What I’ve Learned About Church Growth

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First, I would like to express that I do not consider myself to be a church growth expert, although I would like to become one!! I wanted to share some insights that I have discovered from some of the churches that I follow. I love to follow churches that are experiencing growth that can only be explained as a work of God. Most of these church plants have been in existence for less that five years with the exception of a few churches by they are still thinking like a church plant and not a church (there is a big difference). I started seeing some trends between these churches and here is what I learned.

  1. Document Everything – Nothing is worse that to have a great outreach event or baptism and not have the media to document the event.  If you need a great video camera and your on a tight budget I recommend The Flip
  2. Celebrate the Wins – This creates great moments for casting vision and reinforcing what your church is all about.  You should celebrate big wins and the small wins even if they seem too small to celebrate.
  3. Never Compromise the Truth – There is a generation out there that want authenticity and they appreciate truth event if it is not PC.  God will bless your ministry if you stick to this step.  The truth can hurt but you will reap a harvest that will be worth documenting and celebrating.

So that is what I have learned about church growth.  Here is a short list of some of the churches that I follow.  If you are thinking about planting a church here is some questions you might want to ask CLICK HERE.   If are interested in planting a church in Indiana hit me up HERE.

New Spring Church
Elevation Church
Aviator Church
Coming Soon Covenant Church

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Top Five Articles!

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Just for fun…I wanted to show you what everyone has been doing on my site.  Happy reading and don’t forget to give your two cents!

Top Five Articles for this month:

  1. Is Being Gay Wrong? (this one has brought on lots of emails and controversy)
  2. Don’t Go to Church! (lots of fundamentalist mad at this one)
  3. 21 Questions to Ask Before Planting (for all you church planters out there)
  4. 25 Random Things About Me. (Warning…you might be bored to tears)
  5. Spiritual Checklist (this is a must read)

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Don’t go to church!

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That is right, I am asking everyone not to go to church but instead to be the church.  How about we raise up a generation that is passion about Kingdom work and not afraid to stand up for Jesus.  It is not enough to just stand on the side lines it is time to get in the game.  So how can we be the church?

1.  Make church and your relationship with God a priority.

2.  Don’t sit back and let the hired guns (your pastors) do all the ministry.  Ministry is meant for the people!

3.  Go for broke! (this is my current life saying…take no prisoners…charge hell with a water pistol…you get it!)

4.  Live your life through the eyes of Jesus.

5.  As Perry Noble says, “Kick Satan in the cookies.”

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Interview with Dave Ferguson

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I just want you to know how much I respect Dave Ferguson the pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL.  I’m an aspiring church planter and I am doing as much research as I can to prepare for the future.  I thought it would be smart to talk to the guys who are planting and learn from their experience (thanks @kevinrapp for pushing me over the edge).  I hit Dave up on Twitter asking him if he would discuss church planting with him and he immediately responded.  I sent him some questions and here are his responses:

1.  If you had to plant all over again what would you do different?

First, if your vision is to be a reproducing church (and I hope that is the case!) than the one thing I would do over was have 2-3 apprentice church planters/campus pastors on my team.  I would have them raise their own money to do a leadership residency with the plan that within 12-24 months we would either reproduce a new church or site.

Second, we should have raised more money.  It was very tight for us from the beginning.  I think God used that – but it was tight.


2.  What is the biggest challenge to casting vision to your launch/leadership team?

(I’m answering this question with the assumption that a reproducing infrastructure of small groups is essential to becoming a reproducing church)  I think one of the great challenges is getting second generation reproduction from your small groups.  If your staff team all starts small groups it is a challenge to get the small groups to believe that they will do great under the new leadership of a lay person.  Once you break threw that second generation of small group reproduction you will see real momentum.

3.  Multi-site vs. Church Plants?

Both.  I believe that with a close proximity that multi-site will give you a bigger return but requires greater leadership.  If you can’t do both – do church planting.

4.  If you could tell a group of Church Planters one thing before they launched what would you tell them?

Make sure you hear from God everyday. If you hear from God everyday and obey him and teach your people to hear from God everyday and obey him – you will plant a church that will give birth to a missional movement.

Once again, thanks Dave!  I hope this interview helps you as much has it will help me.  I am going to continue to interview guys that are swinging away in the field.  If you have any questions you would like me to ask or people I should interview hit me up here.

If you are interested in planting you should read this post.

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