Church Growth Is Not an Exact Science

It’s easy to spot an unhealthy church that won’t grow.

Lack of vision, inadequate systems, poor planning, unfriendly people and more will doom a church to irrelevance very quickly. Spotting such churches is obvious and easy, especially for anyone who has spent much time in pastoral ministry.

It’s much harder to spot a church that will grow. Or a healthy church that may not grow.

Take the examples of Church A and Church B.

Both churches are doing everything they should do to promote growth. They’re healthy, vibrant, and contextually valid. They have Godly leaders, enthusiastic volunteers, a compelling vision, challenging, but doable goals… everything needed for a healthy, growing church.

Sure, they each have their problems. No church is perfect. But the problems are minor.

Church A grows.

Church B doesn’t.

Pastor A holds seminars on how to grow your church like they grew theirs.

Pastor B calls goes to Pastor A’s seminar to find out what Church B is doing wrong. Pastor B comes home with a list to work on. They work on the list. It doesn’t help. Read more

See also
Forget Being Culturally Relevant – Let’s Get Contextually Real