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5 Hard Truths About Healthy Church Growth

The key here is to not make the exception the rule.

There are thousands of small, mid-sized and larger healthy growing churches that are largely unknown that serve their communities well. Their leaders’ names aren’t household names, but they are doing the hard work of bringing grace into a broken world every day, and they have the thrill of seeing life after life, family after family and person after person discover hope in Christ.

Those kinds of healthy churches do grow. And sometimes, they become churches that are better known or whose pastors are better known. Most often they don’t. But those leaders do amazing work.

Not all growing churches are healthy, but healthy churches do grow.

If your church is healthy over the long haul, it will reach more people.

2. Healthy Small Churches Usually Don’t Stay Small Forever

There’s also a thread of this discussion that suggests churches should stay small.

The challenge is it’s hard to stay small when you’re reaching people.

Sure, you can break up into smaller campuses and locations, or plant multiple venues. But the reality is that a healthy church over time will continue to grow.

And if they do stay small, it’s often because of an artificial cap.

Maybe you’re losing as many people as you reach, in which case you’re treading water. That isn’t optimal health.

And sometimes the barriers that keep a church from reaching its potential stand in the way.

More often than not, those barriers are structural, not spiritual. And they can be passed. (That’s what I coach leaders and their teams through in my Breaking 200 course.)

Accomplishing your mission means reaching people, and reaching people means growth.