Good Ideas for the Growing Church
10 Ideas to Inspire You
Photo by Pixabay. Used by permission.
Worshipping New Year’s Day the church had wonderful worship around the social hall as we ate a delicious breakfast. I enjoyed something different. Way to go, Church!
Keep reading for 10 Good Ideas for the Growing Church. I’ve seen these ideas work to build a stronger AND kinder, more welcoming, church. The ideas are not in order or importance as every church is different.
Being a Friendly Church
1. Name Tags
Choose new name tags and order them for the entire worshipping body. Make the print on the first name easily read. Pay a bit more for the kind that is held in place by a magnet.1 Name tags help visitors to feel calmer. Name tags help worshippers know who is a part of the congregation as they have name tags.
2. Try Not to Remind People that They are New
Remove the following words from all announcements (printed and spoken):
“Annual”
“As you know”
“See So & So to sign up” - Assumes I will remember who they are
“As usual”
“As we know (insert Bible reference here)2
“Like last year…”
3. Focus on Kindness
Worshippers will appreciate your church more if people are kind and welcoming. Many churches spend too much time worrying about membership growth (or decline). The focus seems to be always on JOINING.
Why? If people are coming to classes, going to worship, doing service, or anything else with the life of your church, isn’t this being the Church? One church has membership as a 3-year commitment so people have the opportunity to decide if this is a place they want to engage the Holy.
Being a Faithful Church
4. Follow Jesus Christ
Jesus says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” Matthew 28:19-20.
A thriving Christian church focuses its energy on what Jesus calls them to do in their community and beyond. The focus isn’t on institutional survival. The focus is on new people, new ideas, new ways to follow. Worship is the center, but not the only definition of being Christian.
5. Mission, CE, Music Matter
Jesus calls churches to find their purpose. Of the 8 churches I’ve served here are some of their callings:
To do mission projects each month (churches of 81; 280; and 1,800 people)
To involve everyone in Christian Education (CE) (churches of 640; 1,200)
To have exciting and interesting worship (240; 280; 640; 1,800)
To engage and be intentional about children (81; 280; 1,200)
The size of the church membership doesn’t matter. Jesus calls each church to their purpose. All churches are NOT called to the same purposes at the same time.
6. Good Music is Wonderful, Part A
A music director announced in a staff meeting that he wanted this church to have the best Baroque music ministry of any other in the city of Detroit. They did. People who loved Baroque music and different classical styles were nourished.3
Worship Doubled
In 2000, the Session of a different church heard the call of God to build a worship service where “my grandchildren will want to be there.”4 At a July Session meeting, the pastors recommended a January 1 launch, the Session said this is God's will for this church, launch in September. The first service had 150 people in a room that sat 100.
Within 3 years the church went from worshipping 250 to worshipping 450 in two growing services: Joyful, Traditional Worship at 9 a.m., and Modern Worship at 11:15 a.m.
Photo by Aramis Cartam. Used by permission.
7. Good Music is Wonderful, Part B
The Big Church (1,800) called a new music director. Within four years the choir grew from 30-40 people to 80 strong. They sang engaging pieces by Handel, Bach, (etc.) as well as contemporary pieces from the past 20 years written for traditional worship.
The joy of the choir energized the congregation. The Music Director taught that the choir’s responsibility was to make congregational singing better. Hymns were conducted so the congregation knew when to come in and hold notes.
And the congregation learned to sing together making Sunday morning better.
Building the Best Staff
8. Mix the Experience Level of your Staff
Growing churches with healthy, happy staffs are a mixture of people with a lot of experience, people new to their positions, and people in between. Often churches head to one or the other: they keep the same people forever, or they only hire inexperienced people as a misguided understanding that this is what a “teaching church” does.
Seek to have a staff of people who are open to new ideas, creative people, and trying things for the first time. If we aren’t ever failing, we aren’t growing.
9. Educate Staff on Church Budgets
Lay leaders who understand how stewardship, giving patterns, and church budgets work should do annual education sessions with the staff. Instead, churches often rely on a finance Gatekeeper who questions every expense as if they are in charge of how the money is used.
Church boards set a budget. Staff and committees spend the money as it has been allocated to them. Finance Gatekeepers are not necessary. Help people understand how the money flows (more in December, less in July) and how spending goes (big bills in October for curriculum, November for mission checks).
10. Appreciate your Staff
Here are some ways the church has shown its appreciation:
The Head of Staff required me NOT to come in on Monday and Tuesday following all week-long Youth Ministry trips. This was not counted as vacation or sick days.
A church member brought a Derby (chocolate, pecan) pie over each May for the Kentucky Derby (the town could see Kentucky across the Ohio River).
The Head of Staff would compliment my best sermons in staff meetings or from the pulpit the following week.
The Head of Staff would swing by the different ministries and complement the staff and lay leaders while events or meetings were happening.
The Head of Staff/Associate Pastor would send administrative staff home on Christmas Eve when the work was done; on that perfect May day after lunch; when the snow storm was imminent.
The Session gave us a restaurant gift card and a night of free babysitting.
In Summary
Thanks for reading these 10 Good Ideas. I bet you have some more. Put them in the comments or send them to me for inclusion on the next list. Credit will be shared.
In Christ,
Jim Monnett
They won’t damage clothes and are more likely to be worn. They also don’t look messy. One church has cubicles with a family/individual picture that opens for a slot to keep the name tags.
Teaching a confirmation class a girl asked “What is Bethlehem?” Not everyone knows the Bible stories.
I was withering.
A grandmother, who gave $5,000 to the new service said, I will worship at the traditional 9:30 with my type of worship but at 11:15 a.m. I will sit with my grandchildren and be filled with love as they worship their way.