CHURCH GROWTH THROUGH THE YEARS
1960’s – Door to Door
1970’s – Bus Ministry and Sunday School
1980’s – Charismatic Renewal and Church Growth Movement
1990’s – Praise / Worship and Media
2000’s – Small Groups / Emerging
2010+ – Satellite Churches / Groups
Churches vary in style and genre, but these 10 habits are found in all healthy growing churches:
1. PRAYER
- Prayer must be organized.
- Prayer must be visible
- Who is the leader of the prayer ministry?
- Prayer Chains
- Prayer Groups
2. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Ephesians 4:11-12
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, NKJV
The key to breaking the Small Church Barrier is going from Shepherd Mode to the Rancher Mode. The shepherd attends all of the sheep. The Rancher sends out foremen who tend the cattle and report back to him.
3. IMAGE DRIVEN
- E- Experience God
- P- Participation
- I- Image Driven
- C- Connectivity
4. LAY MINISTRY EMPOWERMENT
- Recruit continually
- Train regularly. Repetition is the key to effective training. How many times should your leaders been trained with the same material? The answer is, “many times.”
- Release and empower people to do ministry on their own.
5. OUTREACH
- Visible and appealing community mission programs.
- Highly visible Foreign Missions program.
- Planned and organized Evangelism Days.
6. SMALL GROUP MINISTRIES
- Friendship
- Nurture
- Accountability
- Individuality
- Flexibility
- Long Term Relationships
- Ownership
7. STEWARDSHIP
- Keep It Simple
- Keep It Positive
- Keep them informed
- Create Income Streams
- Apply for Grants
- Annual Stewardship Campaign
8. WORSHIP
- Must be modeled by the leadership.
- Must be a high priority in the worship service.
- Must be lead and modeled.
- Key is the flow of the service.
- Must be engaging
9. ASSIMILATION
- Collecting Information
- Follow Up Program
- Get Connected
- Friendly and well trained hospitality.
- 7% National Average with an effective assimilation program.
- Data Base
10. VISION
- Vision casting is about “selling the invisible.”
