The sad reality is that many churches are on a plateau. That is, they are neither growing nor declining – they just continue. At one level this is wonderful, for a group of Christians are being nurtured in their relationship with the Lord Jesus, as they prepare to be presented perfect on the day that Christ returns (cf Col 1:28). At another level, though, it can represent a lost opportunity to bring the Gospel of Jesus to a community that desperately needs to hear it.
Often, pastors or ministers who find themselves in this kind of situation, have little idea what they can do. Some have tried all kinds of things and are at a loss.
I recently completed reading the book ‘One Size Doesn’t Fit All’ (Gary L. McIntosh), and found the closing chapter had some simple, yet fascinating food for thought. It was a 3 phase approach, which can be summarised in this way:
1. Add: initially focus on adding a few new people to a church family, while simultaneously preparing regulars to accept and embrace new people. This may mean making the time to appropriately chase any and every visitor to church, or even going to find some new people (my own experience is that we have plenty who visit us). It also means teaching the Word of God in such a way that regulars will welcome people.
2. Divide: Split church meetings and other aspects of church life to create new ones. Apart from better utilising facilities, this gets more people involved, spreading the leadership base. It also means that people not yet part of the church have more options.
3. Multiplication, in McIntosh’s usage, means setting up new church meetings, etc. Interestingly, this was encouraged after existing meetings ‘divided’, as people were sufficiently used to the concept of change.
It is essential to acknowledge that this, or any other framework, can only operate in the context of prayer and a primacy of the Word of God in what we do, for that is how God promises to work. Any human effort must operate under God’s sovereignty.
How true it is: ‘some people say they want the church to grow, but what they really mean is they do not want the church to die.’ Ultimately, only God can change human hearts.
