Ben Merold on Church Growth, Part 2: Church Growth Barriers

The tendency to become a “second commandment” church

• Small churches often think they are loving people well, but are often only loving each other.
• They are not loving the newcomers, and not also loving God with excellence in worship and teaching.

Failure to involve people in service

• Shepherding programs will always fail
• We do not lose involved people
• Unleash people to serve

Danger of a “set” program

• Assess the felt needs of your people and

No emphasis on “fellowship”

• Doesn’t have to be elaborately planned — should be spontaneous
• Getting people together and talking

Failure to staff the church

•   For a church to grow it must be overstaffed. Staff motivates volunteers to serve and start new ministries.
• The Church Growth Movement is unintentionally deceiving you on the subject of staff. (CGM says 1:100 ratio, higher with a large number of youth and children. That is 100 regular attenders — defined as someone who comes once a month.) We tend to take the 1:100 ratio and apply it to average attendance.
• Staff, properly hired, will pay for their own salary with 6-9 months. The exception is the youth minister, as it takes longer to attract the parents of teens.

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