Rich Kao

Posted at ChurchRelevance.com...a great thought on church growth.  For the record, I'm not an "anti-church growth" guy.  I've always preached God loves a big family.  What I like about this post is the accent on growth as a by-product, not as a goal in and of itself.   As Rick Warren says, don't try to create waves, find your wave and ride it.

Jack Trout on the Dangerous Pursuit of Growth

December 8, 2008 @ 11:43 am · Filed under Church, Leadership, Ministry

Three years ago, Jack Trout wrote an article for Forbes that discussed the danger of making growth your mission.

That desire for growth is at the heart of what can go wrong for many companies. Growth is the by-product of doing things right. But in itself, it is not a worthy goal. In fact, growth is the culprit behind impossible goals.

People do damaging things to force unnecessary growth.

This also applies to churches. Great attendance is the by-product of doing things right. Your goal is your God-given mission. When attendance becomes your goal, you risk doing damaging things for growth’s sake.

Remember, God cares about changed lives not accumulated lives. (Me:  great thought by poster Kent Schaffer). As long as you are focused on your mission and continually getting better at fulfilling it, you should be content with the by-product of doing things right.

And if your church has been thrust into the spotlight because of your attendance, methods, or pastor, be extra careful that you do not swap your God-given mission with the pursuit of growth. Jack Trout continues:

Did you ever wonder why very successful, privately held companies, such as Milliken or Gore-Tex, rarely show up in the press? It’s because no one is staring at their numbers quarter after quarter. All they have to worry about is their business. And if they are happy with it, that’s all that matters.

I've noticed in the book of Acts three numerical milestones in the growth of the church.

1. 12 people milestone.  Core Group Phase.  Time line:  3 years.

This is the time Jesus took to raise up the 12 apostles.  Signals to us the importance of leadership development.  Build a strong core team at the beginning, and the weight they will be able to carry in future days will be significant and glorious.

2. 120 people milestone.  Upper Room Phase.   Time Frame:  10 days

Between Jesus'  ascension (day 40) and Pentecost (day 50), the 12 apostles gathered a growing core of 120 people into the upper room.  This is where they grew together in unity and cemented their core values as a group.  This was the intimacy, closeness phase.  Then the power came -- as in the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

3. 3000 people milestone.  Breakout Phase.    Time frame: 1 hour

In one hour, 3000 people came to Christ.  Amazing stuff.  But look at what went into that one hour:  an equally amazing amount of work, strategy, development and patience on the part of God.    It's like the tall oak tree that has an even deeper root system.  If we want to build for the long haul, then we need to follow this pattern and the general principles that these three milestones teach us.

Phase 1 & 2 are the "hidden and growing in the soil phases."  Phase 3 is the season of bursting out of the privacy and nourishing darkness of the soil into the light.  The time frames of 3 yrs, 10 days, 1 hour give us a prophetic sense of the labor that goes into each phase, and the quickening progression as one moves toward the Phase 3.

Take away:  Start slow, build well, gain momemtum and then bust out.    Which phase is your church plant in?

There's a two stage cycle to church growth - grow it and preserve it; grow it and preserve.  It's also call the salt and light stage (Mt 5:13-14).

1. Salt Phase

The goal of the salt stage is to preserve the growth that you've gained and to keep your saltiness (flavor).  Don't compromise your message, don't compromise your outreach, don't compromise your leadership development, don't compromise the presence of God.  Hold your ground.  You may not be going forward, but don't go backwards.  It's like a family that has stopped having kids.  They may have stopped growing numerically, but it doesn't mean the family starts stagnating.  On the contrary, they are still called to be vibrant, healthy, a witness and world changers. 

Church growth is a funny thing.  It's partly based in God's sovereignty (the seasons of God, what the spirit of God is doing in a city, country, culture), and it's partly based on our calling and talent.  But it's God who frames the picture.  We work inside of it.  God has his seasons of breaking out and his seasons of preserving.
 

2. Light Phase

This is the breakout, breakthrough phase.  It can be called revival, renewal, reformation.  It can occur  on a mini-scale (one church) or grand scale ( multiple churches, a city or a country).   This is where the church grows numerically, where salvations are registered in great or steady volume on a regular basis.  This is exciting stuff.  But there comes a time where the church either needs to take a pause or plateau for awhile to catch up to the growth.  It's like someone needing to come up for breath.    Theoretically you build infrastructure to stay ahead of your growth curve, but in practice this doesn't always happen.    The momentum and excitement generated in this phase is what all church planters live for.

Generally speaking, you can label the salt phase as the pastoring phase, and the light phase as the pioneering phase.  Jesus was both the Great Shepherd and Great Apostle.    Understanding the dual nature of church planting helps us manage our expectations, stay healthy and cooperate with each season.

Here are the 5 pillars to building a strong church, based on Eph 4:11.  My original intention as posted in my first "Gifted Church" entry was to put these 5 points into question form, but I thought for the sake of brevity and efficiency, it would be better to state them as points of instructions.  Here they are, each followed by 3 sub-points, which I will leave undeveloped at this time.

1. Build your church on a strong PULPIT.

    This is the truth or teaching ministry. 

    a.  Sunday morning is crucial - you need to have a "high" view of preaching.

    b.  Work hard at being a good communicator.

    c.  Provide materials for your people so they can feed themselves.

2. Build your church on God's manifest PRESENCE.

    This is the prophetic ministry.

    a.  Develop a strong worship ministry that understands the prophetic.

    b.  Develop your prayer ministry.

    c.  Nurture and model charismatic theology.

3. Build your church on a PEOPLE movement.

    This is the pastoral / shepherding ministry.

    a.  Make sure your people are healthy (cared for, access to counseling, in fellowship).

    b.  Make sure your people are equipped to serve.

    c.  Help each member find a job to do in the church.

4. Build your church on PURPOSE.

    This is the apostles ministry. 

    a. What's your mission? (where do you want to take the church?)

    b. What's your "mantra?"  (have a memorable saying that captures what you're about?)

    c. What's your path for making disciples?

5. Build your church on a passion to impact the PUBLIC place.

    This is the evangelist's ministry. 

    a. What strategy fits your team?

    b. What strategy fits your church?

    c. What strategy fits your area?

When finances and size of your church permit, try to hire staff gifted in each of these five areas, or appoint lay people that have anointing and skills in these respective categories.   Planting, building and nurturing churches around these five priorities is what the gifted church is all about, what the New Testament Church is all about.  It's God's design, and it's timeless.  

What's a church that makes God smile?  One that is enjoying the gifts given to her. 

God is a gift-giver.  That's what Eph 4:8 says.  And not only do we make God smile when we enjoy his gifts, we also become a gifted church, one that  is robust, vibrant, full of life, on the move, and bringing God's blessing to the earth. That's God's design - that we shine for Him.

How do make good on his gifts?  According to Eph. 4:11, there are five on them.  Here's my version of how we can "unpack" them and put them to good use.

Each gift has a purpose and design.  Each represents a part of who God is, how he thinks, feels, strategizes, builds up, leads, and makes the church great.  If we will incorporate all these gifts and their inherent designs into our church life, our church planting, our church nurturing, we will have a church that changes the world.

To unlock the richness and blessings of these gifts, I've formulated five lead-in questions that help us get at the gooey center.  It helps focus our thoughts on one train of thinking, and then another one, and another, until we've done this exercise five times.   Actually each question is a day of consultation and dialogue in and of itself, as it leads to many other questions that can become rivulets or rivers of thought, strategy and change.

In Part 2 of The Gifted Church, we'll look at the first question.