Church Growth Strategies in Ministry:
- Listen to God and do what He says.
- Learn how to be missionaries to our culture.
(The Gospel has to be placed into a context. We can’t ignore the culture. The message comes first but has to be in a language everyone can understand. We live in a foreign culture but too many times we view ourselves as preachers not missionaries) - Build from the outside in on all levels.
(The core never goes out, they never reach out. The danger is you don’t assimilate everyone, but can God be trusted to take care of them? Models Jesus ministry to the masses and then to the core.) - Prioritizing the weekend service in the U.S.
(Build the biggest crowd you can and some will respond. Allows you to partner with people’s personal evangelist efforts.) - Focus on who you are trying to reach not who you are trying to keep.
- Leverage word – of – mouth.
(70 – 80% of the people that connect to a church comes through word-of-mouth. Where there is life change it will spread. Keep people focused on it is about meeting Jesus. Share the stories of individual life change. There is something about different… new message series, different elements in your service, create buzz. Can use marketing at times and that can be different.) - Act twice your size at every level… starts with vision.
(Staffing – leaders who can lead at that level. Structure & systems. Volunteer development. Forces you to be ahead of the growth curve.) - Keep it simple.
(Message & structure) - Empower other leaders.
(Freedom within a framework. iPod delegation - initially, preferred, optional, discouraged. People want a framework but the freedom to work within that.) - Monitor the numbers.
(Numbers represent lives. How else can you tell? Pay attention to the trends and maximize those, a week or even a month doesn’t make a trend. How does it compare to last year?
Church Unique (Book)
Multi-site:
Once your space runs out… what do you do? Multiple services then what?
Two key things. Video message or Live teaching and if video is it live or taped? AND, do you keep the brand the same and replicate everything or give them freedom?
It is a better use of financial resources than building one huge building. Once you have the first campus the fixed cost get spread out over more people.
Leverage current ministry structure and strategies.
Takes advantage of a gifted communicators skills. Take advantage of branding.
People are more likely to go if it is near their house and multi-site gets them that.
Pastors get to pastor and preachers get to preach.
Challenges: Can “it” be replicated? Where do you give campuses freedom? Where is the line? What do we control? How do decisions get processed? Who calls the shots? How do things get communicated? What about leadership development? Does it scale… is it scaleable at the next level? Can we keep it simple? How do we pay for it? Where do we find the volunteers?
5 Keys for the Right Campus Pastor: Can they execute the vision? Can they communicate the vision? Have to be relational!!! Have to be able to lead through others, like volunteers. Are they driven, will they get it done?
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