Acts20.com

I’ve been blessed over the years to help pastors who are undergoing revitalization efforts. Most churches (excluding the mega churches which are outliers ) are up against some attendance barrier. At a previous assignment, I fought the 200 barrier. The church would get up to 200, then it would plateau, decline a little, then get back up to 200 and then the cycle would repeat. I left that church nearly 20 years ago, and I believe it’s still around 200 in its attendance. I learned a valuable piece of wisdom having experienced that.

I led our Congregation in prayer just the other night.We told the Lord we were willing to be inconvenienced by revival and an influx of new converts.Growth is messy and places a strain on leadership to make a place for new people.I say let's have it anyway Charles A. HutchinsSenior Pastor SPWCCongregational Church of Godwww.spwc.church

I’m not a pastor and longer, but I recently had this very discussion with my pastor. The consensus was that were we to experience a sudden great growth spurt, we could not handle it. The chief reason being we simply don’t have the facilities for it. Lack of classrooms is our 1 concern, coupled with inadequate parking. We are basically landlocked so our only available option would be to tear the roof off and build up. Real estate prices here are off the charts and land is not readily available anyway “Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”

Coming out of Easter we ran over 1,000 for a few months in a row - before hitting summer. The summer has taken a toll, and we'll see where we REALLY are in the fall. However, I have really realized how big the shift needs to be at these times. The mental picture I have for it parallels human existence. Walking around worked for a long time...even riding horseback or in a wagon worked fine - until we wanted to cross an ocean. When we wanted to cross an ocean (or survive the flood) we needed an entirely new concept. The same can be said for our desire to fly: a bigger or faster boat wasn't going to make us fly. In order to see new things and go places we've never gone, we have to be willing to build something unlike anything we've built before. That doesn't mean we throw away our existing knowledge, but it may mean tearing some things down to build something better.

Looking from the outside across the country I see those that were ready for growth and those that were sure it was coming and convinced leadership (local, state and national) that they were ready. Being ready meant to them going in debt millions. Then the pastor burned out under the pressure, left and the church started a downward spiral leaving super debt.I have always felt a building fund should be started immediately upon a church being paid off. I am a firm believer in debt free living in church and personally.Never lose sight of the next step. But as was mentioned someone needs to learn to close the back door while keeping the vision alive of MORE souls for the harvest.Since I never succeeded, this is all rhetoric and hind sight. My biggest problem, I was one of those who THOUGHT I was CALLED!So I was a wreck waiting to happen anyway!DaSheik has made a good point of the plateau also. The COG is full of those churches on a plateau with honest good hard working pastors. Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/