Ten ways to grow your church in 2015

Ten ways to grow your church in 2015

Ten
ways to grow your church in 2015

We’re
all familiar with statistics that decry the declining UK Church, but many local
churches are bucking the trend. Justin Brierley investigates what has made the
difference for those whose churches are bursting at the seams.

Let’s
be clear: there is no miracle formula for growing your church. If the magic
ingredients could be bottled and sold, someone somewhere would be very rich by
now. Nor is numerical growth the only mark of success. Discipleship, local
engagement and longevity of commitment are also important. Megachurches in the
US account for more than half of all church attendance, but critics point out
that such congregations can often be a ‘mile wide and an inch deep’.

Equally,
popular new churches that see ‘transfer growth’ from other local congregations
(aka ‘sheep stealing’) could be accused of simply rearranging the deckchairs while
the Titanic sinks. Planted in ‘hard soil’, some churches may be doing well to
simply maintain their present numbers.

Even
churches growing at a healthy rate have no cause to be complacent.
Congregations that increase to a certain size and then 'plateau', failing to
break a glass ceiling of 200 to 300 attendees, are a frequent phenomenon.