Church Growth: The Series

Over on Church Marketing Sucks, they're well into a series discussing church growth and the various ways to look at it. Y'all won't bother to follow my links but you may be inclined to read this one post, so I'm going to summarize this series for you. Isn't that nice of me?

Part One: Is Church Growth the Highway to Hell? (Link)
Church growth is a touchy subject but yes, churches are supposed to grow.

Part Two: 9 Church Growth Myths (Link)
From Rich Warren's book, The Purpose-Driven Church. Um, there's nine of them but they're only one paragraph each. I dare you to click on the link.

Part Three: Perpetual Church Growth (Link)
Intangibles are the goals of church but they're measured through tangibles. Businesses are obsessed with growth but does church need to be as well?

Part Four: Healing, Sick and Dying Churches (Link)
Like an organism, if a church isn't growing then it's dying. Or, it should be in a healing process so that it can grow some more.

Part Five: It's Not Always Numerical Growth (Link)
There are different kinds of growth and some are hard to measure. Personal growth is church growth, too. However, personal growth should eventually lead to numerical growth.

Part Six: Numbers Are People, Not Evil (Link)
It's not about counting scalps and showing off. It's about seeing souls come to Christ.

Part Seven: Why Churches Should Care About Numbers (Link)
Numbers are important because they are one of several signs of effectiveness.

Part Eight: Quantity Is Job 1 (Link)
The third myth: You must choose between quantity or quality.

Part Nine: God Makes It Grow (Link)
Synthetic growth-by-formula sucks. God makes plants and churches grow, but we need to be good gardeners as well.

Small Church, Big Church

Church Marketing Sucks referenced this blog with a downloadable pdf document entitled "Development Barriers to Church Growth." It's a short little booklet that outlines some of the common reasons that churches of various sizes have difficulty getting to the next stage of growth. Similar to the growth of small businesses, there are various issues like the need for control or the desire for closely knit groups that often hinder growth.

I've mentioned several times in this blog recently that my company is going through another one of our growth phases. We're in the process of a major re-organization because we can't support more staff and more customers doing the same things that we did when we only had six employees and twenty clients. Likewise, church growth is most often hindered for many practical reasons rather than spiritual ones.

This pamphlet has a nice summary style and it's brief and easy and simple. It breaks down various levels of church growth and itemizes the major barriers that churches at each level have in trying to grow. It has a lot of valid points but it certainly seems to be written from the perspective of someone who has accomplished that growth already and it therefore offers this information in a somewhat brusque manner.

I think it makes a few good points about the lack of growth at my old church, FCCC. The booklet says that 85% of all churches in North America have less than 200 people, with an average church size of 70 people. FCCC fell into that category easily with less than 100 people. The booklet concentrates half of the content to churches of this size since they exist everywhere and they have a strong tendency to stay small.

Granted, this booklet is speaking in general terms so not everything applies to my old church. I do like this one quote, though: "A small congregation, for the most part, has a "small" mindset of might even hold "small" as a spiritual value." (Reference to Page 3.) I don't really appreciate the simplistic and sometimes insulting explanations that this booklet provides but I think that a lot of these points are true enough. Regarding that one quote, people do value small over large and we do support that value in spiritual and Biblical terms.

The second half of the book deals with growth barriers for a few stages of growth beyong the 200-person mark. At the 200-400 stage, it makes several points that apply directly to the growing pains that Open Door has been going through in the last two years or so. Specifically, it refers to the need for multiple services and the associated requirement for more volunteers.

So I recommend checking out this little pamphlet. It should be a quick read. It might not be a cool refreshing drink of water if you're going through some of these things but it might be a splash of cold water to the face that we can use to think about a few issues more thoroughly later.

Catching Up

Just to catch up on things lately...

Consolations to the Timmermans. Oma (Mr. T's mom) passed away early on June 14th. I'll be going to the visitation/funeral to see them this morning.

Congratulations to Abe & Melissa. (Plus Ben!) They worked their butts off to get into their new home. They have a lot of work ahead of them still but hey, at least they have officially moved now.

I have a big movie day ahead of me this weekend. I'm watching Cars on Saturday afternoon with my Little. In the evening, I'm taking a few of the Terry girls to the Mustang Drive-In to a watch two movies, The Break-Up and Tokyo Drift.

My church is busy organizing this summer's day camp. Last year, I volunteered as a group leader and I had to wrangle a group of 8 boys from grades five and six. I went to the day camp in the morning every day that week and then I worked in the afternoon, taking a half day of vacation pay each day. That was fun but I don't think that I'll do it again this year since I'm busy in July with various weekend camping trips. Related Blog Posts: Story, Pics

Finally, I went to Toronto this past Sunday to see a Blue Jays game with my dad, the three Korean boys from my house and my Little. We had a great time, despite the fact that I was on crutches, I received a sunburn and the Jays lost. I have various great pics but for the sake of privacy for my Little I can only show part of one picture. Oh well.

'S Funny

I was supposed to go to work on Saturday because I have a pile of beta testing that I need to do. Abe and Melissa were planning to move into their new house on Saturday but I wasn't planning on going. However, Tara called me late on Saturday to inform me that Abe and Melissa had very few people available to help them. So on Saturday morning I rounded up the three Korean boys from my house to go and lend a hand.

I figured that I would help until maybe noon and that would let me get back to work for at least four hours. Ah, but the best laid plans... To our surprise, a group of young people showed up on Saturday morning to help with their move. Abe had done an excellent job of packing everything and a giant pile was ready to go once the U-Haul truck arrived. We all pitched in and got the majority of the load into the truck - and then most of the crew vanished due to other priorities. Even Abe disappeared around noon due to some other pressing appointment.

