians?’.
Are they ‘internalizing’ the gospel? Is there an authentic obedience
to Christ, a sensitivity to doing his will, a strong desire to
‘search the Scriptures’ and live by its precepts – between Sundays?
Have they told their faces about the joy which Christ promised
his followers? Put bluntly, does Christianity work for them?

In communication terms, it’s ‘source credibility’.
Communications researchers Hovland and Weiss found that people
were 3.5 times more likely to be attracted to an idea if the source
of the idea had a high credibility.

This is linked with the koinonia factor. New-comers
to a church tend to put the fellowship on a ‘warm-to-cold’ continuum,
depending on whether ‘anyone spoke to them’. ‘Behold how they
love one another’ still has a crucial drawing-power. However,
Christians best love one another if they know each other – hence
the importance of small groups, for study of the Scriptures, prayer,
fellowship and mission.

3. The Mission Factor.

Love for one another is not enough (churches can
die of ‘koinonitis’). We are commissioned by our Lord to bring
the Good News to a lost world. ‘Conversion growth’ is the healthiest
way to grow. So churches will grow in proportion to the membership’s
ability and willingness to verbalize their commitment to Christ.
‘The laity are not helpers of the clergy so that the clergy can
do their job, but the clergy are the helpers of the whole people
of God, so that the laity can be the Church’ (Hans Reudi Weber).
Pastors are player-coaches, not bus-drivers with many drowsy passengers!

Mission, in its biblical sense, includes proclamation,
and service to others in terms of ministries of mercy and justice.
Jesus’ wholistic approach to ministry is our model (Matthew 23:23).
So every church should ask: ‘What are the presenting, and deeper
needs of people in our geographical area – and in a cross-cultural
situation the Lord puts into our hearts? What are the spiritual
gifts evident in our people? How can we marry one with the other?’
A church can’t meet every community or world need, but there are
some ministries it can do.

4. The Eschatological Factor.

John Wimber, the ‘Signs and Wonders’ teacher says
(with graphs and statistics): ‘The only churches/denominations
growing rapidly throughout the world are those in which "signs
and wonders" accompany the proclamation’. But, you may retort,
what of such crusades as Billy Graham’s in a given city? His response:
generally church membership statistics in those cities at those
times exhibit very minor fluctuations, if any. (Probably the 1959
Sydney crusade was an exception).

Protagonists of this view point out that the apostles
not only proclaimed, they performed miracles. Perhaps the Protestant
Reformation in the 16th century concerned itself with God’s Word,
now a new Reformation is witnessing God’s works again. This issue
is more controversial for Westerners, with their rational/empirical
world-view, than for people in the Two Thirds World – Africa,
Korea, Papua New Guinea, etc. In these places such things as visions
and healings seem to be accepted as part of their normal Christian
experience. (And the church is certainly growing dramatically
in some of these countries).

5. The Authority Factor.

Dean Kelly has written a book entitled Why Conservative
Churches Are Growing. Experience shows that most people want their
leaders to be certain about their beliefs. When a politician is
‘fuzzy on the key issues’ he soon hears about it! The tension
in preaching is to be both ‘prophetic’ and yet respect the paradoxes
in our faith, and that’s not always easy.

C.S. Lewis once said that the vast majority of conversions
to Christianity happen at the ‘evangelical end’ of the theological
spectrum. The essentials of the gospel are clear: God’s creatures,
men and women, are estranged from him, and he graciously invites
them to be reconciled to him. He loved the world so much that
he sent his son Jesus, to die for it. So we are called to turn
from our sins, accept the rule of God, and in fellowship with
others in the church, to be his obedient people in a lost world.
If our pulpits do not make clear the claims of the sovereign God
on our lives – individually and collectively – then our people’s
commitment will be half-hearted.

6. The Organization Factor.

Many congregations say they’d like to grow, but in
a hundred ways do all they can to stay small. For example, about
80% of our churches don’t crack the ’200 barrier’. Those that
do, exhibit some or all of these features: * An additional staff-member
is added sooner rather than later (perhaps using gifted people
in the congregation). * Small groups, and/or adult classes with
options, are fostered, to discourage ‘single cellness’. Most groups
should expect to grow and divide. * The senior pastor thinks like
a rancher, rather than as a shepherd. He or she delegates. The
congregation does not expect the senior pastor to minister to
everyone. * Every member is assumed to be in ministry. * The nature
of a church tends to conform to its facility. They build in faith,
with plenty of land for parking, multi-purpose facilities, and
get options on surrounding properties.

You may wonder why your church is not appealing to
a particular group. For example, if a higher proportion of professional/management
people live in your district than come to your church, ask: Do
the worship services appeal to their more sophisticated tastes?
Are the buildings, management procedures a bit sloppy (stale advertising,
poorly presented church bulletins, no creche, haphazard planning,
inadequate heating, etc.)? Is there a general lack of creativity?
Is the preaching – and general church attitude – not only for
something, but against other Christians and their beliefs? (It
is possible to have strong conviction and be accepting of others
who might differ. Remember ‘God has yet more light and truth to
break forth from his holy Word’).

