Drumroll, please.........
Breaking Barriers for On-going Growth
In his book, The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren explains the wrong and right questions to ask in dealing with growth barriers:
- The Wrong Question: How do I get my church to grow?
- The Right Question: What is keeping my church from growing?
The Top 3 Growth Barriers Every New Church Will Face
Growth Barrier #1: Space
- The 70% Rule: When a room is 70% full, it's full!
- At 80% your church is stangled and it will not grow.
- Are you growing?
- When the leader stops growing, the church stops growing.
- See John Maxwell's "Law of the Lid" (from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership)
- Keep the focus on evangelism hot!
- Teach on relational evangelism.
- Set an example by telling stories of how you've invited people to church.
- Kick off a new series with a special challenge for people to invite their friends.
- Hold a prayer walk or servant evangelism outreach.
- Talk to staff and volunteers about the importance of reaching friends.
- Read an evangelism or church-growth book with your staff.
- Develop training materials that will help your members invite their friends to church and share their faith.
- Ask someone who has experienced life change to share his or her testimony.
Overcoming Spiritual Barriers to Growth
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." --John 15:5
Abiding Area #1: God's Word
- Spend time in God's Word every day
Abiding Area #3: Fasting
- www.elmertowns.com - a great free resource on fasting
And that's it!! Hope these notes were helpful. Certainly, they were at times controversial--and even I don't agree with everything. But I think you can always learn something, even when you don't agree 100%.
3 comments:
Hey, Markus
Have enjoyed reading your posts. Blogs have been a great way for us church planters to network and share info. My wife and I are in the embryonic stages of planting a church in urban Pittsburgh.
I especially liked your post on seeker vs. emergent. I am a recovering program director at a fairly large seeker church (did it for 15 years - stop doing the math!) On moving to Pa I got involved with an emergent church (www.hotmetalbridge.com) that is doing incredible things. Through them, I am planting a church in a different city neighborhood. Through them doesn't mean with their non-existent money, it means "way to go! we're behind you all the way!"
Interestingly, I've seen some suburban seeker churches try to start some emergent plants here in the city. Let me just say that the combination of seeker and emergent is not exactly the Reeses Peanut Butter cup you think it might be. It's a weird mix, and I don't think it works. It comes of a showy, inauthentic, and trendy. It's "Target" for people who don't want national chains in their neighborhood.
Anyhoo... just my observation from here in the trenches. Stop by my blog if you can:
www.catalystfaith.wordpress.com
Hey Tom...I think that one of the HMB people are coming to the EmergingUMC: a Gathering in October...so that should be very good. Anyway...glad you like Markus...he is freaing awesome!!
Markus.... How long was this conference? heh.... love ya man!
Tom, great to hear from you!! I'll definitely check out your blog!
D.G., believe it or not, the conference only lasted about a day and a half! I'm just slow, I guess...
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