growth ceilings in churches budapest, hungary 11 october 2011

Growth Ceilings in Churches

Budapest, Hungary11 October 2011

But first of all, is growth in the number of disciples

important?What does the book of Acts say?

Acts 1:15 “a group numbering about a hundred and twenty”Acts 2:41 “about three thousand were added to their number that

day.”Acts 2:41 “And the Lord added to their number daily those who

were being saved.”Acts 4:4 “But many who heard the message believed, and the

number of men grew to about five thousand.”Acts 6:1 “In those days when the number of disciples was

increasing ( multiplying).”Acts 6:7 “The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased

(multiplied) rapidly.”Acts 9:31 “the church…grew in numbers, living in the fear of the

Lord.”Acts 16:5 “So the churches were strengthened in the faith and

grew daily in numbers.”

IMPORTANT QUESTIONSABOUT GROWTH CEILINGS

I. WHAT ARE THEY?II. WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?III. WHERE ARE THEY?IV. WHY DO THEY OCCUR?V. WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM?

I. WHAT ARE GROWTH CEILINGS?

They are ceilings or plateaus at which newly-planted or older churches tend to level off in attendance after an initial period of growth.

Let’s look at an example:

Case study in a church plant in France

15-20 people

1971

50 60

19811991 1994

60

95

Why did this church plant start so well and then move into a 60 plateau for almost 20 years? Then why did it grow again?

Some important questions: What happened during almost 20

years?

What kept this church from breaking through the 60 barrier?

Do you know of any churches like this?

What needs to be done?

Some all-important questions

If a church can move from 15 to 20 in attendance to 50/60 in 2 years, why can it not go from 50 to 100 in the next 2 years or at least in the next 5 years?

What happened around the 50/60 mark?

It’s your turn:What do you think?

I don’t have the faintest notion.

I wonder about …..

I need further information about…

Growth ceilings in associations or a

fellowship of churches

If new churches can be started so dramatically, what causes new churches to not be planted?

10 churches in 1945

25 churche

s

In 1975

25 churches

In 1995

LET’S SEE HOW THIS WORKS OUT!

AND FURTHER REVELATION

II. Why an Understanding of Growth Ceilings is

Important.

A. Growth ceilings for both individual churches and associations of churches show that churches are ineffective in their evangelistic outreach.

B. Non-growing churches stuck at a certain plateau will not tend to produce daughter churches.

C. Growth ceilings can also indicate a lack of discipleship and vision.

III. Where are the Growth Ceilings Found?

A. In the previous example of a church in France, we saw it was around the 50-60 mark.

B. In France the barriers seem to be around the following numbers:50-60120-130150-160160 – 200

C. What is the situation in your context? Think about the churches and church plants you are acquainted with here in Hungary.

IV. WHY DO GROWTH CEILINGS OCCUR?

A. The question here is “why do churches stop growing?”

B. The answer can be complex. Dr. McGavran talks about “that complex faithfulness which is church growth.”

C. But part of an understanding of growth ceilings comes from understanding the following fact:

GROWTH IS NOT LIKE THIS!

BUT IS IN GENERAL LIKE THIS!

There is “spontaneous growth” but there are causes which hinder it.

Obstacle

Growth is hindered in each case by some obstacle. To see continued growth that obstacle must be overcome.

Obstacle

How biblical is this idea?

Let’s see an example from the book of Acts:

Disciples multiplying Acts 6:1

BLOCK—CHANGE NEEDED

Solution found 6:1b -6

Disciples multiplyingGreatly Acts 6:7

Another way of seeing growth ceilings

Christian Schwarz sees it in another way and uses a barrel illustration with the “minimum factor” as the present obstacle.

“Taken from the book Color Your World with Natural Church Development by Christian A. Schwarz, NCD Media, Emmelsbuell, Germany.”

The barrel turned sideways.

This is where the water leaks out

D. What are some of the reasons for growth ceilings?

1. The church planter shifts from an emphasis on evangelism to caring for believers and the result is time & energy diverted from evangelism.

Evangelism

Edification


2. Growth is dependent upon the church planter or pastor and the people are not using their networks to reach out to other because they are not:a. Inspired to do effective evangelism.b. Taught how to do evangelism.c. Given structures to help them in their evangelism.

D. What are some of the reasons for growth

ceilings?

3. The church fills the meeting place and the 80% factor takes over.

Note: not all accept the 80% principle but it is certainly true that space can limit growth in some way or other.


4. The church is not alive. It has forsaken its first love. Rev. 2:4


5. The preaching is not relevant to believers or non-believers.

Two principles:

Revelation Relevance What God says

How it applies today

Then Now


ceilings?6. The church get turned in on itself or

what one missiologist calls “koinonitis”

This happens the the bigger & older a church

becomes


ceilings?

