Mark's Blog

The Pew Forum recently surveyed the changing religious scene in America, and although not highlighted, one of the obvious conclusions from the report is that most religious decisions, including conversion, abandonment, and switching, are made before a person’s 24^th birthday.  (http://pewforum.org/Faith-in-Flux.aspx)

My own experience is the same. Other workers in Germany often teased our mission team about not having planted a church, just a youth group! (Notice the just in that sentence!) We did have mostly children, university students, and young working adults.  But ten years after we began, we had a church of young marrieds, which after another few years was a church of young families. The church had matured into a vibrant community of faith.

Great churches focus evangelistic efforts on young people! Most churches focus on 30-50 year olds and then wonder why they don’t grow. Most people have already made their religious decisions and very few—comparatively—are in a searching mode any longer.  Here are my suggestions for focusing on young people:

1. Every new church plant should be near a university and should include a campus ministry as one of its main thrusts. I would include a particular outreach to international students on that campus.
2. Churches should plan events like camps, weekends, concerts, for highschoolers from the community, not just church kids (but these are great for church kids too!) These should have priority over gospel meetings, lectureships, and potlucks for adults.
3. Worship services do not have to be completely focused on youth, but if your services are exclusively for the 50 year olds, then that is who you will attract (Not!).  What can you do for the teens/college-aged youth in your service?
4. Youth mission trips should be a high priority for your church, and you should take non-Christian youth with you! There is no better evangelism than an unbeliever seeing a believer in action.
5. Special Bible studies for youth—and not just a Sunday school class—are essential. Unaffiliated youth are not going to get up and come to Sunday school, but they might meet you at Starbucks on Thursday afternoon after school for a small group study.
6. The minister and church leaders other than a youth minister MUST be involved with this outreach. Especially 18-24 year-olds want to be considered full members, fully adult, but in some ways, they don’t even understand what that means yet. Mentoring groups are great for this age group.
7. Church budgets should reflect the emphasis on seeking young people.

I’m sure many of you have other ideas which I would love to see you share. Remember, I’m not talking about maintaining the church kids—although that will be a byproduct—but rather, reaching out to younger people during their age of decision.  If I were going to the mission field now, I would focus 80% of my time and energy on people 25 years old or less.

Question: What portion of your church’s time, resources, and energy are focused on evangelistic outreach to young people?

As a young missionary, I remember (with embarrassment now) my own disappointment the first time I visited a mission church in Paris and realized that although there were 40-50 people in their worship service, virtually none of them were Parisians, only a handful were even French, and the rest were internationals from the French-speaking world.

Let’s Start Talking, which Sherrylee and I direct, works with many Japanese churches, who breathe the air of a culture with strong tendencies toward uniformity, conformity, and all things Japanese. Some Japanese leaders are very hesitant to invite foreign Christians to work beside them and reticent to think of the international communities in their city as a mission field. They want national churches—churches that look like them. I have seen the same prejudice (and I use this word consciously, but not pejoratively) on every continent, including North America.  Such churches rarely thrive.  Great churches overcome prejudices and present the Gospel to all people whom God brings into their lives.

1. 1. Great churches see their community as it is today, not as it was! From the US 2000 Census data:  Between 1990 and 2000I the foreign-born population increased by 57 percent, from 19.8 million to 31.1 million, compared with an increase of 9.3 percent for the native population and 13 percent for the total U.S. population.  A small Texas city has a colony of Armenian Turks. A Michigan suburb is home to thousands of Albanians. Chinese residents are the second largest number of foreign-born population after Hispanics.  The neighborhood has changed!  The world has come to our doorstep. Has the church body changed with it?
2. 2. Great churches find strength in diversity. The church in Paris that reaches out to Africans and uses them as well as other Internationals in church leadership has created “growing edges” for greater outreach and service. Instead of serving one community, this church now serves at least three—and sends the message of “welcome” to even more.
3. 3. Great churches find resources in diversity. No longer (if it ever was) is the U.S. church the headwater for all missional gifts; African churches, Korean churches, Brazilian churches, yes, Chinese churches are sending resources and people out throughout the world with power, vision, and the gospel. These precious resources are used by great churches—regardless of nation of origin.

I’m just pretty sure that the greatest churches will reflect “the glory and honor of the nations” which the Apostle John saw in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21).

Questions:  Does your church intentionally seek to reflect “the glory and honor of the nations?” How?

