Thinking bigger

 The median size church in America is 75 people. This is the size church I've spent most of my life attending and leading. Don't be fooled; these smaller churches can accomplish much if the people have a mind to minister. Unfortunately, many of them have been stuck in ruts of their own making. In fact, many of them may have been larger churches at one time but have now been reduced in size because of faulty thinking and systems. In talking to many of the churches of this size, most of them claim they want to grow larger and are frustrated they are unable to do so. What can a smaller church do to grow?

While there are many things such churches can do, one thing is critical. They have to stop thinking like a small church. As long as they think like a 75-member church they will remain a 75-member church. They need to start thinking like a 200-member church, What might this look like?

A church might consider starting new Sunday school classes or small groups. In one church I attended the young adult SS class had about 40 people in it. The pastor and I started a new young adult class and within a short period of time had about 20 people attending it without taking anyone from the other class. Church growth people say a church should add a new adult Sunday school class every 18 months if they want to grow.

Another way to think larger is to add staff. The mindset of many small churches is that they will add a youth minister, children's minister, or some other staff person when there are enough people to make it feasible. Guess what? It will never happen. Without the right leadership the youth ministry, children's ministry, etc. will never grow to make adding a staff person necessary. Find the right person for the position, and the desired growth is more likely to happen. (Yes, I know. You don't think you have the finances to do this. I assume you think God is broke.)

Program for the people you want to reach. This one is tough. We keep programming for the people we already have, and every year that number gets smaller and smaller. If we do nothing to reach the next generation we will eventually have so few people left that the church closes. Depending on whose figures you read, that happens to about 100 churches in the US every week. We don't ignore or neglect the ones we have now, but we also have to do ministry that will impact new people for the Kingdom of God as well. Yes, this also includes our worship and the music we use in worship. Like I said, it's tough to minister effectively to 4-5 generations of people at the same time.

Thinking larger requires that we think about technology. Regardless of the size church, it needs a website. As one church growth person said, if your church does not have a website you do not have a church. When people start looking for a church, they begin that search on the computer. Quality video and sound systems are a must, and even more important is training people to use them properly. Larger churches use computer systems to do everything from tracking finances to sending church newsletters to sending out mass messages to their members to uploading their worship services to their webpages, to virtually everything else they do. If you are going to start thinking like a larger church, you need to do the same thing. Invest in good computer systems.

One final thought: consider the decor of the church. Just like homeowners may remodel every few years to modernize, churches need to look at the decor of their church. If nothing in the church has been changed since it was built in 1895 it probably is not very appealing to younger people. If no one remembers when the sanctuary carpet was installed, or even the last time it was cleaned, it probably needs replaced. If you're still parking on gravel you may want to consider blacktop. Fresh flowers and brighter colors can do much to make attending church more pleasurable. And, please, take a long, hard look at your restroom facilities.