So that left me, two other men and several women and children. I couldn't really leave since we still had several major pieces of furniture to move, including two washers and a dryer. So we worked to finish off more U-Haul load. As I was carrying a large mattress, I was walking along their brick walkway and I slipped into a section that was missing several bricks.

Snap! Crackle! Pop!

Ah, I had almost forgotten what it felt like to bust my leg. It felt like I had sprained my ankle but my ankle was perfectly fine. We still had several major things to move so I decide to just walk it off. I finished off the rest of the furniture, took my Korean boys out to lunch to thank them for their hard work and eventually returned home. By the time I got back home, the pain had grown considerably and I was limping quite badly.

At my mother's insistance, I went to the hospital later with my dad. In and out, the visit took less than an hour. They took x-rays, confirmed that nothing was broken and informed that I had pull a ligament on the side of my left foot. Loverly. So now I'm using the crutches that I own for situations just like this and I'll be on those until my foot heals on its own. I definitely won't be playing baseball with my church team any time soon, at least.

So yeah, that was my day. Fun, eh? By the way, Abe and Melissa's house is fantastic. It's so much bigger then their previous house. It still needs a lot of interior work on the walls but it's going to be a great place once they have fixed it up. Good for them!

Pieces of Me

To follow up on this post, I thought that I would dissect myself a bit.

Personality Trait: Introvert
Good: Rarely bored, introspective, independant.
Bad: Can seem anti-social, difficult for others to understand need to be alone.
Softening the Edge: Avoid being a hermit, actively spend time with others.

Personality Trait: Self Control
Good: Even-tempered, unlikely to explode.
Bad: Can seem like a lack of passion, appreciation or concern.
Softening the Edge: Learning to express myself more.

Personality Trait: Patience
Good: Perservering, helpful during arguments, useful when teaching.
Bad: Sometimes allows me to spend months pursuing a dumb decision.
Softening the Edge: What, I need to learn to be impatient sometimes?

Personality Trait: Trusting (Optimistic)
Good: Always assume good motivation in others for their actions.
Bad: Can be naive. Can be too open about private matters.
Softening the Edge: I've been burned before, now try to be more wise. Was taught the importance of private matters and their effect on others involved.

Personality Trait: Turtle (Cautious, Dislike Change, Plan Carefully)
Good: Detail-oriented, well-laid plans.
Bad: Not much of a visionary, hesitant.
Softening the Edge: I have learned the necessity of teamwork. My boss is a visionary. Combine those strengths with mine and it has effective results.

Personality Trait: Strong Leadership
Good: Decisive, commanding, get things done.
Bad: Can be too goal-oriented, get to the ends by any means.
Softening the Edges: The method does matter, people's feelings do matter. Leading the youth worship team showed me the importance of compliments and encouragement, of getting others to take more responsibility.

Two Personality Traits Equals One

I once had a cat named Puff
Who would like you 'til she had enough
Aloof as she was
It was all good because
We could leave her and not worry 'bout stuff.

I once had a puppy named Mitzy
Compared to Puff she was friendly and frisky
Loving as she was
She had to leave 'cause
Dependent and needy is not easy.

So I had these two pets for many years. Puffy ruled the house and Mitzy knew not to mess with her. Puffy was a stereotypical cat and she would only pay attention to the lesser animals (the dog and the people) when she felt like it. She would enjoy it when we pet her or fed her but once she was satisfied she would ditch you without hesitation. On the plus side, it was easy to leave on extended trips and merely put a dish of food and water out for her. She could take care of herself just fine for up to two weeks without a problem. She lived to a bright old age of nineteen. (Link)

In contrast, Mitzy was the stereotypical dog. Friendly and affectionate, she would follow us wherever we went in the house. She loved to play and go for walks and would sleep in our beds at night. That being said, she was also a lot more work. She required two meals a day with regular feeding times and amounts. Feed her too much and she would pig out. We had to take her for regular walks and eventually we had to give her to my grandparents because I couldn't take care of her while I was living by myself at home and working full time. (Link)

Personality traits have two sides to them, they're double-edged swords. The very thing that we like about somebody can easily be the same thing that we do not like about them. The two parts may look different but they come from the same root. If we take away the annoying parts of a person, we would be surprised to find that we also took away the good parts at the same time. We can't carve out half of a person and take the parts we like and discard the rest. You're not left with half a person, you're left with only a shell.

Not that we should simply put up with annoying traits. Instead, we need to learn about the person and figure out why they behave certain ways in certain situations. We need to appreciate other people for who they are, not for some superficial picture that we have of them. A little understanding goes a long way.

As another example, Sam Cassell is one of the premier point guards in the NBA. He was a key free agent acquisition for the L.A. Clippers this past summer and he came just short of leading them to the third round of the current NBA playoffs. In fact, Steve Nash had to lead his Phoenix Suns to a rare comeback while down 3 games to 1 just to beat the Clippers. Sam has always been rather brash and outspoken, getting into people's faces and saying too many negative things in media interviews. That's why he is now on his seventh team and that's why teams were willing to let him go. The flip side is that he extremely competitive, confidant and passionate. The same traits that force him to move on are the traits that allowed him to lead the Clippers so far into the playoffs this year.

The one thing that many reporters observed about Cassell this year is that he seems to have matured in the way that he leads his team and the way that he interacts with his teammates and with the media. He hasn't lost his core attributes but he has gained the wisdom to soften the edges a bit. He and his team have gained the benefits of his personality (and his great skills) without being eroded by the negative aspects of it at the same time.

So I have two morals to these stories (or limericks). The first is that we need to understand and appreciate both sides of a person's personality traits. The second is that we can take this knowledge and apply it to ourselves, accentuating the positive pieces and softening the negative ones.

If you bothered to read this whole bit
And you wondered when I would quit
I just want to say
I can do this all day
I just hope you learned something from it!