Unfortunately, many of the phrases, like multiplying churches, discipling churches, or change agents, that best describe great, growing churches have fallen into disrepute in many church circles. On the other hand, some phrases, like conservative churches or mainstream churches, are very comfortable descriptions, but often do not describe great, growing churches.  Can we lay aside all the labels for a moment and just talk about what it takes to have great, growing churches?

In previous blogs, I have given you four observations about great, growing churches:

#1 – Christ owns the church, not anyone else.

#2 – Prayerful vision and strategy are essential.

#3 – Growing churches is a process that takes time.

#4 – Groups working together are more effective than individuals working alone.

Today I offer you the observation that great, growing churches are constantly creating growing edges. Growing edgesfor churches means new doors and new windows for new people.

New church plants have an immediately recognizable vigor and an attractive freshness that attract new people. A new church plant is a growing edge. But even new church plants do not remain new (nor fresh or attractive), so what does a church do that is no longer new in order to re-newitself?

1. Great churches create new doors! Doors are entrances into your congregation. Most churches rely on Sunday services, midweek Bible study, ladies class, and a handful of special events each year (special series, VBS) to serve as doors. These are probably the same doors that came with the original building, if you know what I mean.  Many mission churches have the same doors as their American counterparts, which means that they stop growing at about 35-50 people. They only have doors for that many people.  Growing churches, on the other hand, think constantlyabout new doors! It might be a new service, a new time, a new activity, a new site, a new church plant, a new ministry, a new outreach, a new service in the community….but whatever it is, it will be new ( for a while) and it will invite new people into your renewed church.

2. Great churches build new windows! Most people want to look before they buy. How can someone who knows nothing about your church and who will not visit you (because you are a total stranger to them!) find out about you? Churches need lots of windows for people to look in on them.  You don’t need just one window that looks at your Sunday service (like a broadcast of a Sunday service), you need lots of windows for lots of people. What about your website? Is it for “lookers” or is it for members/visitors? Where can the community see you? Doing what? How will they know you are Christians and not just a humanitarian organization? Are you ever in the local newspaper? Do you offer (not wait for requests) your building to your community? The more windows you have, the more people will be able to see who you are—and the better you will become because you know the world is watching!

3. Great churches are always meeting new people! While this seems integral to the previous two points, I’d say many older churches basically reach a point where they say, “Everybody knows us.” Great, growing churches intentionally meet new people. This begins with church leadership: ministers, staff, pastors/elders.  If these leaders find all of their energy consumed by current members and their needs, they may have a good church, but not a great, growing church.

New people looking in new windows, then walking through new doors—the vigor in such a church attracts new people—looking in new windows, then walking through new doors—the vigor in such a church . . . and the multiplying begins!

Perhaps the fastest growing work in western Europe since the mid-fifties was a congregation that grew to 150+ in about seven years time—three times as large as most churches of Christ in Europe! LST worked with that church for several years, so after thinking about why this work was so successful, I came to the conclusion that the significant difference was that it was a large team effort!  Yes, there was a main missionary family (Americans), but they had recruited two other families (non-Americans) for the core team, AND  they always had 10-15 mission interns with 1-2 year commitment, AND THEN they invited short-term mission groups for 2-6 week stints throughout the year.  The total effort then was about 20-25 team members working all of the time and 5-20 additional workers for special efforts.  In our forty-year relationship with the work in Europe, I have never seen this much manpower focused in any one location.

Quite the contrary. Sherrylee and I were part of a three-family team to Germany in the 70s. Practically from the moment we arrived, other congregations and other workers begged us to split up and not hoard so many workers in just one place. Between external pressures and internal conflict, most mission teams do not make it to a fifth-year anniversary intact.

The team approach to missions in South America is exemplary with great encouragement from Continent of Great Cities. I know of a small handful of Asian churches that are the result of great team efforts, but there may be more.  The principle in North American churches looks different, but is, in fact, the same.

What About US churches?

Vibrant, growing churches among us do have a visionary leader, but one of the primary characteristics of a strong leader, I believe, is the ability to build a great team of co-workers. The current debate about whether congregations are better off staff driven or elder driven may be slightly out of focus. I would suggest that churches grow that are team driven, and that team are best composed of those in the congregation with the gift of leadership (Romans 12:8) The title that one wears, whether it be minister or elder does not bestow the gift of leadership. Ministers and staff may function as employees, elders may function as a board of directors, but a team of leaders, each exercising his/her own gifts and who can resist the temptation to wish they had other people’s gifts—or even worse, ALL the gifts—this team is a real example of the body of Christ functioning as it should.

