So your church is growing or wants to grow. But what do you do when churched people show up?
I recently wrote about the challenges and opportunities you face when unchurched people arrive. But what about transfer growth?
That’s a whole other category.
Transfer growth has several challenges that, unattended, can wreak havoc in your church.
Not all transfer growth is bad. But you have to be careful.
And transfer growth is inevitable. As much as you shoot for 100 percent of your growth to be from the unchurched, if you’ve got a great ministry, transfer growth will happen.
But it does come with challenges.
Here are five challenges most leaders face with transfer growth.
1. The discontent that drove them from the last church often drives them from yours.
I personally think everyone has one life-time church change freebie within a local community. Maybe two. But some people change churches as often as they change shirts.
This is almost never good. Some people are just unhappy.
And if they complain about how awful their last church was, beware. If that issue remains unaddressed or unengaged, that may become your church within a few months or years.
What to do about it: Beware. And in the process of connecting people, let them know that moving from church to church isn’t healthy for anyone—especially them.
2. Overenthusiasm initially often becomes anger eventually.
You’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. People arrive and tell you that your ministry is ‘the best ministry ever.’ They want to get involved and appear to be hyperengaged.
But for a reason I can’t quite figure out, that initial over-the-top enthusiasm often becomes disillusionment or even anger against you. I don’t know how you can go from hero to zero that quickly, but it happens with this personality type.
I always say to our team: Never believe your press. You’re not that good, and you’re not that bad.
What to do about it: Bench the overenthusiastic person for six months; don’t let them get involved. It will help them see what you’re really like and help them learn that the world does not revolve around their opinions. If they can’t handle it and leave, you haven’t lost much. Nor have they.
