In an era of declining church attendance, how do you grow your church and advance your mission?
Well, one key is this: You turn ordinary attenders into passionate champions of the mission. Not convinced? I outlined 5 reasons why engagement will drive almost all future church growth in this post.
For too long, too many North American Christians have thought that sitting passively in the back row to get fed is what’s required of them, or that the main goal of finding a church is to attend one you ‘like.’
The goal of any Christian should never be to find a church you like and sit in the back row. The goal should be to fully engage the mission.
Again and again, it’s engaged Christians who advance the mission.
Engaged people are passionate people. They know what the mission is. They serve in it. They live it out.
They’re passionate enough about it to invite their friends.
Over the long-term in a church, you can accomplish more with 300 engaged Christians than with 3,000 disengaged attenders.
The disengaged group will dwindle. The 300 engaged Christians will advance the mission and never stay the same.
Yes, only God can bring growth. But he uses people who are engaged to do it.
So if you were going to drive engagement at your church, how would you do it?
Here are seven ways.
1. Challenge people to serve
People who serve in the mission are people who are engaged in the mission.
I know this is near heresy in some circles, but encouraging people to volunteer may be more important than encouraging them to join a group.
At Connexus, where I serve, we’re finding that our healthiest people are not those who are in groups: They’re those who serve. People who serve (as a rule) get the mission. They’re on mission. And they love the mission.
