Is there a problem here?...

The problem with the most Churches today is they expend a majority of their resources keeping their existing congregation entertained. They’ve made the relationship with God into just another thing to do. Week in and out, you go and get your religon-card punched and call yourself faithful. Dare I say it; Churches are more concerned with keeping their existing congregation coming to Church rather than spreading the Good News. I find this to be an incredible contradiction to the very foundation of our Faith. If the goal is to grow and to spread the Gospel, then to maintain headcount by preventing attrition is in contradiction to that goal. Here’s the Truth, the message will keep them faithful if it’s truly faith your are providing.

Even in my own professional arena we hit our current constituency with approximately 90% of our own messaging. That leaves roughly 10% of the resources left to grow constituency. However, our goal is to grow constituency by adding 2 million more names. Anyone else see the flaw?

Reverse that number and concentrate instead on growth. Get out into the community and provide interactive services to at risk or people in need. Expose all people to the Church by providing for the needy, offering quality family entertainment, and most of all, live as an example of Christ. Use popular media to promote the great things you are doing, and people will begin to associate what you are with positive feelings. Those feelings should grow into a curiosity to find out “why are these Christians so happy all of the time, how can they accomplish so much good in this world?” Here are some ideas I came up with on the fly:

Forget having the latest Christian band to play for your congregation; spend that money on a ‘free’ ski bus to send a group of folks up the mountain (seriously, you’d have a captive audience to witness to. Money well spent if you ask me).

Cancel that world renowned speaker you have scheduled and provide a ‘free’ street breakfast downtown.

Don’t put all of that energy into create 100+ small groups (my own Church has well over 200 small groups); reconfigure them to be community volunteer groups who actively seek opportunities to serve at soup kitchens, donation centers, hospitals, and even at city hall or the DMV.

If you concentrate on growth, spreading the Good News through your own actions, you will no longer need to worry about attrition. The growth will create more opportunities to be active and through this you can change your community for the better. After all, would Jesus be scheduling speakers, forming small groups, and booking bands for his congregation? Or, would he be out and about in the community touching as many lives as possible?