Ideas For Church Growth

The local & global Church is a living organism, however as long as I've been alive it's been treated as an organization & as a former pastor's kid I can attest to this. I've seen the ins & outs & the working mechanisms of “Church” as an organization (salaries, utilities, etc) so I'm going to be a realist & approach this topic as such. 

Over the last few years I've been intensely researching Church growth & what's worked/hasn't worked for fellowships all over the country.

Here's a few ideas that have worked:

Add Another Service

This is the number one thing that has worked; people generally like options: if an ice cream store only served vanilla it probably wouldn't last…  because of our 24/7 lifestyle/work shifts people not only like but need options. 

For some, a Wednesday night service/Bible Study more suits their community, for others an additional Sunday morning service works but for the ones who saw the most growth in sustained attendance it was adding a hour long Saturday evening service.   

If you're going to consider this option then it has to be something different. I know of a fellowship who tried a Saturday evening service but it was the same format as their Sunday morning service: same songs, same sermon & it was a dud; no one wanted the same thing but leadership didn't listen; live & [hopefully] learn...

For a Saturday evening service to work, it must be different:

• try a seeker sensitive approach = up songs & up message
• try a soaking/acoustic worship/corporate prayer approach

There's a fellowship in my area that has a successful Saturday evening service; I personally like it, it's nice… & it's not only the senior pastor who takes it, sometimes it's the associate or youth pastor or an elder/board member.  I like the option of a Saturday evening service, who doesn't? 

In the Spring/Summer, I have a lot of family functions: reunions, dinners, various activities... so I may occasionally miss my Sunday morning service & this is where a Saturday evening service is convenient.  

Community/Interest-Based Events

Despite the name, Small Groups are huge; they really are. 

I read of one fellowship in Texas who bought the woods behind their church building & converted those woods into a disc golf course! They got w/ their township & co-designed it, then built it. It was a huge success. People would come on Sunday mornings for service & play afterwards (they eventually created a special early service to accommodate all the new members who played disc golf). The course is open to the public weekdays/weekends, it's a very popular course & their sustained attendance grew by 40-50% annually. 

I read of another fellowship who had a large number of golfers; it was a major ministry outlet for them. They'd meet on Mondays at the course, pray/minister then play. It got so big they added a Sunday morning golf ministry. Some people balked at this, “On a Sunday morning? Are you serious?” Well, because leadership didn't make a big issue out of it or pressure people about attendance, people started coming to their services. 

Note: I can't remember but I think this fellowship also added a Saturday evening service to minister to the ministers who headed up the golf ministry on Sunday mornings & to the golfers.  

One last example: Saddleback Church has a badminton ministry; so every Wednesday morning & evening, people from all over the community would gather for prayer, ministry & badminton. They'd open the gym about 11 & then again at 7. Rain or shine, Summer or Winter, this is ongoing.

Things like these are great, if your fellowship owns land then consider using it to engage w/ your community:

• create a bocce court
• create a croquet course
• create a putting range
• create a coffeehouse/open mic setting

Find out what your community lacks, what your community is interested in & fulfill that need. Start w/ once a month events designed around these interests & invite the community to be a part of it. Promote it in the newspapers, on your social media accounts, take videos of these events, put them on your church website so people see you're human & like to have fun.

Preach Jesus

Of course preach/teach whatever the Lord lays on your heart to preach/teach but Jesus fascinates most people; they were drawn to Him when He was ministering on Earth & they're drawn to Him now. I read of where this one one pastor felt led to just preach Jesus for one year = His character, His Person, etc & word soon got out & again, his fellowship exploded in attendance, so much so that he extended his teaching another year & they had to add onto the building & add staff to accommodate all the people coming just to learn about Jesus.

These examples worked for these fellowships; they may or may not work for yours, each fellowship & each community is different; only God knows what will cause growth but these  are some examples of how different fellowships thought outside the box & it worked for them...