4. Stop operating without a quantifiable goal or you’ll kill church growth.
This could easily be the #1 thing that kills church growth. I’ve rarely worked with a church that had a solid, quantifiable goal that they were driven to reach. In his post “10 Enemies to Church Growth,” Pastor Meeks said, “Growth is always the goal of the New Testament Church.”
Your goal is the filter that every leadership decision must pass through. A solid goal you can articulate well might be the greatest leadership blessing you’ve ever experienced. You’ll wake up every day with purpose. You’ll be able to reply to every new ministry idea with a simple question…“Will this help us reach our goal?” If it does, great! If it doesn’t, the answer is a big ole “negative.” Just think about the number of conversations that would’ve killed over the years!
Having a measurable goal is the difference between success and failure on your journey to church growth.
5. Stop doing it all or you’ll kill church growth.
Most of the time, people do it all for one of two reasons. They either don’t leverage their God-given leadership skills to get people to help, or they simply don’t think anyone can do “it” like they can.
In either case, you’ve got to stop!
If you haven’t felt a little uncomfortable about asking for help this week, you’re doing too much. You aren’t called to do it all, and you’re robbing people of the opportunity to help when you do it all.
6. Stop doubting what God can do through you or you’ll kill church growth.
I’ve struggled with this myself. In fact, I’ve had a number of occasions where God has whispered “Moses” in my ear like a childhood taunt.
“Who do you think you are to__________?” You know what I’m talking about.
That little voice in your head that squashes a dream before it has its first breath.
Let me tell you who you really are…YOU ARE GOD’S PLAN FOR THE WORLD! God has a plan to reach every one of the people on this planet…and we’re it…and there is no backup plan.
Are you feeling the weight of that yet? Leading a dying church isn’t an option.
You can (and you must) grow the church. People’s lives hang in the balance, and the God of the universe has faith in you. I don’t know how many people worship in your church, but I absolutely know how many God wants there…MORE! For the church to be the CHURCH, it has to be more, serve more and GROW more.
