Sometimes I’ll hear from people that “growth” (more people) in the church shouldn’t be the goal, or that reaching people should be “organic” or “spontaneous” and not a “program” of the church… I disagree.
I’m not sure I’ve ever written down my thoughts on this exact subject, so here we go. A summary of my “Church Growth Strategy” in just under 18,000 words (hint: Eccl. 1:9)
Just because it is God who does something, in this case “increase,” that does not mean we don’t have to work at it. In fact, the opposite is true in the Bible. I hear so many people who have the erroneous idea that if they just pray and leave it up to the Spirit, God will do mighty works. What? When is that ever depicted in the Bible as the normative mode for Christian experience? What I see is that you were created in Christ Jesus FOR GOOD WORKS. You were saved to do work, the work of the ministry. The way God works is through us, through the church. Don’t just pray that your neighbor hears the gospel, you’re his neighbor so that he will… go tell him. That’s how God is going to save your neighbor, by you having a plan and executing it.
It’s the same in the church.
Are Christians supposed to go and make disciples? If you’re Southern Baptist, I hope you know the answer to that question, of course we are. We are to do the work of GO! We are given the imperative command(s) MAKE DISCIPLES, BAPTIZE THEM, TEACH THEM TO DO EVERYTHING I SAID, this is not a passive enterprise, and it absolutely should be intentional and organized. Shame on us if we just flit through life, and even worse if we stumble through our Christian life without following a path to accomplish the good work God has prepared for us to do beforehand.
Does the Lord want us to reach people with the gospel? Is the Great Commission a command for the church today? I believe so. If it is, then our goal is to see the church grow, I don’t think we should try to reach people at the exact rate they die or move away, we want the church to grow, and we must be involved in working to see that happen.
That being the case, I sometimes find people are unsure of what works. “Let’s try that” or “how about this.” Look, as Southern Baptists we have 100 years and 46,000 SBC churches worth of data to see how we can create systems within which the Lord will provide the increase. There are many books which have been produced by LifeWay and others on this subject, or you can go to an SBC Seminary and spend 15+ hours a week for 2-3 years getting a Masters or Doctorate in Christian Education.
My favorite book on the nuts-n-bolts of what a church can do to see their church grow is “The Growth Spiral” by Andy Anderson. Unfortunately, it’s out of print, but you can find them from time to time on Amazon. It’s really a step-by-step method for what to track and what to do to create a solid framework within which God has shown time and time again He will work through us.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the widow and the jars of oil in 2Kings 4. Basically, she was poor and getting ready to have no way to survive. The prophet came to town and he told her to collect jars and see what God would do. She sent her son out to their neighbors and brought back some empty jars. She started to pour the oil and jar after jar was filled to the brim with oil. She had her son go out, he did the work, God caused the increase. They stuck with the plan, and it worked… not because they did it, but because God did the work through them.
Listen to 2Kings 4:6 “When they were full, she said to her son, ‘Bring me another container.’ But he replied, ‘There aren’t any more.’ Then the oil stopped.”
Many times churches don’t grow because they don’t think they need to get any “jars.” “God’s going to provide the increase, what difference does it make if I get ‘jars’ or not? God doesn’t need my ‘jars.’”
Other churches don’t grow because they have too few “jars.” “Oh, once we have more ‘oil’ then we’ll get more ‘jars.’” Friends, it doesn’t work like that.
You don’t expand your field once you get more wheat, you must prepare the ground first, do the work, and allow God to provide the increase through your work. Let God work through you. Be organized, be strategic, be programatic. Don’t people matter enough to have a plan to ensure as few as possible fall through the cracks? Shouldn’t people be important enough to have a systematic way to try and reach as many as possible? Or, should we only do what’s “organic” and requires no planning or consistency (e.g. ‘work’)?
I can say not only is a “standard Sunday School” proven over 100 years in SBC life from Flake to Taylor, but in my own ministry I have seen it proven time and time again. I have been a member of 7 different churches, and been a Pastor at 5. In over 20 years of ministry every time the 13 principles of the Growth Spiral have been implemented the class grew, the Sunday School got bigger, the church increased, every time. On the other side, every church I’ve ever heard of that was not growing was not focusing on those principles. Never once have I seen it not hold true.
I’m sure there are other ways to work which God will bless for growth, but this is what I’ve seen the Lord use in my life and experience.
Here are the 13 principles of the Growth Spiral as I see them, they do adjust based on age of the class and other variables, but this is for the average church
1. Class Enrollment. You focus on how many people are on the role and you minister to those people. Far too often people in a Sunday School class will say “I’ve not seen these people in years, take them off the role.” Really? Where are they? Have you talked with them? If not, why not? What’s going on in their life? Your roll is your ministry list, it’s the people your class is responsible for ministering to. We can’t leave people behind and move on to the next people. Is your enrollment increasing? Are you enrolling new people? Then your class will grow. We need enrollment on an upward trend.
