Church plants have all the success?

Have you ever wondered why church plants and new churches seem to grow, and our long term, ongoing congregations find growth so difficult?

Here are some reasons. If they are correct then we can begin to work on assisting our churches overcome obstacles to growth.

1. New churches have no history. This means members are not hindered by “we don’t do things that way around here”. It makes doing new things and rapid change easier. (Of course there is a huge downside in not having a history).

2. Congregations and their pastors are ‘hungry’ in new churches. If they don’t get out there and grow the ministry the whole thing can fall over. Everyone owns the responsibility to grow.

3. The ‘starter’ group join knowing that they are not mere passengers, but partners in the ministry, and so expect to be called on to be highly involved.

4. Pastors know their task is assist and enable congregation partners to do the work of ministry. This is contrary to the common expectation in churches that we employ staff to do the ministry.

5. Pastors know their task is to proclaim Christ to the world. In settled ministry so much time can be spent in administration and committees that the pastor has no time to lead the congregation in seeking the lost.

6. Church plants think about who they may reach and how to do it. Settled churches often wait for newcomers to walk through the door

7. The community ignore existing ministries (in fact many think church buildings are unused, as they are only open when people are asleep on Sunday mornings), while new ministries draw attention and publicity.

8. Ignoring established ministries often occurs because the culture thinks it has domesticated church into something manageable, but church plants appear as a threat to the comfort of apathy.

9. Church plants have little distance between pastor and congregation who are engaged in the relationships with unbelievers, making training and contact easier.

10. Church plants haven’t yet established numerous, overlapping relationships within the congregation that take so much time and effort to maintain that little time or energy exists to spend time with those not yet in church.

Of course a deeper and more sophisticated analysis can be given. The points I have listed have been often observed by others. However they generally they fall into two categories.

1. New churches are not so shackled or concerned for administration, and so can concentrate on what they should be doing.

2. New churches often better utilise the chief resources God has given: the lay partners who seek to see, and act to promote the salvation of the lost.
Of course there are lots of other difficult issues new churches face.

Rather my challenge is to think about how we operate in our settled ministries to ensure we are about the important things, not just keeping church going.

I am making a desperate call for all members and clergy in different ways to actively commit to the ministry of proclaiming the gospel of Christ through harnessing the great gift of the people God has given us.

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