Prescriptions for a Growing Church

In every church, the pastors and leaders say they desire their congregations to grow. Yet we struggle mightily with what appear to be some strong obstacles. We want our churches to grow, and yet 80 percent of our congregations are plateaued, slowly declining, or rapidly declining. Many factors contribute to this decline, and in any congregation we find a variety of facets that could be improved. But in many churches, perhaps the majority, we are not connecting with people outside our congregations. If we don’t figure out how to connect with new people and do ministry in the mission field around our buildings, the rest of the congregation’s ministry is all for naught. We will continue to lose ground and decline. It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day operation of running the church. We lose sight of our purpose, our priorities, and the very mission of the church — to build relationships with God, each other, and people we don’t know.