2. Class Prospects. Are you thinking as a class how you can reach new people? Is there at least one prospect for every person enrolled in the class? On average, can’t every person in your class think of a person who’s not in the class yet? How is your class going to go get them? Would a fellowship attract them? What kind of fellowship? Do you spend 5-10min. of every class every week thinking about reaching people on your class prospect list and adding people to it? If you do that, your class will grow. Prospects 1:1
3. Classes. Churches don’t just grow as one big clump. The key to community is intimacy. You can be friends with a half-dozen or so people. In fact, statistically if you make 7 friends at your church, 2 years later you have a better than 80% chance of still being at that church. This is what I call “data driven discipleship.” Classes should be small enough so that they can care for their own, but that means a church has to offer enough classes to care for everyone. The ideal class size is between 12-18 enrolled. Moses couldn’t judge all the people of Israel directly. Read Exodus 18:17ff some time, his father-in-law was wise when he said “what you’re doing is not good…” Moses was trying to connect with all the people himself, that’s not smart, and that’s not a Biblical model of leadership. You should not want a large class where everyone connects to one teacher of 50 or 100 people. You should not want a large church where the Sr. Pastor is friends with everyone and they stay because of the relationship they have with one person. That’s not only impossible and the reason most churches run 63 on average, it’s also unbiblical. The people do the work of the ministry, the Pastor doesn’t “do the ministry.” Once a class has more than 18 people enrolled in it, it’s time for that class to develop and send out a Teacher, an Outreach leader, and a Care leader to create a new class… or to make the class a Department with smaller classes… or to subdivide the big class into smaller “care groups.” Is your goal to have a church of 500 people? You need 28-42 Sunday School classes. Not once you have the 500 but so you can handle the 500, so you can reach the 500. Classes 1:12-18
4. Workers. The work is not done by the elite or the professionals. Every Christian is called to minister, so we need a strategy where each person is only responsible to minister to a small group. You need one worker for every 5 people enrolled in a Sunday School class. It could be a Teacher, a Outreach leader, a Care leader, a Fellowship planner, an Administrator, a doughnut getter coffee maker… someone bought-in to serving others who has a job to be there every Sunday. If you can skip a Sunday, and you don’t have to get someone to fill-in for you, you’re not a worker. These are the folks who will reach out and connect with others, and so they only need to reach out to 5. So often we think the goal is to be friends with everyone, nope. It doesn’t work that way. Jesus had 12 people he was “friendly” with, but those weren’t all his friends. Judas? Really? No, Jesus had 3, Peter, James, and John who were his real friends. He poured into them, until they were ready to pour into others. Peter became the pillar of the church, James was martyred for his faithfulness, and John cared for Jesus’ mom and lived to see and write the Revelation. People can manage half-a-dozen people to minister to, we need to build a structure which recognizes that. Who are your 5? Do you have 5 you’re keeping up with? Do you expect someone else to do the ministry for everyone? Workers 1:5.
5. Worker’s Meeting. If all of God’s word is a benefit to us for teaching, for rebuking, for reproof, and for training in right living (cf. 2Tim 3:16-17) then we need a plan to teach all of it to our people. What we do not need in Sunday School is to pick-n-choose whatever a class wants to hear or whatever passage at the time a teacher might feel would be good. People don’t need just the right verse at just the right time, that’s not how it works… ALL scripture is beneficial for EVERY good work God has for us to do. We must have a regular plan to teach ALL of it to ALL of our people. This means planning, strategy, coordination, and consistency which very few churches can do without a pre-packaged curriculum plan. This is why something like LifeWay’s Bible Studies for Life, or Explore the Bible, or even The Gospel Project is so beneficial. Once a quarter you have a more specifically evangelistic lesson. You will be teaching your students about giving and generosity on regular intervals. You will coordinate with efforts to have special Sundays like “Sanctity of Human Life” Sunday or Lottie Moon offerings etc. It is not “deeper” to “just teach the Bible” without your teaching connected to a comprehensive plan to teach the whole council of God over time. Every Sunday School lesson, regardless of which curriculum book you use, is based on a scripture passage. You need something deeper than scripture? When everyone is on the same page you can then have regular meetings to talk about best ways to teach it. Ideally, these would be weekly meetings and at least 75% of your workers would attend. This is how you actually build a teaching team, and not just individual teachers. Best practices, good ideas for illustrations, nuggets of truth… imagine sharing those with a team of people, and having an abbreviated version of your lesson taught to you every week before you teach. Weekly worker’s meeting 75% attendance.
