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In the first post I talked about church growth barriers and my observations. In the second post I shared an article from Dan Reiland about the subject. In this post I’ll share an article from Tim Keller about church growth barriers and size cultures. Tim Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.

Click here to download and read Tim’s article about church sizes and barriers to growth.

Rather than add observations about different church sizes like I did in the previous two posts, I’ll share things that stood out to me from Tim’s article in general.

• Tim states that two churches of completely different sizes may be more different than two similar-sized churches of different denominations. I agree.
• Every church has a size culture and often times we view other size cultures as bad. i.e., I can’t known everyone (large church). There aren’t enough ministries (smaller church).
• Our staff discussed this article (and the other one) and we believe attenders could benefit from reading it if they had issues with our church that were directly related to a size culture. Most people want the benefits of multiple church sizes and none of the weaknesses. For instance, I want to know the pastor personally but have great family ministry environments for my kids.
• “The single best way to increase attendance is to multiply Sunday services.” Very interesting quote. Our church had 3 services at one point, went back to 2 balanced ones that held as many or more, but hit a growth stall until we added a 3rd service again. Tim is probably on to something here.
• “The small church ‘gets away’ with amateurish quality because the key driving force is its intimacy, family-like warmth, and relationships.”
• “Up to the ’800 barrier’ churches can still get away with having a mediocre or poor small group system.”
• About the 800 barrier – “Staff members also must be increasingly gifted and able to not simply be ‘workers’ nor even ‘leaders of workers’ but ‘leaders of leaders.’ They must not need lots of mentoring themselves and must be able to attract and supervise others.”
• “The larger the church, the more staff roles shift from “doing the job with guidance” to “making it happen”.”
• “The larger the church, then, the more important to raise and train leaders from within.”
• “Schaller says that the key to the very large church culture is trust.”

What stood out to you?

In the first post I talked about church growth barriers and my observations as they relate to family ministry. In this post I’ll share an article from Dan Reiland along with family ministry observations. Dan Reiland is the Executive Pastor at 12Stone Church in Georgia with tons of experience in church leadership, coaching and consulting. I would highly recommend you subscribe to his blog if you’re in church leadership.

Click here to download and read Dan’s article called Breakthrough Catalysts about church growth barriers.

Dan identifies what he sees as the most important thing to break through each barrier. I’ll share my notes as they relate to family ministry.

• 0-200 – Pastor
  • Any church that’s having a regular gathering needs children’s ministry. Enlist a great volunteer to lead the ministry and the volunteers. Like the Pastor, the children’s ministry leader should be a people-person who attracts others and helps them connect.
• 200-400 – Organization
  • Children’s ministry should be divided into preschool and elementary, with systems and processes being created for how to pull off both each weekend. Creating and documenting systems and processes allows you to bring on volunteers and give them responsibility and authority.
  • Student ministry probably consists of small groups and probably does not need great organization but plans should be made to move to a more organized format.
• 400-800 – Staff
  • Children’s ministry and student ministry staff must recruit, organize and equip volunteers like Dan describes.
  • Volunteers should have larger leadership roles and staff should primarily pour into them.
  • Large group environments need to be well executed.
• 800-1200 – Vision
  • Families should see a unified family ministry with a clear vision of what is offered for families and how families can partner with the church.
  • Vision should be regularly cast to all volunteers. This is always important but as churches get to this size it is easy for vision to get lost or not communicated at every level.
• 1200-1800 – Communication
  • All communicators/teachers in every large group environment should be gifted and strong.
  • Communication with families about children’s ministry and student ministry will happen through other avenues and it should be reliable, consistent and clear.
  • Small group leaders should be the primary connection for parents as few of them would even know staff in a church this size.
• 1800-2400 – Staff
  • All family ministry staff should be leaders of leaders.
  • A good system of leadership structure and development will help churches identify future staff from the volunteer base where people are already leading in a big way.
• 2400-3000 – Execution
  • Staff have to work hard to ensure everyone is cared for and new folks can easily get connected despite the large number of attenders.
  • Systems have to be in place to be able to get feedback from all levels of the organization.

What do you think? How can Dan’s article help your church?

Church growth barriers are a commonly talked about issue in the local church and church leaders are always looking for how to overcome them. Usually however, we don’t start looking until we have hit one and plateaued. Here are some things to note about church growth barriers:

• They happen at typical church sizes but the exact sizes are different for every church.
• God grows the church and in my opinion, the barriers are natural times when our church needs to change in order for God to allow us to serve more people.
• A church may plateau or decline for other reasons. All we can do is be faithful with what we can do. Addressing every issue discussed about a specific barrier may not be the magic bullet. However, it certainly helps.

In the posts that follow I’ll share 2 great articles from Dan Reiland and Tim Keller about church growth barriers and relate them to family ministry. Before we jump into those, here are issues I see at different church sizes in regards to children’s ministry and student ministry for churches up to 2000+.

75-125

• If you have a worship service, a solid children’s ministry is key. Ensure the primary leader is not just in that role because nobody else would do it (or because they’re married to the church planter/pastor).
• Get a solid curriculum, like what Orange offers, to have great video components with a small group core. Provide that so leaders can focus on relationships and execution.
• Student ministry would be too much to handle here. A small group for students with 2 great leaders would be the most I would shoot for.

200-250

• Somebody on staff (part-time) leading children’s ministry would be typical here. They need to be get-it-done people who can also work through teams.
• Consider going to 2 services if you can create a critical mass feel at both. This allows children’s ministry volunteers to serve and attend and creates a clear opportunity for new volunteers to step in. If you’re in one service for too long, people may never want to split into 2 services and that insider focus could prevent church growth.
• Having 20-25 students would be typical here, and a great system would be a middle school group and a high school group, with events planned for both.

400

• Quality and organization really begin to matter here. Systems and processes should be outlined and documented for every ministry to help empower more volunteers.
• Assimilation begins to matter as well, as people can begin to get lost in the shuffle. Are you helping families get connected step by step?
• Student ministry could have a large group gathering here but don’t start it unless you have the critical mass, volunteers, and can do it well. Use a solid curriculum designed for it, like XP3.

800

• All staff must be great leaders to break through this barrier. The children’s minister or student minister who is a great talent and is good at connecting with children or students may not be the right person from here on out. They need to be an excellent recruiter, coach, and leader of volunteers. They’ll also need to be a leader of leaders, as they’ll need strong volunteer leaders on their team to make things happen.
• Communication must be regular, consistent and in multiple formats. Both volunteers and families need communication they can rely on.
• The student ministry large group gatherings should function at a high level with small groups and serving opportunities happening as well.

1200

• All large group gathering events must be done really well with the clear result of helping people take steps in some way.
• Key staff have to be leaders of leaders or the ministry they lead will be stuck.
• The family ministry should be unified with clear transitions between environments.
• Various events and groups should be in place to serve parents, marriages, and families in general.

2000+

• For a while now the church staff has been teams of teams. Team leaders must be excellent leaders and managers.
• Each ministry department with the family ministry operates like a church of 400 or 800 and the previous things apply.
• Children and student ministry teams have to be far more creative than before. Even when using a great curriculum, allowances have to be made when you have 400-500+ kids and 200+ students.
• If your church is multi-site you’re working with churches of multiple sizes and dealing with different barriers while keeping everything unified.

What barrier and issues are you facing?

What what you add to the list to help churches with a specific barrier?