Church Growth Principles

Church Growth Principles — Why Do We Want To Grow?

Church growth principles should provide the roadmap to a growing church, right? But have you ever stopped to ask the question, "Why do we want to grow?" God looks at the heart first and foremost so it only makes sense that we should start there as well. Let's back all the way up to the core motivation(s) behind pursuing church growth. If you are a mortal human being (and you're honest with yourself) your motives may not be completely pure. Can you identify any impure motives such as "bigger and better than.," "status," "accomplishment," "significance," "celebrity," etc.? It's only human to have such motives, but they can be dangerous when they go unchecked and become intermingled with the legitimate, pure motives. In many cases, we'll attempt to hide our impure motives behind false modesty or spiritual jargon. Awareness of these impure motives is key and you'll be far more successful at keeping them in check if you can honestly acknowledge them. Pride is a rampant termite that has slowly devoured many a ministry..

Church Growth Principles — Embracing a New Paradigm

Pursuing church health principles instead of church growth principles allows us to focus on the legitimate desire to see our church flourish without some of the impure motivations that might trip us up. As we pursue church health, we'll most likely experience church growth as a by product. This paradigm shift places the priority on keeping our church healthy and trusting God to do the rest. Church health falls easily within our stewardship roles as church leaders. Church growth is God's department and the attendance of the church will ultimately grow or decline in accordance with His will. Most would agree this makes intuitive sense and yet how many of us live each day as if both health and growth were up to us? How many of us are trying to grow our congregations through prescriptive principles and strategic planning? It can be very freeing to focus on what God has called us to do and let Him bring the people.

Church Growth Principles — Keys to Lasting Health and Vitality

If you're looking for church growth principles, here's one: church growth begins with church health, not the other way around. We see in nature that healthy things grow. This is by no means a new concept, but it's still true. But how do you know if you're a healthy church? What can you use as a measuring stick? Based on extensive field testing and research with thousands of churches and individuals, we've compiled these church health categories and use them regularly in helping churches measure and monitor their own church health:

• God's Empowering Presence
• God-Exalting Worship
• Spiritual Disciplines
• Learning and Growing in Community
• A Commitment to Loving and Caring Relationships
• Servant-Leadership Development
• An Outward Focus
• Wise Administration and Accountability
• Networking with the Body of Christ
• Stewardship and Generosity

Using the above categories for measurement, we encourage churches to lean toward the following attributes in pursuit of lasting health and vitality:

• Stay Humble. Humble people listen, humble churches listen. They are open to what God has to say to them and what other people have to say to them. The day we stop listening is the day pride begins to eat away at the framework of our ministry. The key to lasting health and vitality is to stay humble and grounded.
• Be Teachable. A life-long learner who is submitted to the will of God has nearly limitless potential. Are you open to learning new things? Do you acknowledge your mistakes or cast blame on others? Are you willing to defer to others who have specialized expertise?
• Exude Gratitude. Stop regularly to count your blessings. Express gratitude to God for all He has done and continues to do in the life of your church. Regularly show appreciation to those around you who are faithfully serving. People rarely complain of being excessively appreciated.
• Remain Open. Open hands. Open hearts. Open minds. Open people are pliable in God's hands. Are you open to feedback and change? Do you let people see your humanity and imperfections or do you lead from behind a rigid, got-it-all-together exterior? Are you open to other people's ideas or do all the good ideas have to originate with you?

Church Growth Principles - Measure and Monitor Your Church Health

We have developed a powerful web-driven assessment tool based on the above research-based characteristics of a healthy church. Our Church Health Assessment Tool (CHAT) was designed as a resource to the local church. CHAT does all the work but keeps you, the church leader, in control of the process. It's automated, easy to use, and allows the survey participants to engage anonymously from the convenience of home or office. You'll choose the open and close dates for your survey session and, on the close date, receive your CHAT report via your email inbox. This informative report will give you key insights into how your church measures up in each of these ten areas. No church is perfect - but if forward progress is the goal, then assessment is the first step toward discernment, planning, and action. We believe in playing to your strengths. God has raised-up your unique church, in your unique setting for a reason. Our goal is to help you get a baseline of objective information about your church's health to serve as the foundation for the discernment process regarding God's unique will for your church.

Click to download our Free Guide to Church Assessment.

The Church Health Assessment Tool (CHAT) offers the following unique combination of benefits:

• Allows you to monitor your church health in a measurable way
• Grounded in proven church health principles
• Web-driven
• Anonymous participation
• Responses of leadership and congregation dynamically compared
• Convenient and cost effective
• No tabulation work required
• Easy-to-read report delivered to your email inbox
• Follow up coaching is optional

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