Purpose Driven Church Ch2 - Myths about growing churches

As I read this chapter, I have a feeling it's going to hurt. I have been a leader in a church that has struggled to grow for years[1], and although I haven't read it yet, I'll bet some of these myths are things I have thought myself. Oh well, let's get into it.

I think what I'll do here is to list and briefly describe the myths. I'll comment on them and see if they describe something I believe. After that, I'll put in a few notes incidental to the chapter as with yesterday.

Before we start, though: a harsh reality that Warren describes is that the myths about "megachurches" (a term he dislikes) are circulated "Sometimes out of envy, sometimes out of fear and sometimes out of ignorance". Guilty as charged, your honour, on all three counts. I'm afraid that my feelings towards "megachurches" (including one down the road whose name you may know if you live in Sydney!) are often motivated by all three of these. I tend to be the sort of person who is an instant expert on just about anything, despite not necessarily knowing anything definite (ignorance); I am often afraid that one day God will say "Why didn't you do X, Y or Z? The church down the road did it, and it worked wonders!" (fear), and I so wish my church would grow (envy - note the positioning of the word "my" in a sentence about a church that in fact belongs not to me but to God!).

Myth 1: The only thing that large churches care about is Attendance.
Ouch. Right off the bat, something I have believed. Warren explodes this immediately - a church WON'T grow large if that's all they care about. Growth is multidimensional, and if you preach the Good News, if your people are excited about what God is doing in their lives, if you are providing a service where people can bring unsaved friends without embarassment and if you have a plan to build, train and send out those won to Christ[2], then "attendance will be the least of your problems". Warren further quotes Acts 2:42-47 to back up his concept that a church must grow "Warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry and larger through evangelism."

Myth 2: Large churches grow at the expense of smaller churches.
This is one I have believed in the past, but it's pretty much by the wayside now. Some misguided members may THINK this is how it works, but no large church mainly seeks to "sheep steal" (it's a limited possibility anyway!). Warren says 80% of his congregation found Christ at Saddleback!

Myth 3: You must choose between quality and quantity at your church.
I have always believed this one, though I dressed it up in different words - anyone remember my "special forces vs regular divisions" analogy? But quality and quantity are not in opposition to each other. The trick is to define what we mean. When fishing, we want both quantity (number of fish) AND quality (size of fish!). In the same way every church should desire both to reach people for Christ AND to bring them to maturity in Him. When God finds a church that is doing a quality job of winning, nurturing, equipping and sending out believers, he sends that church plenty of raw material! Scary question: If most of our members never invite people to come to church, what are they saying about what we offer? Bottom line: as long as there are lost people in the world we MUST care about quantity.

Myth 4: You must compromise the message and the mission of the church in order to grow.
This one hasn't been a big idea of mine. In fact, I tend to think rather the reverse - it's the churches that have compromised their message (especially in liberal directions) that have had the biggest difficulty growing, at least in the Australian context. At any rate, we DO often assume big churches have compromised. But this often comes from jealousy. Now, what is expected of believers is (and should be!) different from what is expected of those who just come along; at Saddleback they distinguish the two by the terms "the crowd" and "the congregation". However, people are (and should be!) challenged deeply when they want to JOIN the church. Challenging people attracts rather than repels people. We should, however, be genuine and contemporary.

Myth 5: If you are dedicated enough, your church will grow.
I WANT to believe this. Oh, how I want it to be true. But my experience blows this one out the window. Dedication DOESN'T make a church grow. It takes more than dedication - it takes SKILL. This is an area of major weakness in our church - we frequently fail to provide opportunities for people to "sharpen the axe". Prayer is essential, but it doesn't do the job alone. Two extreme positions: Practical humanism (We're entirely responsible for the growth of the church) and Pious irresponsibility (God will grow the church no matter what we do). Both are fatal. The first idea is that organisation, management and marketing will grow the church (they won't). The second is that prayer will grow the church (it won't). We cannot do it without God, but God has chosen not to do it without us.

Myth 6: There is one secret key to church growth.
I have never believed this, but it sells a lot of books! In any case, Warren identifies "Ricks rules for growth":
1) There is more than one way to grow a church.
2) It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.
3) Never criticize what God is blessing[3].
All these bust that myth wide open.

Myth 7: All God expects of us is faithfulness.
This one is something built deep into me; it's almost a credo of the Brethren. But now that I think about it, Warren is right - it's not true. God expects faithfulness AND fruitfulness. Warren says that in the light of the great commission, any definition of fruitfulness MUST include numerical growth. In the parable of the Talents, the servant who failed to produce a return on the money isn't described as faithful, but "Wicked and lazy". Often people who describe themselves as faithful are only being orthodox!

Myth 8: You can't learn from the big churches.
I have never really considered this one; I guess that means I implicitly believed it. However, whilst slavishly copying a big church won't help (every church's story is unique), there are ideas that are transferrable; and we should be learning those lessons!
You CAN'T transfer context, staff and individual people.
You CAN transfer principles, processes and methods.
Primary issues of church growth: "Who is our master, what is our message, and what is our motive?"
Secondary issues of church growth: "Who is our market, what are our models, what are our methods?"

Whew, that was a big chapter. And fairly chastening. The good news is that now we're done dealing with myths, we're onto BECOMING A PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH.

Notes:
* The church described in Acts 2:42-47 was described as having conversions DAILY. That's a minimum of 365 new Christians a year. Imagine if that was the standard a church had to meet to call itself a New Testament Church!
* Church growth is the natural result of church health.
* Transfer growth is not healthy.
* Quality produces quantity; quantity helps to produce quality!
* Prayer alone does not grow a church. Many great prayer warriors are pastors and members of dying churches.
* Christ doesn't expect us to produce more than we can, but He does expect us to produce ALL that we can.


[1] I heard a term a couple of years back that describes our situation perfectly - "Lateral growth". A church or organisation that is in a period of lateral growth is one that is getting new members just fast enough to offset those who leave. So the group doesn't get smaller, but it gets no bigger either.

[2] This should be familiar to any Student Life/Campus Crusade trained Christians reading!

[3] I'm really not sure if I agree with this idea. God works by grace, and just because He is doing something in a particular group doesn't put their work beyond reproach or analysis.