I was recently challenged with a new idea for spiritual formation in the church. Most commonly, the church will do there best to “assimilate” their members into the church. This commonly happens when we connect people to small groups or a bible study. Churches have full time pastors on staff just working to assimilate or orientate their people into the fold. Lets just pause for a moment and consider we might have been doing this in the wrong direction….?? Yes, possibly we have been doing church wrong for years. The purpose of assimilation is to connect your people and for discipleship. What we we started asking people, “What talents has God given you that can serve the body?” or “What are you passionate about?” “What makes you move?” You see, maybe, if we started identifying peoples God given talents and passions and equipped them to live and operate within God’s structure instead of the church’s structure we might see more participation and more assimilation than ever in the history of church. I don’t know, I’m just a nobody in this mix but its time to start looking at how we do church and ask the tough questions. What do you think?

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God is making some amazing moves in our church.  He is going to use us for His greatness and glory.  However, as we continue to grow we will experience growing pains.  Here are 3 thoughts that will kill our growth:

1. “My old church never did that!” – If you are saying this because there is something that you don’t like then this is a thought that can kill growth.  Think about it this way, 3500-4000 are closing their doors permanently this year so if we did everything like we use to then we will close our doors!  Our methods might be different but our theology will not change.
2. “There are too many people here, I just don’t know anyone anymore!” – There will be a day when you don’t know everyone at church…(you might already be that person) we should be excited about this.  We should also still go out of our way to make people feel welcome and attempt to get to know them.  This is why small groups are so important at journey.  Small groups is the glue that holds it all together and a great place to experience biblical community.
3. “The worship is too loud and I don’t know the songs!” – Did you know that the music we play on Sundays is not for YOU?  I know, probably not what you wanted to hear.  If we think that the music is for us and to make us feel all good and gooey inside then we are destined to kill growth.  Our worship is for God and God alone and we should be praying that God ACTUALLY hears our worship.

Church,  God is at work and we need to make sure we don’t allow our human nature to mess it all up.  I am excited for what is to come because I do believe we still have the best to experience.  Lets just make sure we stay on track and in tune with God.

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I believe we need to plant churches like it is going out of style not only because its biblical but because its our only hope.  Here my top 5 reason why we need to plant churches.

1. Hands down most effective evangelism tool - in major denominations around 80% of the recorded salivations came from churches that where younger than two years old.  What does this tell us…? Church plants are more effective.  This doesn’t mean that established churches don’t have there place, they DO and they can have a big impact on the culture of church planting.  Lots of larger and more established churches can fund church planting.
2. We are commanded too! -  the results of the great commission ministry is discipleship and discipleship leads to congregationalism aka church.  So, if we are making disciples we are planting churches.  Right?  Its a natural progression.
3. Lots of lost people - the last stat I read was that there were over 120 million unchurched people in the United States.  This make us the largest mission field in the Western Hemisphere and the fifth largest field in the world.  Hmm, think we should be starting new churches?  Especially since we close somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500 churches each year.
4. Church plants reach younger people – A key characteristic of church plants is that their attenders tend to be younger than churches generally, with more than two-thirds (69%) of adult attenders being aged 15-49 years, compared with only 48% at churches generally.
5. It is the most exciting thing to do on the face of this planet (yeah I’m partial) – need I say more!!!

The fact is we need a reality check.  If we don’t plant more churches than close each year our children won’t have a church to attend.  Actually we need a GUT check.  If you feel like God is leading you to plant then I encourage you to begin the process of becoming a planter.  Here are some good questions to ask yourself before planting.

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Everyone likes a good new year’s resolution but have your ever made one for you church?  This is a great way to recast vision especially if you started to experience vision slippage at the end of 2009 (watch for a post soon about vision slippage).  The first objection to this resolution is that most resolution don’t stick or people don’t stick to the resolutions.  How can we make our church’s new year’s resolution stick in the hearts and minds of our people.

1. Make your resolution Reasonable – Don’t expect your members to automatically start bringing all their friends to church.  Lets start with a small obtainable resolution something that can be measured and celebrated.
2. Make your resolution Realistic – Lets not program God out of the equation but lets keep the resolution realistic.  Much like the first point we need to cast an expectation that your people can see.  Don’t give them a 30 thousand foot view but rather give them practical, daily resolutions.  A good way to accomplish this is to remove any will power that your people might need to exert in order to keep the Church’s resolution.
3. Make your resolution Rewarding – As stated before always make sure your resolution is measurable so you can reward your people when you stick to the resolution.  For example and I’m not against numbers but maybe you should have a goal of baptizing more people this year rather than saying we want to baptize 100 people this year.

Make 2010 be the best year the Kingdom of God has ever seen!

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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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