Do you really want to see your church grow?

Several years ago I was working with a church on a vision discernment process. During that time I tried to explain how working towards a God-given vision could greatly benefit the church, but at the same time they need to think carefully about how that vision might impact the church. I gave them an example.

I asked this church of around 100 people if a worthy vision for the church was that they grow by 1% of their area population over the next 5 years. I was not suggesting this should be their goal but using this as an example. Because of where they were located they could easily draw from three surrounding counties. Based on the latest census report at the time that 1% would be about 450 people. I could see the smiles light up throughout the congregation.

I explained to the church that if I had suggested they should attempt to grow their church by an additional 450 people over the next five years that would probably sound impossible. However, by wording it as I did, 1% of their population over that time period, it didn't seem quite as daunting.

There were fewer smiles when I then explained some things they would need to consider if they attempted such a growth plan.

• How would this growth impact their parking and building space? Would there be enough room for all those people or would additional seating and/or services have to be added?
• Where would the teachers come from for the additional classes that would be needed? Many churches struggle to find enough teachers for their existing classes much less find more teachers for the new classes. One might say that new teachers would come from the new people, but that is only true if these are mature Christians coming from other churches, and the vision I was sharing was reaching out to unchurched individuals.
• The same question would need to be asked about lay leaders and pastoral staff. Does the church have a lay leadership pipeline in place to be constantly training new leaders? When will you add pastoral staff? You can't wait until you have 450 new people in your church before you decide you might need more leadership and pastors, but when do you bring them in?
• How will this impact the church's finances? Again, hypothetically, these are not mature tithing Christians coming into your church but persons who have not been taught biblical stewardship and who may be struggling financially anyway.
• What impact with this new growth have on your children's and youth ministries? Surely, with this large of an increase there will be more youth and children in your church. Would you be prepared for that?
• How will the church handle a shift in the balance in power between the long-time members and the new people? That may not come at first, but at some point there is going to be some tension between people wanting to see new ministries and those whose favorite response to change is "We've never done it that way before." I was in a church meeting one night when that power shift occurred, and it was not pretty.

These are enough questions. With a little effort you can come up with more for your specific church. As you can see, church growth entails more than just trying to bring more people into your church. The time to be asking these questions, and seeking solutions, is before that growth occurs. Otherwise, you may be seeing people going out the back door just as fast as they come in the front door. You need to be ready for them.