Actscelerate.com Forum Index Actscelerate.com
Open Any Time -- Day or Night
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 
r/Actscelerate

Could your church handle exponential growth ?

 
   Actscelerate.com Forum Index -> Acts-Celerate Post new topic   Reply to topic
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Message Author
Post Could your church handle exponential growth ? Da Sheik
I’ve been blessed over the years to help pastors who are undergoing revitalization efforts. Most churches (excluding the mega churches which are outliers ) are up against some attendance barrier. At a previous assignment, I fought the 200 barrier. The church would get up to 200, then it would plateau, decline a little, then get back up to 200 and then the cycle would repeat. I left that church nearly 20 years ago, and I believe it’s still around 200 in its attendance. I learned a valuable piece of wisdom having experienced that.

I realized that we did not have the structures in place to handle more than 200 in attendance. Our facilities were close to capacity, we didn’t have leadership systems in place to “close the back door”, and a number of shortcomings of my own that were a barrier. So I pose this question to you: If God were to double or triple your current attendance could you handle it ? Most of us think more highly of ourselves than we should and we are confident it would be smooth sailing. But these are the questions we need to be thinking about when praying for church growth.
Acts Enthusiast
Posts: 1860
7/16/18 12:25 pm


View user's profile Send private message
Reply with quote
Post sheepdogandy
I led our Congregation in prayer just the other night.

We told the Lord we were willing to be "inconvenienced" by revival and an influx of new converts.

Growth is messy and places a strain on leadership to "make a place" for new people.

I say let's have it anyway!
_________________
Charles A. Hutchins
Senior Pastor SPWC
Congregational Church of God

www.spwc.church
Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology
Posts: 7294
7/16/18 1:01 pm


View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Reply with quote
Post Re: Could your church handle exponential growth ? FLRon
Da Sheik wrote:
I’ve been blessed over the years to help pastors who are undergoing revitalization efforts. Most churches (excluding the mega churches which are outliers ) are up against some attendance barrier. At a previous assignment, I fought the 200 barrier. The church would get up to 200, then it would plateau, decline a little, then get back up to 200 and then the cycle would repeat. I left that church nearly 20 years ago, and I believe it’s still around 200 in its attendance. I learned a valuable piece of wisdom having experienced that.

I realized that we did not have the structures in place to handle more than 200 in attendance. Our facilities were close to capacity, we didn’t have leadership systems in place to “close the back door”, and a number of shortcomings of my own that were a barrier. So I pose this question to you: If God were to double or triple your current attendance could you handle it ? Most of us think more highly of ourselves than we should and we are confident it would be smooth sailing. But these are the questions we need to be thinking about when praying for church growth.


I’m not a pastor and longer, but I recently had this very discussion with my pastor. The consensus was that were we to experience a sudden great growth spurt, we could not handle it. The chief reason being we simply don’t have the facilities for it. Lack of classrooms is our #1 concern, coupled with inadequate parking. We are basically landlocked so our only available option would be to tear the roof off and build up. Real estate prices here are off the charts and land is not readily available anyway.
_________________
“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Voddie Baucham
Acts-celerater
Posts: 758
7/16/18 3:31 pm


View user's profile Send private message
Reply with quote
Post We are right in the middle of that Clint Wills
Coming out of Easter we ran over 1,000 for a few months in a row - before hitting summer. The summer has taken a toll, and we'll see where we REALLY are in the fall.
However, I have really realized how big the shift needs to be at these times. The mental picture I have for it parallels human existence. Walking around worked for a long time...even riding horseback or in a wagon worked fine - until we wanted to cross an ocean. When we wanted to cross an ocean (or survive the flood) we needed an entirely new concept. The same can be said for our desire to fly: a bigger or faster boat wasn't going to make us fly. In order to see new things and go places we've never gone, we have to be willing to build something unlike anything we've built before.
That doesn't mean we throw away our existing knowledge, but it may mean tearing some things down to build something better.
We can either do a little bit more of what we already do - and be stuck in a cycle of addition - OR we can do something completely different and start working with multiplication.
Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology
Posts: 5163
7/16/18 3:33 pm


View user's profile Send private message
Reply with quote
Post Cojak
Looking from the outside across the country I see those that were ready for growth and those that were sure it was coming and convinced leadership (local, state and national) that they were ready. Being ready meant to them going in debt millions. Then the pastor burned out under the pressure, left and the church started a downward spiral leaving super debt.

I have always felt a building fund should be started immediately upon a church being paid off. I am a firm believer in debt free living in church and personally.
Never lose sight of the next step. But as was mentioned someone needs to learn to close the back door while keeping the vision alive of MORE souls for the harvest.

Since I never succeeded, this is all rhetoric and hind sight. My biggest problem, I was one of those who THOUGHT I was CALLED!

So I was a wreck waiting to happen anyway!

DaSheik has made a good point of the plateau also. The COG is full of those churches on a plateau with honest good hard working pastors. Cool
_________________
Some facts but mostly just my opinion!
jacsher@aol.com
http://shipslog-jack.blogspot.com/
01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011
Posts: 24269
7/16/18 4:49 pm


View user's profile Send private message
Reply with quote
Display posts from previous:   
Actscelerate.com Forum Index -> Acts-Celerate Post new topic   Reply to topic
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum




Acts-celerate Terms of Use | Acts-celerate Policy
Contact the Administrator.


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group :: Spelling by SpellingCow.