How to Break Through When Your Church Seems So Small

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Church outreach presents a classic chicken and egg problem that plagues so many leaders.

There’s an 85 percent chance you’re facing it right now because 85 percent of churches in North America have congregations of less than 200 attenders.

Here’s the challenge: You think that if you had more people and money you think you could reach more people, but you don’t have the people or team you want, so you feel stuck.

Earlier this year, I surveyed over 1,400 pastors of small to mid-sized churches to find out what they struggled with.

I learned so much from that survey.

I incorporated the learnings into my new course on breaking growth barriers, called Breaking 200 Without Breaking You. (You can check out the course here.)

One of the common refrains leaders voiced was uncertainty about how to lead when they didn’t have much money or the right team.

After all, most of us visit megachurches and think if I only had a tenth of their money and their people, it would instantly solve my problems. And then we go back to our own context and get almost instantly depressed.

So when you have almost no money for ministry and you clearly haven’t got the right kind of people in the room, where do you start?

Effective Church Outreach Strategies 

Believe it or not, neither condition is fatal to your cause. In fact, almost every great movement, church or organization you admire started with no money and no people.

So how can you lead when resources are scarce to non-existent?

There are at least five things you can do to help you find traction.

1. Cast a Big Vision for Your Church Outreach

Of course, you know that one of the principal roles of the leader is to cast vision.

But what do you do when you have almost nothing other than vision?

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Carey Nieuwhofhttp://careynieuwhof.com
Speaker and podcaster Carey Nieuwhof is a former lawyer and founding pastor of Connexus Church, one of the largest and most influential churches in Canada. With over 6 million downloads, The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast features today's top leaders and cultural influencers. His most recent book is “Didn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences.” Carey and his wife, Toni, reside near Barrie, Ontario and have two children.

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