Church Growth

Our church is pretty small. It's grown and shrunk numerically several times since it started in the early 80s, but at the moment we're at 27 official members and we average between 35-45 people (including kids) in attendance at a Sunday morning service. The topic of numerical church growth has come up now and again within the congregation and just recently the pastor sent out a pdf-ed copy of a publication on church growth (which I've attached at the end of this post in case you'd like to read it). I do think that our church would be healthier if it grow numerically by another 10 or 20 people (at the least). But the publication, though it had some good things to say, still struck me as a bit fishy. So this is my response to it.

Location, Location, Location
I think this section and the accompanying graph say a lot more about the American population and real estate trends than anything else. I suppose the take away here is, "if you want to grow numerically, locate your congregation where people are moving to." That said, it's this exact mindset that has traditionally left the poor and impoverished (those who can't move as easily as the rest of the population) with anemic churches. Central Alliance, the church that I was a member of back in Detroit, is a perfect example of this. The congregation carried on and had important ministries within the city, but it was a shell of what it had been. And once the white folks left town, they didn't really look back and help support the church they'd abandoned. Out of sight, out of mind. As Keith Green said, "Jesus commands us to go." But at the same time, Jesus said we'll be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) So it seems to me that we start where we are before we move out. If all the Christians were to leave Jerusalem, where does that leave Jerusalem? (CFHL) So location is important, but I don't think following the masses is always the answer.

The "fact" that "Congregations grow in locations where they find like-minded people" tells me that the gospel does more in regards to numerical growth when it's ignored. What about Galatians 3:26-28?

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

If the gospel breaks down superficial barriers of race and class, why would we seek to rebuild them by searching out and collecting people that think and act just like us? Is the gospel so weak that we need to ignore it in order to spread it?

A Combination of Factors
The article then explains that there are several factors that lead to numerical church growth: denominational loyalty, congregational vitality, confidence in the future, and serving as a moral beacon to the community. It then does a great job of not explaining those areas very well.

Denominational Loyalty: The article doesn't mention this again. I also don't see how denominational loyalty fits anywhere into the gospel, so I'll likewise jump right past it.

Congregational Vitality: The article doesn't explain what it means by this term. However, it does say that congregations that report having high vitality also promote themselves through radio advertising, evangelistic campaigns, personal witness, revivals and big events. In other words, with the exception of personal witness, the "vitality" of a congregation depends upon how well the church markets itself - how big and grand the congregation is portrayed through advertising and events. In other words, vitality has very little to do with the spiritual maturity or growth of the congregation or individuals within her and has quite a bit to do with how the congregation is perceived by people at large, whether or not the perception in any way matches the reality of who the congregation is.

Confidence in the Future: Apparently having confidence in the future means having "a clear sense of mission and a crisp organizational style." In other words, a congregation that has confidence that the path they have set before themselves is right is the congregation that will grow. They don't have to have confidence that God holds their future as long as they have a clear sense of what they hold for their own future.

Moral Beacon to the Community: Why be a spiritual beacon to the community when you can direct their morals instead? Why call people to God when you can call them to good works? I'm all for outreach ministries and committing to social justice issues. But God didn't call us to be a church in order to affect the morals of those around us. He called us to be a church to, as a group of believers, incarnate him. (Romans 12) Sure, that will lead us to commit to social justice issues and to reach out to others, but the forming of the body (Romans 12:5) comes before the actions of the body. We should be calling people to join us in the body, to join us in following Jesus. If we're growing because we have a social agenda, then what are we calling people to after all?

Uplifting Joyful Worship and Spiritual Nurture: Worship and nurture weren't listed in the combination of factors, but they were mentioned in a small paragraph in the midst of the articles elaboration on the other points. Again, it doesn't define these phrases and, in fact, it doesn't mention spiritual nurture again in the paragraph, focusing instead upon how churches with contemporary forms of worship grow more than churches with traditional worship. (What counts as contemporary or traditional is anybody's guess, but we'll assume they're referring to praise songs over hymns and the "sing then preach" format of service over a more traditional or liturgical style.)

Everything Else
The article then briefly mentions several other factors that lead to larger congregations: more worship services, a plan for growth, a website related to growth, a young congregation, and a newer congregation are all positive inputs towards having a numerically growing church. In other words, to grow you should increase your number of services, write a plan, make a website, kick out your old people, and if you're already an older congregation, you should just give up now.

The Gospel and the Church
In Matthew 28, Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. That certainly implies growth. It also implies disciples. I find it striking that this article doesn't really talk much about discipleship. In fact, the closest it seems to come to that comes on page 5 where it says,

Another critical interplay to consider is that between numerical growth in membership and participation, and growth in other critical dimensions of congregational vitality such as spirituality, commitment, discipleship, service, and financial giving. All are important!

All are important, but the article isn't going to waste more than one sentence on those topics. And I think that's telling.

What is more important, that 1000 people come to Sunday services and feel more positive about themselves and the world around them when they leave? Or that one person comes and learns how to be a disciple of the Christ? Sure, 1000 disciples would be better than 1. I get that. But 1000 non-disciples? If growing means abandoning the gospel, or circumventing it with Evangel-babble, then I'm not down with that.

Cornerstone, a mature little church
Like I said at the beginning, our church is pretty small. It fails on most of these areas that the article says we should be strong in. We've been around since the 80s, which makes us an old congregation. We sing hymns and follow an order of service, so we miss out on the contemporary boat. We don't have any radio advertising, no evangelistic campaigns, no revivals, and the last big event the church had led to a church split. In other words, when it comes to following the facts laid out in this article, we suck. It's no wonder we're so small.

But if we look at that one little sentence in the article, the one that mentioned stuff that was so important that it got an exclamation point, then I think we're doing alright. In terms of spirituality, commitment, discipleship, service, and financial giving I think we have a mature and well grown congregation. We've been put through the furnace on a number of occasions and a whole lotta dross has been burned off. Just in the decade that our family has been members in this church, I've seen people grow in ways that I haven't seen in most other congregations I've been a part of. Sure, there's still more dross to be burned off. We still have a long way to grow. But I am confident that what Cornerstone is growing is disciples, not attenders.

Some Good Things to Say
When I first mentioned the article I did admit that it had some good things to say. There are some areas that we need to grow and I think that having a sense of ourselves and our purpose is one of those. When we were looking for a new pastor a few years back, the search committee spent quite a bit of time talking about who we were as a congregation. I thought it was really helpful to be part of those conversations and to get a sense not just of what I thought of us, but what others of us thought of us as well. There was a lot of agreement on our strengths and weaknesses -- our congregation definitely has its own personality. But we've never had those talks as a congregation.

There's something about getting together with other people and talking things out that helps build ownership. When I was in InterVarsity in college we spent a week at the end of each school year talking about where we'd come and where we were heading. It gave the leaders a better sense of where they should be leading and it gave the rest of us a better sense of what to expect and how we would fit in over the coming year. It built community, it gave us direction and it built cohesion of purpose and activity. In the ten years we've been at Cornerstone we have yet to have a church retreat (where discussions like this often take place). We've had many congregational meetings, but they're often a matter of covering specific issues rather than brainstorming about who we are and where we're headed. I think Cornerstone would benefit from something like this. It might not make us grow numerically. But it would help us to acknowledge where we're mature and where we're still lacking. And it would give Cornerstone another chance to do what we already do pretty well -- BE the church rather than just go to church.

Attachment: FACT_Cong_Growth.pdf