Ways to Grow Church Congregations By Pastor John Wagner

Introduction• Currently serving Turning Point Community Church, Pastor

John Wagner entered the ministry in 1987 and has earned a well-deserved reputation for preaching powerful and instructive sermons. During his decades of service, Pastor John Wagner has honed his skills in organizational management, such as leadership development and growing church congregations.

Churches that struggle to grow usually experience difficulty because their members are focused on getting bigger, rather than solving what has got them stuck at their current size. Various experts have identified three elements vital to helping churches get unstuck and grow: leadership, fellowship, and responsibility.

Grow Church Congregations• Leadership and responsibility go hand in hand. In

particular, leadership includes the pastor as well as music directors, youth ministers, and other staff members who make day-to-day decisions concerning church activities and expenses. For a church to grow, its leadership team must grow in parallel so that they can handle the challenges that arise along with larger expectations. One approach is to appoint salaried vocational pastors in addition to volunteers and to assign them groups, events, and activities within their purview.

Conclusion• Leaders cannot and should not be responsible for

all church functions. Encourage the congregation to form fellowship groups such as Bible study classes, fellowship groups, and mission teams. Give them the autonomy to set up their own schedules and plan their own events, so long as they do not stretch the resources of the church. For example, mission groups will need to coordinate with church leaders to plan a trip overseas, while founders of a Bible study group can choose their own dates, times, and locations to meet.