Church growth is an essential element in the Great Commission. But bigger churches are not.
In a recent article the author outlined 10-plus steps to church growth. As I read it I realized two things:
1) Everything in it was true. Doing all the steps would give most churches a decent chance to get bigger.
2) None of the church-growth points involved church health, discipleship, prayer, or any other essential element of church life. In fact, several points advised pastors to take some very unhealthy steps to produce numerical growth.
So, the advice was likely to bring numerical growth. But at what cost?
There is no cost too high to pay for the salvation of souls. But there is a cost too high to pay for bigger churches.
7 Times When Church Growth Isn’t Worth The Cost
1. When It’s Only About the Numbers
When church growth happens through making converts and equipping disciples, I’m in. All the way.
But too much of it diverts our limited time, energy, and funds away from the task of disciple-making into the goal of attendance increase.
If it’s only about bigger churches, without the essential elements of evangelism and discipleship, that’s where you lose me.
When we emphasize good things (a growing church) over the best things (making disciples) we’re trading down, not up.
2. When We’re Not Clear On Why Bigger Is Better
So you want your church to grow? That’s great. Me too.
But for what purpose? To be in the top 10% of churches in your city, denomination, or nation? If so, please explain to me how that is in any way a biblical goal.
If it’s because you want to make converts and equip disciples, that’s more like it.
But how do we know if that’s really our goal? Ask yourself this question. If God called you to reach and disciple people without increasing the number of people sitting in your church, would you be okay with that? If not, check your ego. Because sometimes Jesus does kingdom growth that way.
Why we do things matters. Bigger churches are great if they’re getting bigger for God’s glory, not ours.
3. When It’s All On the Shoulders of the Pastor
In one recent article the writer told pastors that the growth of their church was “entirely up to you.”
He then explained how many extra hours the pastor would have to work, the church influencers that would have to be swayed, and more. All on the pastor’s shoulders.
This is a dangerous, toxic mindset that has been the cause of more pastoral burnout than perhaps all other reasons combined.
Church growth is not up to you, pastor. It’s not even up to you and Jesus.
It’s up to Jesus. Period.
Our calling is to make disciples. Train them to do the work of ministry. That’s the recipe for healthy church growth.
4. When It Takes Christians from Other Churches
Recently I heard a pastor brag that people were leaving other churches in town to come to his church.
“If they can’t keep up, that’s on them, not me,” he said about the other churches. Yes, he actually uttered that sentence.
Words. Fail. Me.
5. When It Pulls Funds and Passion from Essential Ministry
In one article a pastor suggested cutting off all missions giving so the money could be diverted into a stipend for newly-hired pastoral staff members who could take the church to the next level.
In another, churches were told to replace prayer meetings with strategy sessions.
Why? Because of the next point.
6. When It’s All About Putting On a Better Sunday Morning Show
A killer band. A sharp 20-minute-or-less sermon. Better social media clips.
I have no problem with any of those tools. But not at the cost of not supporting missionaries. And not when we pay more attention to the people on stage than the one we’re supposed to be worshiping.
(By the way, this is not an attack on new worship styles. This attitude can happen in brightly-lit traditional churches with robed choirs and wooden pulpits as well as in black-wall Gen Z churches with fog machines and on-stage touch-pad TVs.)
When all our energy is going in to a better Sunday morning show we have to ask ourselves if we’re just attracting and creating passive audience members instead of converts and disciples.
7. When We Change Or Disguise Our Theology for It
When I go to a synagogue I expect the Sabbath service to show me Judaism at its strongest, deepest, and best.
When people come to a church’s main worship gathering they should experience Christianity at its strongest, deepest, and best.
When a church camouflages the hard teachings of Jesus on Sundays, then pulls a bait-and-switch in their small groups or the membership class, people feel deceived.
What we attract them with is what we attract them to.
Our calling is to create more Jesus followers, not just church attenders.
The Benefits of Being Healthy First
Fellow pastors, please don’t let the negatives in this post discourage you.
Get out there and change the world for Jesus. Work on church growth. But always work on church health first.
If your church breaks through growth barriers I will celebrate that with you. But if it gets healthier without breaking growth barriers I’ll celebrate church health with you, too.
Pursuing church growth without church health costs more than it’s worth. But a healthy church will always be filled with more blessings than burdens – for everyone.
(Photo by Lainey Powell | Flickr)
