There has been a lot of churches talking about their need for church growth. You would think that these christian churches had already started their journey to growth. The fact is quite the opposite often times. Even though a church could be talking about their ideas for church growth doesn’t mean they are going to make it happen.
So what stops churches from growing? Is it a lack of people willing to visit their church? Could it be a lack of workers in the church? Perhaps there are a lot of reasons churches fail to grow.
The first thing that comes to my mind when it comes to things that stop church growth is the spiritual condition of the church. Often people could visit a church and feel no require to join simply since the church feels like a club. People have enough clubs in their lives.
What would change this is having the spirit of God move in your church. It takes more than great music for this to happen. The bible states that God inhabits the praise of His people. Yet the bible also says we are separated from God because of our sins.
There are times when our praise is simply a noise to God and a consert to men. This is something you may get just from turning the radio on. But if the people in the church grow spiritually then you will find the spirit of God move. This is something people may not get at a club.
The lack of support in the church could be another since for lack of church growth. This is often cause members are afraid of their church getting too large. They think that they will loose out on the fellowship of a small gathering. This does not have to be true though.
Many big churches are trying to grow smaller as they develop larger. What that means is they are having small groups. These are meetings of people in homes that boost friendship. This is something most churches miss out on though when there are few who could teach. Spiritual growth can aid in this region as well.
One other thing which may stop church growth is a bad reputation. Simply like some restaurants require to post under new management signs the church may have need of the same. How often have we seen churches that dwindle in numbers merely to be boosted in numbers again by the change of a pastor.
I am not saying a pastor that doesn’t grow the church in numbers should be removed by no means. A pastor however that does not follow the command of God and leaves a bad taste for the church in the community can do harm for years to come. Find ways to let the community know that this trouble is no longer there.
In short most of the problems churches have when it comes to growth is spiritual immaturity. If we can only get close enough to God to lift Him up then He will draw men to Himself. That is our merely job.