6. Worker Training. Books, online seminars, conferences, video series, etc. Training resources are everywhere. at least 4 times a year, once a quarter, a seminar, focused training time, or conference should be offered. 50% of a church’s Sunday School leaders should participate each time, and every leader should do at least 2 of these trainings every year. Even if it’s as simple as reading a good book on Sunday School like “Six Core Values of Sunday School” by Allan Taylor. It is so easy to be equipped these days. Worker Training 50% 4x a year, every worker 2x a year.
7. Space. Why did the oil stop for the widow? She didn’t have any empty jars. We must always have one space open for a new class. Every class must always have an “empty chair” to fill (in reality, if any space is 80% full, it’s full. So, if you have 18 enrolled, 1/2 attending, and say 3 guests, you really need 4 empty chairs). Space isn’t just inside, one of the major limiting factors st churches is parking. If you lot is ever 80% full, you’re done. 78% is were most momentum starts to slow. It doesn’t sound spiritual, but if people feel it’s full, they won’t come. You need 1 parking space for every 2 people. You want 500 people? You need 313 parking spaces (2 people per space up to 80% capacity). You always need an empty space for God to fill as you work. Space +1
8. Contacts. When the people of your class are not there, they need to know you noticed and you care. “Hey we missed you” is not a hard conversation to have, with a friend. When there are no more than 18 people enrolled in your class. These are real conversations, not notes, not texts (unless they text back and you go back and forth), talking to them. Each week, in a normal class 50% of the Enrollment will be present, so you need to call the ones who weren’t there. Contacts 1:2 Enrollment.
9. Outreach. Someone has to be reaching out to the guests. These have to be real interactions. Not an email that goes out and nothing comes back. Email, text, phone calls, in-person visits (call first) all of these might work, but only if there’s real interaction, and there needs to be at least one outreach team (a person, a couple, or a group) from every class every week reaching out to guests, not just that week’s guests, all prospects, every week. Outreachers 1:1 Class.
10. Attendance. Everyone enrolled in a class won’t make it each week. If they do, then you need to enroll some more people. You should have people at all stages of their Christian walk in your class, that means some will be occasional attenders and others will be there every Sunday. A good rule-of-thumb is 50% attendance of those enrolled. If you have more, you need to enroll more, if you have less, you generally need to do better member care/contacts. Attendance 40%-60% Enrollment
11. Worship Attendance. The church does gather together to worship, this is a vital part of a Christian’s church life. Sunday School is where you can be more intimate and be held accountable, worship allows for more anonymity. We need to hear the word preached, sing together, and just see the church as a big group, it’s good. Worship attendance should be +/-10% of Sunday School attendance. If it’s not, something is off. Are more in Worship than Sunday School? Ok, the teachers have a harvest field for some new prospects! Are there more in Sunday School than Worship? Maybe there’s some barrier you need to look to in your service that’s driving people out of “the big room.” A great preacher, exciting music, great production… these are all good things, but at the end of the day, these are not making any disciples and they will only hold people’s attention so long without a solid foundation and structure where people can build real relationships with those 7 people for the long haul. A bad preacher, bad music, poor production, or unpopular service time can all drive people away, but what’s going to keep people are the people. Worship 90%-110% of Sunday School.
12. Offering. The only gauge that Jesus gives for where are hearts are is to test where our treasure is (Matt 6:21). It doesn’t say “where your heart is, there your treasure will be” it says “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In other words, money isn’t just a matter of making budget so the church can pay the bills, it’s part of what we must encourage in others so they become fully rounded disciples. The average weekly per capita giving in American churches is $26. This will vary widely depending on the area you live in, the number of people in your church, and a host of other factors. Here, the trend is more important than the raw number. Is the Sunday School attendance per capita giving going up or down? What is it compared to the 3-year average? This will tell you whether your members’ heart is in your church or not. Jesus taught more about financial issues than any other single topic, it’s worth teaching and leading people to give. Offering trending up.
13. Baptism. This is part of making disciples. Make them by Baptizing etc. Again, the raw number isn’t what matters. One church may baptize 100, which is great, but they have 10,000 in worship, while another church of 50 baptizes 3 people, that’s fantastic! Baptism relative to Sunday School attendance is an important metric to see how you’re doing as a church, as well as the total number of baptisms. This is the first real public step of obedience by a genuine believer, so it’s a great milestone to count to help every genuine salvation experience count. It is a goal to be making more disciples, making disciples means baptizing people. So, are we making more disciples? Well, are we baptizing more people? We should be, the great commission says so. for every 100 people attending your church, surely you could baptize 10 people, right? If each Sunday School class reaches one person in a year, you’re there! Baptism 10% of SS attendance.
there it is, the growth spiral. Not the only way, but it works. God uses it, I’ve seen it. It helps build relationships. You can do it!