Jesus chose twelve and traveled with many more; Paul always traveled with an entourage; Moses wisely gave up his role as sole judge and shared it with many. Is your church led by a team?

 ⁹ Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:

 ¹⁰ If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!

 ¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?

 ¹² Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

                                    Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

A church in Eastern Europe invited a campaign group of American Christians to come for about a week. For the last weekend of that effort, the campaign group’s schedule predicted simply “Baptisms.”  As was expected, over 1000 people were baptized that weekend with great celebration. Less than a year later, however, not one of those people was attending that church. Without judging what God did in the hearts of the baptized, we can say for sure that this growth strategy for the local church was not effective.

Another foreign church plant that we have worked with had virtually no growth for the first ten years! But the next ten years have seen an abundant harvest.  I would like to suggest that great churches understand two principles that help them develop strategies for real growth.

1.      Great churches understand that harvest is the result of a process that is particular and cannot be abbreviated.   Notice in this generic website explanation of how to achieve “successful growth” of seeds, what seem to be God’s laws about growth, then apply them to your efforts:

A seed is an embryo plant and contains within itself virtually all the materials and energy to start off a new plant. To get the most from one’s seeds it is needful to understand a little about their needs, so that just the right conditions can be given for successful growth.

• One of the most usual causes of failures with seed is sowing too deeply. . . .
•  Another common cause is watering. Seeds need a supply of moisture and air in the soil around them. Keeping the soil too wet drives out the air and the seed quickly rots, whereas insufficient water causes the tender seedling to dry out and die. . . . .
• Most seeds will of course only germinate between certain temperatures. Too low and the seed takes up water but cannot germinate and therefore rots, too high and growth within the seed is prevented.  . . . .
• Some perennials and tree and shrub seeds can be very slow and erratic in germination. This may sometimes be due to seed dormancy, a condition which prevents the seed from germinating even when it is perfectly healthy and all conditions for germination are at optimum. The natural method is to sow the seeds out of doors somewhere where they will be sheltered from extremes of climate, predators, etc. and leave them until they emerge, which may be two or three seasons later.

2.     Great churches have a strategy for each stage of development. The process begins with ground preparation and seed planting. After germination (length varies), the young plants must be cultivated and protected. Finally, the time—the right time–for harvest arrives.  Churches that hurriedly skip from one stage to the next—sometimes even omitting the more time-consuming steps—if they have any results at all, often  produce genetically weak Christians.

Two Questions:

1. What are the implications for mission philosophies that set specific timetables for new church plants to mature?
2. What are your church’s specific strategies for each stage of development in the people you hope to harvest for the Lord?

 Next:  #4  Great churches are the result of group efforts, not individual efforts.

We visited a long-established congregation in Europe a few years ago to talk about future LST projects there. It was a wonderful group of people—around 40—but they were located in an area of town that was widely known to be dangerous because of gang violence and drug trafficking.  These Christians were moderately affluent, drove to their building from other parts of the city, and were not prepared to reach out into their neighborhood. Their vision was for people like themselves and their strategies for the occasional public events were directed to people like themselves—who would likely never come to their part of town for any reason. For quite obvious reasons, this was not a growing church, but one that had settled into a comfortable size and a resignation with things as they were.

So why were they located there and why didn’t they move?  The answers were simple: they had been at the current location a long time and had invested heavily to make their facility very nice, and it would cost too much to move out of this district, so they accepted their circumstances asfait accompli. 

Another European church that LST has worked with over the years started from the desire of one national family to plant a church in their city. Before they even had a meeting place, they hosted an LST team with outreach to their entire city of several hundred thousand. Their first meeting place was quite adequate for perhaps fifty people, but after only a few years and long before they reached fifty, they moved to a larger more central facility, which itself was replaced a few years later by another larger, better situated facility. This group of Christians never outgrew their facility, but moved because they intended to outgrow their facility.

Great churches expect to grow, not just to assemble. They have a “be-fruitful-and-multiply” Vision and they make their decisions and plans (strategies) based on a trust in God’s promise that His Word will not return empty-handed. The fields they are given to work may be difficult—as is the case in Europe in general—but what God states in the familiar Isaiah 55 passage is, “my word…will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Great churches seek the vision of God in prayer, then expect and plan accordingly, assuming that God is both truthful and faithful.  Great churches seek both their goals and strategy in what God can do, not what they themselves can accomplish.

Question: Not what are the wishes, rather what are the expectations of your congregaton?

Next: Observations on Great Churches #3: Process Precedes Growth