Note, however, that your church does not have to
be large to be healthy. A large church may be fat, and a small
church may be undernourished. Some people like supermarkets, other
boutiques! It is now conceded by church growth consultants that
some churches may be healthy but not growing. Theirs is a specialized
ministry, or house-church, or spawns daughter-churches when a
certain size is reached. Normally, however, life is accompanied
by growth, both biologically and ecclesiologically.

7. The ‘Ethos’ Factor.

What is the most appropriate way to worship, fellowship,
nurture, and evangelize in this culture (or sub-culture)? For
example, if Australia was settled by people without strong religious
motivations, and if the clergy back in Britain and here were viewed
as being part of the ‘machinery of repression’ (Russel Ward) and
almost all the clergy until 1851 were born and trained in the
U.K. (and projected an un-Australian image – pale-faced, soft-handed,
effeminate, and forever getting lost, as Grocott put it), what
has that said to Australian males? Why are men not frequenting
our churches, particularly in the mainline Protestant denominations?
What does the Australian’s apparent dislike of authority and affirmation
of egalitarianism say about our ecclesiastical structures? And
what of the Norman Gunston image of the little Aussie battler?
Is this why, as Donald Horne has written, we can’t cope with ‘tall
poppies’? (Perhaps we ought not to communicate too many ‘grand
visions’, but rather do our goal-setting in manageable doses).

The gospel must also address our general anxiety,
hedonism, affluence and economic self-sufficiency…

And yet, some churches are growing, even here! So
let us shelve our excuses and ask ‘why?’ (or ‘why not?’).

8. The Liturgy Factor.

Good liturgical innovations won’t fill a church,
but stale, routinized liturgies will certainly empty it.

If the worship leader/s seem to come across drily,
‘without life’, that church will soon begin to die.

The common factor in growing churches is not the
presence or absence of certain liturgical approaches, formality
or informality (some Anglican and some Pentecostal churches are
growing, and many are not), but the ‘transmission of enthusiasm’
by the leadership.

Plus one more thing – good music. All the larger/
growing churches attract a significant number of worshippers with
good choirs, orchestra etc. (Whether that’s healthy or not is
another issue).

9. The Change Factor.

Kurt Lewin’s force field analysis says you can move
equal and opposing forces either by increasing the pressure or
removing the resistant forces. Perhaps each pastoral leader has
one ‘growth through force’/'do it my way’ church in him. But it’s
more creative to find the growth factors already in a church and
consolidate at those points.

How? First, write down where you’d like your church
to be. State all the forces that will help this to happen. Then
list the hindrances. Prioritize, then ‘brainstorm’ some possible
action strategies. Refine your list, itemizing the best of these
options, together with people’s names and target dates. Figure
out the best way for the people to modify, then own, these goals.

Church growth books will give you hundreds of ministry-options.
Work on a few! (For example a trail-bike champion took teenagers
away on ‘dirt bike’ camps. Thousands were converted. An older
widow was a good cook, so she taught young mums baking and canning.
The church tripled in size. Philatelic clubs have worked well
in some Australian churches).

Back to change. Most groups have people spread across
a radical-progressive-conservative-traditionalist spectrum. They
must each be treated differently. Radicals rarely make good leaders,
but they supply lots of ideas. Your progressives are tuned to
anticipate needs. They gravitate to the creative jobs, and quickly
perceive the benefits in good plans. They’re your best communicators
to the conservatives. For the latter group, personal comfort is
very important. They see more benefit in the status quo than in
change. They are often methodical, and want real answers to their
questions. They’re good on committees, they’re not risk-takers,
but once they’re ‘sold’ on a change you’re away! Traditionalists
have in-built emotional resistance to change. They are sometimes
a heavy weight on a church, and negatively influence a larger
group. And yet some of them could be among the most faithful and
dependable people in the church. Sometimes, however, change might
have to happen without their consent!

Finally: * Be person-, not program- centred * Plan
for the emotional as well as the informational aspects of change
* Identify the opinion leaders (six phone calls could inform the
whole church!) * Watch your timing: too many changes all at once
could be counter-productive * Aim for ‘win-win’ resolutions of
conflict if possible * Have clear goals (If you don’t know where
you’re going you won’t know if you’ve got there!) * Trust in God.
It is he who ‘gives the increase’. Techniques alone won’t grow
a healthy church.

Related Articles:

• Pastor Burnout Statistics
• Stress and Burnout in Pastoral Ministry: A Prologue
• Leadership for success
• Tribes: we need you to lead us
• Becoming a leader of no reputation

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