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- Breaking Church Growth Barriers
Church growth barriers have always interested me.
What causes them?
Are they primarily spiritual or natural or a mix of both?
Over the years as a pastor myself and a coach to fellow pastors I've had the chance to see these "barriers" up close and personal!
And from my experience they're very real.
In some cases they're spiritual but most of the time they result from structural or leadership issues that are 100% fixable.
Which is great news for us as pastors!
The reality is that God works through leaders.
A casual read-through of the Bible shows us that.
Which is why church growth barriers or "capacity limits" as I like to call them occur.
So what should we do when we hit these limits?
Here's a couple quick thoughts:
1) Identify the cause.
To get better you have to know what's making you sick, right?
So step one is to identify the barrier and what's causing it.
The hard thing with barriers is sometimes a church will grow slightly past the barrier and then shrink back after a year or more.
This makes it hard to identify what barrier your facing and why.
Some of the common barriers are at 80, 150-200, and 500.
So if you've been at or around one of those levels that's probably your barrier.
Here are some great books for identifying and understanding your current barrier:
2) Fix the issues.
Once you're clear on what barrier you're facing you should have an idea of what needs to change.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
At this point you'll be tempted to rush to step 3 and just start inviting people or having a big day.
But it's important to take the time to build the healthy infrastructure to maintain the growth.
At our church we have a saying, "God, we'll build the cribs...you bring the babies!"
The heart of this is that we create places for people to receive care and community and then trust God that He will bring growth.
3) Have a Big Day and break through in a single bound!
After step 1 and 2 you're ready to launch a Big Day!
This is the fun part.
When your infrastructure is in place and you have 20-100 visitors show up you can believe you'll see growth.
But the key here is doing it in ONE DAY.
We've seen our church grow 10-20% several times after working these 3 steps.
Want more practical help?
Check out "20 Ways To Grow Your Church."
A great primer on how we help pastors and churches break barriers and fulfill their God-given vision...
Click here to get the details. (and save 90% for a limited time)
Blessings,
Pastor Jake
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PS - Want all of my courses including: Facebook Invitation System, Church Marketing Masterclass, Building A Ministry Pipeline, How to Break the 100 Barrier, Guest Follow Up System, and more? Plus a vibrant community of pastors and leaders and a live weekly coaching session? All for less than attending 1 conference a year? Check out UpLevel Leader right here: https://uplevelleader.com/