A quick disclaimer, the church I serve is currently not growing. I believe we have most of the ingredients to grow a healthy church, but we don’t have the exact recipe. And, here’s the thing, when it comes to church growth, you have to get everything right to even give yourself a chance.

Now it’s easy to sit back, look around, and make excuses for why it’s not happening. I’ve certainly been guilty of that. Making excuses is easy, and it doesn’t require me to do anything on my end.

But, if you want to grow a healthy church, you constantly have to evaluate what’s going right and what’s going wrong. And once you discover what’s going wrong, you have to do the hard work of figuring out how to fix it.

I’ll be honest, so far at my church, we haven’t figured out how to fix it. But we’re going to, it may just take us longer than we’d like.

So, what are the seven ingredients to healthy church growth? I’m glad you asked.

1. Leaders and Leadership Development – Passionate committed leaders are the starting point for healthy church growth. You better have some, and you better figure out how to develop them. If you can’t, your church is going to stay stuck and possibly decline. This is an area my church is currently working on. We certainly don’t have it figured out yet.
2. A Clear and Compelling Vision – In order to move forward, we need to have a vision to reach for. What are we trying to accomplish? What do we believe God wants us to become? If you don’t know where you’re going, then chances are you’re never going to get there.
3. A Healthy Culture – Culture can be hard to define, so let me just say it’s how the people in your church think, feel, and behave regarding your church. If you have a hard time getting people engaged in serving, it’s most likely a culture problem. If your people aren’t generous, most likely a culture problem. Culture affects everything. You help shape it through your vision and your leaders.
4. Generous Giving – Churches are most likely held back by two common barriers. One is leadership, and the other is money. That’s not good news for most small town rural churches. If you want to grow, you’re going to have to develop some generous people in your church.
5. A Pastor Who Can Lead & Communicate – Contrary to what most people think teaching on the weekend isn’t the most important part of a pastor’s job. Don’t get me wrong, it holds tremendous value, but the ability to build culture and lead the church are equally as important. The health of the church depends on it.
6. Leaders Who Can Disciple – Preaching can help introduce a person to Jesus, but discipleship happens in community. Every church needs leaders who are willing to invite and engage with people who need to take steps closer to Jesus. If you don’t have these leaders, chances are people aren’t growing, and people will eventually leave.
7. A Major Focus on Evangelism – We can’t forget that we’ve been called to reach those who don’t know Jesus. This should be a major factor in every decision we make as a church. Once we become more concerned with those we’re trying to keep than those we need to reach, then we’ve stopped growing as a church.

Looking back through this list, I can see multiple areas that my church needs to work on. How about you? What areas do you struggle in? Leave a comment, and let us know. And if I can help in some way, please send me a message through my contact page. I’d love to connect.