There are a variety of things pastors can do (or not do) that tend to hinder growth in a church. In an article by pastor Brian Jones, he cites these four growth blockers:<\/p>\n
Bill Hybels once said that the time to fire someone is the first time you think of it. In other words, once you\u2019re convinced they\u2019re not the right person for the job, you either have to move them to another seat on the bus (which often can\u2019t be afforded), or begin what we at our church call our \u201ccorrective action process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal of this is to help a struggling staff member succeed, not fire them. Only after you\u2019ve exhausted all efforts at correcting poor performance should you terminate someone. That\u2019s only fair. But once they must be let go, don\u2019t postpone the decision. I see churches keep underperforming staff all the time, thinking that it\u2019s the Christian thing to do. Trust me, Jesus would fire underperforming staff if he were in your shoes. Don\u2019t overspiritualize the decision.<\/p>\n
Stop defining your \u201cchurch\u201d as the sum total of your regular attenders. Your job is to pastor what Doug Murren calls your \u201caggregate ministry group\u201d\u2014the sum total of all the people who are connected to, but may not be actually attending, your church. In outreach-focused churches, the aggregate ministry group is a group two to three times their actual Sunday morning worship attendance. If you are a growing church of 200, that means between 200 and 600 people consider your place home.<\/p>\n
The average Christian leader thinks that if someone visits his or her church, and doesn\u2019t come back, they\u2019re not a part of their congregation. Not true. Get inside the mindset of a purely unchurched person. One lady came up to me after our grand-opening service and said, \u201cThis was fantastic. We ought to do this again sometime!\u201d I said, \u201cUm, we are. Next week in fact.\u201d Senior pastors who don\u2019t focus on conversion growth aren\u2019t attuned to the behavior and mindset of the average 21st century non-Christian.<\/p>\n
The non-Christians in your area are not church shopping. If they visit, they consider it a one-time commitment. One and done. They\u2019re not visiting your church and then trying four or five other churches like yours in the area until they find a church home. Many non-Christians visit, then say, \u201cOK, I like this place,\u201d which is their way of saying, \u201cThat\u2019s my church.\u201d In their mind, they are a part of your church, even though they may only come back one to three times that year. Your job\u2014in your church newsletter, emails, stage communication, vision casting, etc.\u2014is to speak to them and pastor them as if they are already a part of your church community.<\/p>\n
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There are a variety of things pastors can do (or not do) that tend to hinder growth in a church. In an article by pastor Brian Jones, he cites these four growth blockers: You are afraid to fire staff. Bill Hybels once said that the time to fire someone is the first time you think … Continue reading “4 Growth Blockers in Your Church”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}