Church Health And Dealing With Growth Barriers (Part 2)

by Niyi Dunmade …continued from Part 1

Micromanaging

Many churches have become bureaucratic because of the problem of Micromanaging. Micromanaging in the context of church growth is a situation where everything revolves around the the lead pastor. Your church should empower ministry leaders to take decisions regarding the areas they are heading. For instance, the head of music department in the church should be able to take decisions as to how music can improve, and his decision should be trusted and respected. You should strike a balance and reach a point where you have adequate management and trusted delegation.

For this to happen, the lead pastor should refrain from being the sole source of decision making of the church. He should instead encourage other ministers and church leaders to take independent decisions as regards the areas they manage. Similarly, members have to trust the leaders of the church. If they don’t trust the leaders, then the church won’t accomplish much. Thus, church leaders must exhibit true and transparent leadership qualities. They should be humble, honest, persistent, willing to risk failure, and willing to trust God for mighty things.

You can break this barrier by encouraging pastors to be flexible and ready to meet whatever challenges that may arise in the future.

Being Program-Oriented Rather Than Development-Oriented.

The focus of the church shouldn’t be on having an impressive and long list of programs. The focus should be on developing people in the faith (discipleship), so that they can reach spiritual maturity and also bear fruit. To do this, you should have a specific plan to help your members grow instead of them simply attending a bunch of classes and programs that do little to their spiritual growth and productivity. It is also important to mention here that the preaching that does not encourage application will only stifle growth. In other words, the purpose of every program and session should be to encourage people to bear fruit (the great commission).

Interested In Doctrines, Rather Than Winning Souls

Some churches pay more attention to keeping their doctrine, rather than in winning souls for Christ, and hence they end up treating people as outcasts when they have faulted, without ministering to their actual needs. This kills growth. The church should have an atmosphere of acceptance, where people are met at the point of their needs especially spiritually, and allowed to grow, instead of being judged. Acceptance does not mean approval. Even Jesus meets us at various points in our lives and grooms us to become better and more like Him. If He does that, shouldn’t the church, His body, do that also?

Having One Service

By having multiple services, even before the need arises, you give more people more options and opportunities to become involved in the church. This encourages growth. When you choose to have multiple services, you might have to solve the problem of a small manpower. Having less staff than needed will create loopholes that will give rise to retention problems and other issues that will stifle growth. You should always be willing to hire staff where necessary and ensure that you do not overburden volunteers. For instance, you can have different volunteers to work on shifts for each of the multiple church services.