5 Reasons You are Not a Growing Church

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1.       Leadership

It’s been said that everything rises and falls on leadership.  Perhaps a more accurate way of putting it would be that no organization will rise above the level of its leadership.  If on a scale of 1-10, the current leadership is around a “4”, then it will be difficult for the church to grow beyond that level.

Solution:  Ensure that people with the spiritual gift of leadership are actually leading, and that they are committed to developing that gift by reading about leadership, getting around other leaders for insight, and exercising their leadership gift in challenging settings.

2.       Communication

There are few things more critical to a church’s growth than an effective communicator for weekend teaching.  The dilemma is that many who serve as the primary communicators in their church aren’t Spirit-gifted teachers.  They like to speak, and the group that gathers around their teaching seems to benefit from it, but the majority of listeners tend to vote with their feet.  Or at least the teaching doesn’t seem to be catalyzing the congregation to invite their friends to benefit from the teaching.

Solution:  Make sure that the point communicator has the spiritual gift of teaching, and is actively working at developing that gift by listening to other gifted communicators.  Don’t be afraid of developing a team-teaching approach to shore up weakness, or to adjust responsibilities so that various roles more accurately reflect gifting.  In other words, perhaps someone has been serving as lead communicator, when their gifts are better used in another area.  This is a difficult maneuver, for as stated above, people who are speaking tend to like to speak and to have a (perhaps) distorted view of their effect.

3.       Quality of Worship

The quality of the worship experience is more important even than its style.  If the service itself seems slapped together, incoherent, or unable to be embraced, then it will not provide the traction needed for ongoing growth.  To be sure, worship is not about what we get out of it, but what God gets out of it.  But the better that service is at helping people connect with God, the more people it will attract.

Solution:  Review the music, presentation, style and quality of the worship experience of your church in light of its ability to optimally serve and engage people.  View the services of larger, faster-growing churches that you feel are biblically and theologically sound for benchmarks.  If you are continually plagued by forgotten lyrics, missed notes and awkward transitions, consider planning meetings for your services, and run-through rehearsals of critical parts.

4.       Atmosphere

Every church has an atmosphere, but not all have an atmosphere of friendliness and acceptance.  Let’s put it bluntly:  every church thinks it’s friendly.  But what that often means is they are friendly to each other, friendly to people they know, friendly to people they like, or friendly to people who are like them.

Solution:  If you haven’t already, consider developing an entire ministry around first impressions and the creation of a friendly, welcoming atmosphere.  At Meck, we call it “Guest Services,” and it oversees parking lot attendants, greeters, ushers, hospitality, and so much more – all geared toward the experience of first-impressions and friendliness.  It’s one of our largest and most strategic efforts.