Clearing Obstacles to Growth
Churches function differently at different sizes. This is essential. But this can also be an obstacle to moving from one size to another. For example, if a church has coffee after the service in a space that is comfortably full with 25 people, the congregation should not be surprised when newcomers don’t tend to stick around at a church that readily fills the space in the few minutes after the service. Despite the number of empty pew spaces, the congregation is sending the unintended message that they have enough people already. There is no room for more.
The problems are varied, but the root cause is the same: a congregation that behaves like a smaller church will tend to stay smaller. This is no law of nature and exceptions are possible. Yet it is all too common that a change in behavior could unlock more room to grow, if the congregation could just see the obstacle and make the change to make room for more people.
I learned this from my then 9-year old daughter, Griffin. I was newly in Camden County to start what would become King of Peace, Kingsland. The name had just been approved by Bishop Louttit. Griffin and I went to the post office in Kingsland to rent a PO Box. The postal worker explained that they had three sizes, the letter sized, the drawer and the bin. He left me with a form to fill out. That’s when my daughter asked which one I was renting. I explained that we didn’t have much money and so I would get the letter sized box. “Papa” she said, a bit of exasperation breaking through, “you don’t want to have to change addresses later. What size box would the church we are going to become need?” Griffin is no church growth guru, but she does listen well and learn from what she hears. We had been around for the first 2.5 years of Church of the Spirit, an Episcopal church we helped found while in seminary. Griffin had heard this lesson taught and then learned the hard way. She wanted King of Peace to get it right the first time. Over the coming ten years, our drawer-sized box was often comfortably full after a few days and so I often had cause to give thanks for my daughter’s wisdom.
The lesson of the PO Box has helped me to see many other obstacles to growth at King of Peace and elsewhere. The key question is a variation on the one Griffin asked me that day: What would would you do if you were already the church you are called to be? Then you set about doing what the church you will become would do. Apply this lesson to welcoming newcomers, communication within the congregation, and so on. You will find and break through barriers to growth you would not see any other way. These same principles apply to discipleship growth. Is the Christian education program that once served you well, no longer what you need. How might God be calling you to change how and when you teach the timeless truths of the Gospel to adapt to new circumstances.
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Faithfulness is the goal
Please do not hear me wrong. There are many reasons for numeric growth in attendance and many reasons why growth is limited. There is no set size a church needs to become to be real. There are reasons why a church of 30 or 80 may be exactly where you need to be. But there is no reason a congregation can not consider if there are any obstacles hindering its becoming what God has called it to be. Whatever growth that occurs is a work of the Holy Spirit, whether that growth is in discipleship or attendance or giving. Ours is not to tell God who to send our way. But as Christians, we do owe it to our Lord to make room for all God does send so that if they do not connect to our congregation, it is not because we were inhospitable or were not willing to accept the gifts of one arriving as a stranger. Faithfulness is our common call, no matter the size of the congregation. We should seek to become the most welcoming, accepting places we can be and leave the results to God. What obstacles might their be in your congregation?
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries
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