6 Ways to Be a Growing Church
Is Jesus at Your Center?
People Join the Church
The 2024 Annual Report shows the church gained 9 new members this past year.
Let’s sit in that for a moment. Let it sink in. Nine people said “Yes” to Jesus.
Three were confirmation youth so some would say they don’t count - showing another reason they don’t get it. Nine people stood up to say this is where they want to live their Christian life.
What Makes This Church Different?
The key difference is the focus of the church people. The focus is Jesus. They want to make Jesus the center of their lives. The church reflects this priority.
1. Jesus is the Center
Lots of churches talk about their focus on Jesus. Their worship often does have Jesus at the center which is so important. But when you go to a committee meeting so many words are said without anyone talking about Jesus. Jesus is not at the center of the meeting.
At this church, Jesus is at the center. On any random 2-weeks this church:
Has 80% membership attendance at Sunday worship
60% of the church goes to and engages with Jesus at a Homegroup
30% of the Sunday worship attendance shows up for Prayer Meeting
Giving is higher than expenses
2. Worship Engages the Heart and the Head
Sunday morning people come as they choose to worship at 11:30 am. Lay people do everything except preach and lead the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The cold opening has a member or friend1 tell a story of what Jesus is doing in their lives this week, or how they saw God at work in the world.
The praise music led by a live volunteer band elevates worship. It is unpolished but quality. Sometimes the hair on your arms raises as people feel the Holy Spirit show up.
This past Sunday the Worship Leader told me that they are doing four songs again this week, if I didn’t mind. He feels that God wants more music in worship. I laughed2 and told him to go for it.
Picture by James Monnett. Used by Permission.
3. The Preaching Engages Doubters to the 400 Levels
A good sermon should work on people no matter where they are on the faith continuum from non-believers to doubters to 100 Level 6th graders and new believers to 200 Level spouses who do not read the Bible to the 300 and 400 Level Christians Majoring in the faith. So many sermons only seem to feed the stakeholders of the church (people who pay the salary).
Not every sermon can do this but enough should that people drive home with something to chew on. Conversations about their faith flow out of a solid sermon that teaches about Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, the Faith Walk, or the Church in the World (mission, outreach, evangelism, etc.).
4. Homegroups Build Community
The church offers 4 homegroups based on where you live and one based on affinity - 23-35 years old. The Homegroups meet twice a month. People host at their homes or at the church offering a light meal and a study. Sometimes all the groups use one curriculum or book study and other times they are doing different studies. Recent offerings include:
The Parables of the Gospels
Jim Burn’s book “Doing Life with Your Adult Children”
The Gospel of John
Spiritual Gifts
5. The Young Adult Group Strengthens the Walk
Meeting every Wednesday in the church Social Hall, 6-10 young adults gather for a take-out dinner, a study, and time for prayer together. Some weeks they begin the study time with a review and reflection on the past week’s Sunday sermon.
In early January the church rented an AirBnB for 7 young adults to stay together in Lousiville at the Cross Con24 conference. Worshipping with 15,000 other young adults and learning about missions has energized them. They are fired up for Jesus.
6. The Church Tries New Ideas
Growing churches try new ideas. Stuck churches have all the reasons why they can’t try a new idea. This past year we tried:
A German Advent carol and Christmas story time with cookies and mulled wine/hot cocoa on a family’s driveway around a metal fire pit. It was cold and wonderful.
A women’s retreat to talk about Jesus together with an outside facilitator.
An all-church visit to the Holocaust Center of Detroit.
A 5-church monthly cooperative youth group.
In Conclusion
An old joke floats around that the way to tell the difference between the Baptists and the Presbyterians is that at coffee hour the Baptists talk about their faith and the Presbyterians their computers. Growing churches keep Jesus at the center of their communal life.
The key may be to stop focusing our energy on how we are struggling as a church and try to be the best Jesus-centered church we can be.
Members are people who have joined the church. Friends are people not ready yet. Both can lead worship and talk about their faith, their doubts, their worries, their hopes, and more.
I laughed - not like Abraham and Sarah laughed at the angel who said they would have a child in their late age, but because a year before the worship elder and I had encouraged more music. The band thought it would be too much. Now they want it. This is God’s time.