People Spots
Online
Produced by James W.
Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants
Provided as a service by New Life Ministries
Requirements for Serious Expansion:
New Small Groups, Worship Services, and Churches
by James W. Moss, Sr.
For those of you who have known me for a long time, this theme sounds like a broken record. But I continue on this theme for good reason: growing churches continually add new groups, new worship services, and new congregations.
New small groups
Pastor Ron Smith at Faith Church comes to me and says, “We have hit a plateau. Why do you think that has happened?” My first question is always, “Tell me about the last new adult small group Faith has added.” Ron responds, “Our last new adult group was three years ago.” I think you have your answer. Serious expansion in the attendance of a church requires the addition of new adult small groups.
There are five basic kinds of small groups: 1) Sunday school classes, 2) care groups, 3) support groups, 4) task groups, and 5) athletic teams. Virtually any kind of group you can name would fit into one of these five broad categories. I believe a healthy church will have all five kinds of groups.
Pastor George Harris is ecstatic. The attendance at the Church on the Rock grew by 27 a Sunday last year. That is fantastic but certainly not a surprise. The Church on the Rock added a new adult Sunday school class, a new adult choir, a new women’s prayer group, and a new youth group. However, for the expansion to continue, other new groups have to be formed and sustained or George will be posing the same question as Ron in a year or two.
Serious expansion of worship attendance requires the formation and sustaining of new small groups. It is difficult to regularly add new people to old small groups. A small group that has existed for more than two years is an old small group. A primary characteristic of good long-term groups will be resistance to the arrival of new people. That is neither right nor wrong. It just is. Pastor Mary George comes to me and says, “We had a growth of 17 in worship this year and didn’t form any new adult groups.” I respond, “Congratulations. However, keeping that growth without the addition of new groups will be a challenge.” A local church that is adding more small groups than it closes will tend to be growing. A local church that is closing more small groups than it opens will tend to be declining.
New worship services
Serious expansion requires the addition of new worship services. I work for the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God. When I came on staff in 1977, there was only one church in our conference with two morning worship service. Now about 35 of our churches have two morning worship services. This is a significant reason why those churches in existence in 1977 have done so well in the intervening years. Two of our churches have three Sunday morning services.
There are several reasons two Sunday morning services make sense. One is simply space. The annual average worship attendance will not tend to rise above 80% of the comfortable seating capacity of a sanctuary. What is a comfortable seat? I measure seating capacity based on 25 inches of pew space. A church that can comfortably seat 100 in worship will have difficulty sustaining an average attendance above 80.
But there is a catch: resistance to growth arrives much earlier than that. Resistance pressure begins to build as early as when the average attendance reaches 57% of the comfortable capacity of the sanctuary. From that point on it takes more and more effort for diminishing returns. Pastor Harry Franklin was extremely frustrated. The church had grown significantly. But then they hit a stone wall. The last four years had been plateaued. I ran some numbers and then looked at him and said, “What are you frustrated about? You have done quality ministry. Obviously good things are happening. But your church is maxed out in one service in this facility. You either have to accept that or make some adjustments.
Other reasons for two services included adding to a variety of time frames. Sundays have become complicated. If the only service you have is 10:45, and I go to work at 10:00, you have eliminated me. More times make worship available to more people. Another is to provide a different style of worship. Not everyone has the same taste in worship. Remember, no single style has a corner on worship. Nearly every church I know that went from one service to two has grown. Nearly every church I know that went from two services to one has declined. In fact, the least expensive place to start a new church is in the facilities we already own.
New congregations
For a local conference or district, the addition of new churches is critical to the expansion of the body. Since 1974, our conference has added a net of 19 new churches, and that is the principle reason for a growth in excess of 1,800 in average worship attendance. A local conference that is adding more churches than it closes will tend to be growing. A local conference that is closing more churches than it opens will tend to be declining.
New small groups, new worship services, and new churches are excellent tools of evangelism and expansion.
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June 20, 2002. Volume 5, Issue 7. People Spots Online is prepared by James W. Moss, Sr., and Church Consultants. It is provided as a service by New Life Ministries, www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org. Articles may be duplicated and reproduced in any way with proper credit. A new article is produced about every two weeks. To be added to a list to receive these messages directly by e-mail, send a request to churchconsultants@yahoo.com.