Church growth.
Posted by Scatterfingers , Wednesday, June 01, 2005 6/01/2005 05:18:00 AM
Recently on the Rumor Forum, an old hand by the name of Dano had this to say:
But yes Steve, I do[think there's a direct causal relationship between what a church does and the numbers it gets]. Compare what my church (about 2000 a week) does, to what another church in town (about 100 a week) does. The difference is actually very little to do with content. The difference is the environment which is attractive vs. one that is not so much. Same (infact, identical) message in both places, but more people hear it in one than the other.I don't completely agree with this, not on all levels, but there's an element of truth here I think. I maintain that Christianity is an attractive religion, and there's no reason not to emphasize that fact. I could list things that make it so, but I won't for lack of time, but it is, moreso than a lot of other religions. The problem comes of course when people decide to emphasize the wrong things about the church: buildings, sound systems, superstar pastors, and worship teams that sound like U2. It becomes more a deal of numbers, and less a deal of genuine Christianity.
p.s. it's the gospel of christ (the holy spirit) that's suposed to be offensive. Not the elitist and selfish attitudes of christians in "their" church.
Another problem is the reverse, something my circles do a lot: not worrying about numbers enough. If you never have converts coming in the door, you have a problem. If you never have visitors from the community, you have a problem. If the culture shock of walking through the doors of your church is that great, it's time to change something. Not always sure what that something is, but something for crying out loud. And of course there will always be those who fear a pendulum swing the other way - but really, people. Wisdom isn't the realm of ages past; we can change now just as well as other eras, the legacy of our CRC and GKN disasters not forgotten, but gleaned from.
