10 Steps To Immediate Church Growth (That Most Churches Won’t Take)

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What if I gave you a list of 10 things that any church could do that would bring almost immediate church growth and renewal?

Would you be interested in the list?

Most say they would be, yet may resist these steps

10 Steps To Immediate Church Growth (That Most Churches Won’t Take)

1. Simplify

Simplify your structure by putting the authority to make most decisions related to the practice of ministry in the hands of those with responsibility. Translation: Let your leaders lead.

2. Go “Young”

Hire young, platform young, program young. Why? You attract who you platform, and most churches are growing old.

3. Go Contemporary

Become more contemporary in terms of music and graphics, décor and topics, website and signage. It’s 2022. (Really. You can check.)

4. Communicate!

Stop preaching and start communicating. There’s a difference.

5. Shift Outreach

Shift the outreach focus away from the already convinced toward those who are not. It’s called the Great Commission.

6. Children’s Ministry First

Prioritize your children’s ministry in terms of money and staffing, square footage and resources. Do you really not know, after all this time, that the children’s ministry is your most important ministry for outreach and growth?

7. Focus

“It’s the weekend, stupid.”

8. Spiritual Gifts

Help everyone find their spiritual gifts and then help them channel those gifts toward ministry.

9. Target men

Get the man, you tend to get the family.

10. Proclaim the full counsel of God

Without compromise or dilution. All you get with a watered-down message is a watered-down church. And a watered-down church has nothing to offer the world it does not already have.

Now, what if I told you that the vast majority of churches already know this list. Not only do they know the list, they would agree with most if not all of it. But they refuse to act on it. It’s true.

And the reason tends to be the same, in church after church, around the world: They don’t want to change.

Which brings up another list.

It’s the list of the seven last words of the church:

“We never did it that way before.”  

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James Emery Whitehttps://www.churchandculture.org/
James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, "Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age," is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

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