7. The culture moves ahead but the church stays embedded in past culture.

Some churches would rather die than change their way of doing things. Usually they die.

The 7 last words of the church “We never did it that way before.”


ceilings?

8. The infrastructures of the church do not move with the growth of the church.

Fishing Pool

CELEBRATION

Cells


ceilings?

9. Effective discipleship is not taking place.

Effective discipleship is

_______________ & _______________ segmented sequential

Effective discipleship works in phases rather

than a convoy

Jesus had four phases to his discipleship:

1. “Come and…see” John 1:392. “Come and follow” Matt 4:193. “Come and be with Me” Mark 3:144. “Remain in me” and “Go” Jn 15:6 &

20:21See A. B. Bruce The Training of the

Twelve

What extensive studies have shown about spiritual growth

Spiritual growth comes by “moving” forward in steps:Exploring Christ Growing in Christ Close to Christ Christ-centered

From Move by Greg Hawkins & Cally Parkison (Zondervan 2011)


ceilings?

10. The services are boring because they are irrelevant.

REVELATION REVELATION

RELEVANCE


ceilings?

11. There is a lack of love in the church for lost people.


ceilings?

12. The church is large enough to exist and lives that way.

FULLUP


ceilings?

13. The church is small and believes that their smallness is because of their faithfulness to God.

They need the parable of the talents.


ceilings?

“Taken from the book Color Your Worldwith Natural Church Development by Christian A. Schwarz, NCD Media, Emmelsbuell, Germany.”


ceilings?

What can you add? Particularly from your context here in Hungary.

15.

16.

17.

V. HOW CAN GROWTH CEILINGS BE OVERCOME?

A. By being aware of their existence and where they are.

What about here in Hungary?What about the churches you know?What about church plants?


B. By keeping good attendance records.

What Natural Church Development has discovered about this.

Goals are not the solution. Keeping track of what is happening

and doing something about it is of great help


C. By understanding the need to change in order to grow again.

Remember what happened in the Book of Acts that we talked about?

Change opened the door to further growth

The leaders found the solution by change and adaptation


BLOCK—CHANGE NEEDED



What needs to change in your church to grow?

1. _______________________2. _______________________3. _______________________4. _______________________


D. By being willing to be creative and take risks.

risk

Take a risk in order to grow

This is the same principle as in Acts 6


Risk change to grow




E. By learning to delegate, challenge, and help people discover their

Passion

Spiritual gifting

How their gifts can be used in ministry


F. By praying, “God, do whatever is necessary to get us unfrozen.”

The last seven words of the church are:

“We never did it that way before.”


G. By studying other groups and learning what you can.

Remember “methodology and theology do not always go together.”

Methodology, Theologyand Dynamic

THEOLOGY

METHOD-OLOGY

DYNAMIC


H. By learning to decentralise the ministry by multiplying small groups and ministry teams.


I. By adequately training more leaders.

What NCD has learned.

What I discovered about “leadership overflow.”


J. By praying and looking to the Holy Spirit for a breakthrough.


K. By working solidly on the “minimum factor” in the church to increase health.

Where do we need to increase health?


“Taken from the book Color Your Worldwith Natural Church Development by Christian A. Schwarz, NCD Media, Emmelsbuell, Germany.”

Where is your barrel leaking?


L. By planting a daughter church:

Now what are you going to do?

1. Nice information.2. Let’s think about it.3. Let’s do something.4. Let’s start right away.5. Let’s see what is blocking growth

NCD6. Let’s form an Implementation team7. Let’s plant a daughter church

OUR EXPERIENCE IN FRANCE

PARIS

ORLY

OUR EXPERIENCE WITH A

FIRST DAUGHTER CHURCH PLANT

PARIS

ORLY

Longjumeau 1968

OUR EXPERIENCE WITH A 2ND DAUGHTER CHURCH PLANT

PARIS

ORLY

Longjumeau 1968

Creteil 1971

OUR EXPERIENCES WITH A

3rd DAUGHTER CHURCH PLANT

PARIS

ORLY

Longjumeau 1968

Creteil 1971

Val d’Yerres1973


4th DAUGHTER CHURCH PLANT

PARIS

ORLY

Longjumeau 1968

Creteil 1971

Val d’Yerres1973

Savigny-le-Temple 1981


5th DAUGHTER CHURCH PLANT

PARIS

ORLY

Longjumeau 1968

Creteil 1971

Val d’Yerres1973


Vigneux 1982

OUR EXPERIENCE WITH OUR 1ST GRANDDAUGHTER

CHURCH PLANT6th

PARIS

ORLY

Longjumeau 1968

Creteil 1971

Val d’Yerres1973


Vigneux 1982

Bretigny 1986

When do you plant a daughter church?

1. When you are growing.2. When you hit a growth ceiling.3. When you are declining.

What does God want you to do?

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growth ceilings in churches budapest, hungary 11 october 2011

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