Growing Strategies...

by Tony Morgan of Granger Community Church

Four Myths About Growing Churches

As a pastor, I’ve noticed that people tend to get vocal when the topic of church growth comes up. Everybody has an opinion about Saddleback, Willow Creek and other U.S. churches breaking the norm to experience exponential growth. But the majority of folks, judging from what I’ve heard, don’t really have the facts straights about growing churches. To clear up the confusion, I decided to debunk some of the most popular myths about growing churches with the help of NewSpring Church in Anderson, S.C., one of Outreach magazine's 2006 “100 Fastest-Growing U.S. Churches.” And growing they are: In the last 12 months, NewSpring’s weekend attendancehas jumped from 4,000 to more than 8,000 people. So I packed my bags and headed to NewSpring for an up close look at the DNA of a truly growing church.

During my visit, I spent quite a bit of time with Perry Noble, NewSpring's senior pastor, and his leadership team. Their story and the amazing work God’s doing there easily disprove four of the biggest myths about growing churches:

Myth #1: You have to be in a big community to have a big church. NewSpring is located in a town of 25,000 people, and only 175,000 live in the entire county. Every weekend, they're reaching one out of every 22 peopleliving in their county. That's a staggering percentage of peoplewho arehearing the truth of Christ.

Myth #2: You have to water down God's Word to reach a lot of people. Perry doesn't water down anything. He's probably the most "in your face" communicator I've ever heard. During my visit, Perry hit tough issues like sex before marriage, cohabitation and pornography—in one message! And on the flip side, he taught about sanctification. Moreover, he used Scripture to back up every point of his message.

Myth #3: You need a big personality to grow a large church. NewSpring reminded me that growth happens when a team of people commits to fulfilling a mission from God. NewSpring’s team is incredibly talented and committed to helping people take their next steps toward Christ. And 1,400 attendees volunteer their time and gifts to reach people for Jesus. God isn't working through one person at NewSpring—He's working through about 1,500 people to reach the community.

Myth #4: You have to wait for growth because it’s incremental. Many times that’s the case in ministry. But in some instances, the Holy Spirit moves through a congregation, and revival happens in a community. When God moves and the church cooperates with His agenda, amazing things can happen. For example, NewSpring is twice the size it was a year ago! God is obviously spurring extreme growth in Anderson, S.C., and He may also want to supernaturally break growth barriers in your church.

Tony Morgan (TonyMorganLive.com) is a pastor serving on the senior management team at Granger Community Church near South Bend, Ind. Tony has co-authored three books with Tim Stevens including their latest project—Simply Strategic Growth (Group Publishing, 2005). Visit WiredChurches.com to learn more about the training and resources Granger provides to equip growing churches.

-Outreach magazine, "Web Exclusives," January/February 2007

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