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Friends United Meeting |
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Quaker
Life
March 2002
The Seven Keys of Small Church Growth According to Jesus
By Patricia Edwards-Konic
Many pastors and church leaders have attended church growth conferences headlined by speakers who have built small member churches into a thousand or more members. Books abound at Christian bookstores on how to use the right techniques and programs, and magazines highlight churches that have grown significantly.
All this leaves many congregations and pastors feeling at best, inadequate, and often as failures because these slick city programs don't work in rural, small churches.
Here are seven key principles for small church growth I have developed.
Key 1—Know how Jesus looks at your church
Often when people are asked about their churches, most answer first in
terms of numbers, and no matter what the size of their church, they usually
do so apologetically, "We're just a small, country church."
But Jesus wants to say, "You don't have to apologize! I don't measure you by how big your church is!"
So how does Jesus measure our churches? In Revelation 2-3, we find letters dictated to seven churches. Here, in a uniquely direct way, we have Jesus' assessment of health indicators for local congregations.
These indicators stand out: the call to holiness and dealing with sin, endurance and being "overcomers." The Lord praises churches that face corporate challenges with vital faith. Pastor Lee Eclov states: "What strikes me is that some of the usual indicators—evangelism, stewardship, church planting and attendance—are not evident."
So, even though Quaker Life or your yearly meeting newsletter has not cited your church as one of the top ten growing churches of the year, could it be that Jesus is actually pleased with you and is blessing you? What is important is to understand Christ's assessment of your ministry, and not get bogged down in worldviews that are not guided by the Holy Spirit.
Key 2—Know your job as a church
Jesus was very clear in the Great Commission what the job of the church
is: "Go and make disciples of all nations." (Matthew
28:18)
Church health is a matter of focus: a focus on Christ, not the church. Our focus determines whether we have a survival mentality or a service mentality. If the primary emphasis is on maintaining our building, or on getting more people or money, it's a clue that our focus is on survival.
A willingness to serve is the greatest indicator of a Christ-ward focus. It's a sign that faith is strong and people are open to the workings of the Spirit. It's a willingness to reach out and greet somebody whom you don't know well or whom you've never seen before.
Queries: Is there a need? Does some other agency in the community already do this—hospital, social work, mental health, etc.? In what ways will doing this enable us to fulfill Christ's job description for the church? Is God asking us to do this?
Key 3—The foundation of prayer, waiting and guidance
A church that engages in strategic, transforming intercession can absolutely
destroy the "survivalist" mentality often permeating small churches.
Once a sense of mission invades the congregation survival becomes less
and less the purpose for existing.
One prayer advantage a small church has over larger churches is the ability to come to a point of singular focus faster—the fewer people you have in a group, the fewer people who are a part of a consensus.
Some people don't have much time or money to give to the church, but everyone can pray. This includes new Christians who are not ready for leadership roles, and shut-ins. Bathe your ministry in prayer through a prayer chain and sharing prayer requests in worship and small groups. Also "pray-in" new members by continuing to lift them in prayer. Persisting in prayer is essential for growth because without active prayer, growth cannot come and we do not know God's will and direction for our meeting.
Queries: How do you spread prayer requests? Do you "pray-in" new members?
Key 4—Growth springs from relationships or prayer, perseverance
and obedience
A small church, where everybody knows your name, engaged in a singular
focus of prayer for mission and ministry, calling upon the name of Jesus,
watching the enemy flee... Wow!
But do rural people walk with God differently by knowing Jesus Christ through their rural cultures, than city people do through their urban cultures? I'd say, "Yes."
Relationship and community have different expressions, rural to urban. For instance, think about "family." In rural areas, it's a big thing which family you stem from, not to shame the family name, and folks all around know who married who, so that when there's a death even several towns over, the impact is felt by those in your community. Family connections bind community and church together in ways that are never experienced in urban areas.
Query: Is your church self-centered or others-centered? Those who look outward, developing even deeper the relationships around them, who welcome strangers and bring hope to those in need, will grow.
Key 5—Watch for both areas of growth—numerical and holiness
Numerical—When you equate growth with numbers there are only three
ways a church can grow: babies born, memberships transferred and new conversions.
Numerical church growth is the most common way to measure growth, but if your rural population base is declining, you can't grow numerically without new people in the community.
Holiness—Jesus also stresses another area of growth—personally learning how to live in obedience to His teachings, or growing in holiness or Christlikeness.
Its not as easy to measure holiness growth as numerical growth, but Christ insists it is important to continue growing after conversion.
One of the purposes of the church is to train people to live life effectively. If we approach church from that angle, then everybody—old Christians, new Christians, soon-to-be Christians—benefits, because who doesn't need to learn to live life as Christ wills?
If we judge ourselves solely by statistics, we're going to be discouraged. What defines "excellence" in a small church, or any church, is to look beyond the numbers.
Queries: In light of Scripture and God's direction for our meeting, how are we doing? Are people growing in holiness, and are we, pastors and leaders, helping them in that growth? Are more people active in our ministries? Are we reaching beyond our doors with the gospel?
Key 6—Spiritual Gift Discovery
One of the first things I've done when coming to a new meeting is to teach
and preach on Spiritual Gifts. I ask each member to take a spiritual gift
inventory to help discover individual spiritual gifts. It always amazes
me that so many people do not know what their spiritual gifts are nor
do they fully understand how spiritual giftedness determines the unique
personality and ministry of individual congregations. People with helping
gifts realize that what they do in ministry is just as important as the
more public forms of ministry. This encourages the whole meeting to work
together in better unity, to be content with their own individual gifts,
and the process unleashes people into new avenues of ministry.
Queries: Do you know your spiritual gifts? Has your meeting taken an inventory?
Key 7—What would Jesus do in your church and your community?
The methods and activities of different churches will vary from one another
based on the needs of the community and the spiritual giftedness of its
members. The kind of ministries that work in one small church may or may
not work in another small church. The key is to understand your spiritual
gifts and prayerfully seek guidance for direction.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-8: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened."
For example, in Ohio a meeting had Outreach Ministries which included a children's ministry of Vacation Bible School, monthly God's Promise Club and seasonal musical productions led by me who can't sing a tune for anything—it's amazing what you can do with cassette tapes that come with the material!! A used clothing and household furnishings ministry began in a downtown storefront. The four youth group members met weekly for several years on Sunday night at the local bowling alley, which became a collecting place for many unchurched youth who would share their joys and struggles.
In Iowa, the meeting I pastored began a Befriender ministry to reach those needing a friend. In Indiana, a Christmas women's cookie exchange reached many community women. The growth that occurred in each small church I pastored has come from differing activities and areas of outreach. That is why a church growth program does not work in small churches—each church must be dependent upon the direction of God for its growth.
Queries: How is God active in this time and place? How can we share the good news of Jesus Christ in faith and love? How is God leading us into the future?
Conclusion
A recent Gallup poll stated that 56% of Americans have as their number
one objective in life—"seeking a closer relationship with God."
People are looking for God and Christian community.
As we respond to the changing world around us, there is a unique place for the small, relational church. What the small church does so well is to provide the intimacy a family offers—people who laugh and cry together, look out for one another and take care of the weakest members. Networks of caring, active intercessory prayer, loving acceptance of sinners and a deep faith that knows for a fact that trusting Jesus makes a difference accomplish this. The local small church becomes an anchor in the community and in the lives of people around it.
Patricia Edwards-Konic is the Quaker Life editor. This article is based on her workshop by the same title.
Copyright (c) 2002 Friends United Meeting
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