What Helps a Church Grow?

 

  1. Liveliness!
    1. Friendliness – greetings (personal and from the pulpit); contact outside of church (planned or informal); activities (well-led and planned).
    2. Good Music – well chosen; well practiced; well done; Use all members in good standing who are gifted in music.
    3. Enthusiastic Leadership - Teachers, preachers, testimonies (eye contact, excitement in the voice, sincerity); messages that incite worship and commitment and meet needs, taken from the Word of God, not from psychology or philosophy.
    4. Enthusiastic Congregation – teach members to say “amen!” “That’s right!” “Praise God!” “Yes!” etc. at appropriate places during the messages. This keeps them alert and adds excitement to any message.
    5. A sense of urgency – in the preaching, in the evangelization, in ultimate goals. Reality is in spiritual battle, not in economics or health.
    6. A sense of direction – long-range goals, short range goals “Here is what we are doing to reach these goals.” Keep the goals before the church in various ways. Give a sense of gaining ground.
  2. Preaching and teaching to build people, not the pastor’s kingdom or reputation. Preach for the glory of God and the benefit of the people. Call sin by its name, but don’t try to convict of sin. The Holy Spirit does that. Be a shepherd, not a sheep dog or a hireling.
  3. Preaching and teaching the Scriptures to know God.
  4. Evangelism:
    1. Distribution of gospel literature.
    2. Personal witnessing.
    3. Bible studies in homes (Hebrews 5:12-14)
    4. Book stands.
    5. Radio/TV/Telephone/Newspaper
    6. At church: evangelistic preaching; Easter and Christmas, suppers, Day of the Bible, films, testimonies, conferences
  5. Orderly administration:
    1. Every service planned – 1 Corinthians 14
    2. Big events planned a year in advance Conferences, evangelistic meetings, Lord’s Supper, etc.)  – yearly calendar. (speakers and dates) Details – 3-4 months before the event.
  6. Surveillance – the pastor must oversee all the details until members are trained, then he must oversee the person trained.
  7. Delegation – Delegation cannot be done unless the deacons and other members have been trained in the details of their tasks. Some can be trained faster than others. Many people are over-confident.
  8. Supervision – Never leave off completely the supervision of trained people, with the exception of those who have proven themselves to be efficient and trustworthy.
  9. Encouragement – Privately encourage or compliment progress; publicly do the same for tasks well done. Never let up and don’t forget any program or worker.