Why do new churches grow?

For the past several years many denominations have focused on planting new churches. Some of these new churches were planted in areas where the denomination already had churches. When I was doing judicatory ministry some of the existing churches, most of them struggling to remain open, asked why their denomination didn't spend that money to help them rather than starting a new church. They felt their years of loyalty meant nothing to the denomination. I would explain that denominations were focused on starting new churches because new churches reach new people.

A similar question I was often asked was why a new, often non-denominational, church could come into a community and quickly grow when so many of the existing churches were barely holding on by their fingertips. While there are many reasons for this, one of those reasons is the way these new churches are often structured.

Traditional, existing churches are often so focused on doing things the right way that they fail to do the right things. Many of them must have a monthly business meeting to discuss mundane reports and vote on every detail of church life. By the time committees and boards discuss issues and make a proposal for the church to vote on the opportunities presented by the issue those opportunities have already passed. I know churches that still vote each month on whether to pay their bills or not. The treasurer reads off the monthly bills and asks for a vote to pay them. I hope the church is going to pay its bills! You won't find the new, growing churches structured like that.

These churches may have a quarterly business meeting, and often just one meeting each year to approve the budget and the slate of officers for the coming year. In some of these churches they are limited to only 3-4 items that requires a congregational vote. This may include the calling of a minister, the budget, the new officers and the sale or purchase of property. Everything else is handled by the leadership of the church. That primary leadership may be the pastoral staff or an Elder board or a church council.

Established churches, especially smaller ones, often depend on congregational voting to handle the administrative and maintenance tasks of the church and look to the pastoral staff to provide the ministry tasks. In a church with a solo pastor the task falls upon him or her to grow the church, and if growth does not occur the pastor is often replaced with one who, hopefully, will grow the church before it declines even more.

In new churches the roles are often reversed. The leadership is entrusted to handle the administrative and maintenance tasks while the congregation is challenged to grow the church and to minister to one another. As I've said to many pastor gatherings where I have spoken, no matter how good the pastor may be, he or she can only be in one place at a time doing one task. But, if 50 people in the congregation see themselves as ministers, as Ephesians 4 teaches, now the church has 50 people in 50 places doing 50 things. Which is likely to grow a church faster? In Ephesians 4 the apostle Paul challenges the pastors to equip the saints to do the work of ministry and challenges the church to do that ministry.

These new, growing churches are growing because they are following this biblical model. They trust the pastor to lead the church, to make decisions that will benefit the church and to equip the members to do ministry. Those members are then expected to be involved in ministering to their communities and to one another.

Tomorrow I'll address another difference between existing churches and many newer churches that leads to growth.