effective ways to grow your church - It is the desire of every Church leader to experience growth in number of people seeking the gospel truth under his/her ministration. Our Lord Jesus Christ experienced similar growth throughout his 3 years earthly ministry. To achieve sustained church growth, there are fundamental steps that church leaders, workers and members should begin to take. These steps should not just be a wish-to-do list but steps backed up actions, planning, prayers and guidance in the Holy Spirit. There are 12 effective ideas to grow your church listed in this article.
1. Radical Evangelism
Evangelism is good but radical evangelism will move you miles. Radical evangelism is like a locust storm, taking people by surprise and out of their comfort zones. Radical evangelism is a great way of awakening the consciousness of the people in your community that the church of Christ is around them. Imagine evangelism with a long convoy of cars, or bikes, or tricycles (KEKE), or bicycles or horses, or people (the whole church members)? Whatever is righteous that will make the people talk about what they have seen about your church, do it. A church that is unserious with evangelism will gradually become stagnant and finally die. Go out and evangelise. Encourage your members to do the same. In the office, street, market place, internet, bus, train, airport, battlefield, celebration grounds, just preach. Radical evangelism has no gentle man. A gentle man in hell is of no gain. Remember, do not go to preach your church. Your church is not the gospel. Preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and watch the angels reveal your heart and your church to men.
2. Clarity in Church Vision and Mandate
People come to church to be part of building a divine vision that they can identify with, and subsequently through it get blessed by God. Ask yourself, ‘Why should people come to my church’? To answer this question, you MUST be clear on what your Church visions and mandates are. New and old members must hear the church vision every Sunday service. They should know them and pray, work and invite other to join and fulfil it. Your sermons and actions MUST demonstrate understanding and commitment to these visions and mandates. The unfortunate thing is that many church leaders do not have clarity on their visions and mandates. Most members cannot declare what the visions and mandate of their church are. Once they cannot find a vision to connect to, they are on the next bus to move on. Are your members aware of your vision.
3. Organise outdoor Crusades
Start with organising local church crusade in your location. Through prayer, come up with a crusade topic that is powerful and can connect with the people in your church and your community. If the capacity of your church venue will not be enough, get a bigger hall or open ground. Next, move to a city wide crusade, and then national crusade. A big and expensive project it may seem like, but you will be surprised that the resources will flow in when you launch out. The crusade should be advertised using mediums that you can afford. Giving out invitation letters, flyers and wall boards should be a starting point for very cheap adverts. Radio, TV and bill board advert will be more expensive; however you should explore opportunities to get low cost deals, through friends’ networks. A proper organized crusade has the potential to turn your church membership around.
4. Publish and share testimonies of God’s blessing and miracles in your church
Print and publish testimonies of God’s blessings upon your members and the church. Produce your church magazines and flyers. If you do not have regular church magazines and flyer, start producing one immediately. It is great way to record the chronicles of what God is doing in your church for generations to come. You should setup a church media team. Source out the printing job if you cannot afford the printing equipment. Encourage your members to buy and the share the magazines and flyers to their friends, family and other networks. Use them during you evangelism outreach.
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5. Effective follow up
Give new members a new member’s card to fill while in the church. The cards should contain at least their name, address and phone number. When new members come to your church, make out time to call them up, pray with them, visit them and support them as much you can. Lack of follow up can gradually empty a church. Old members also needs follow up, but many churches do not care. Do not be like other churches if you want your church to grow. Scan the church attendance to identify church members who miss services or that are no longer coming to church. Visit them and encourage them to continue. Pray and settle any grievances they may have.
6. Attend members special days if invited
Some pastors and church leader do not have time to attend members’ special events such as birthdays, child naming, burial events and dedications. This is not good for any church. Members’ special day/event is a great opportunity to be part of their memorable moments in life. No pastor should miss it. These events provide the opportunity to meet non-members, which is a free opportunity to preach the gospel and invite them to your church. Yes some unbeliever will come, but the gospel is meant for them. Many church members have left the church because the pastor did not attend their special day celebrations. Often they will not open up, but they will quietly walk away. Keep a diary of member special days. Surprise the ones you can, but do not fail to celebrate them or stand with them in the day of adversary.
7. Engage in community services
Community services such as visits to orphanages, motherless babies homes, prisons, is a great way to reach out to the people, serve them and invite them to church. By doing this, you will open the opportunity to invite people to your church. People who have similar vision will come in and work with you. The people that receive help through the community services will be attracted to the Lord and they will remember the service of love, which your church has shown them. The day they decide to go to church, your church will not escape their list. Organise free medical and health check-up for the public in your community at least once in a year. This also provides the opportunity to gather personal data, such as phone number, which you can in turn use to invite them to church.
8. Ensure 7 days a week open door church
Many church auditoriums are closed most of the days of the week, only to open once on Sunday or mid-week service day. This is a norm that has limited church growth. Unbelievers and believers often look for quite alter time during the weekdays to pour their heart to God on the alter, in the absence of the crowd. Through such moments, many have received inspirations on how to solve the challenges of their life. Keep your church door open and keep a church minister to watch, just for security purposes. In December 2016, a brother lost her sister after a prolonged illness. I visited his house to comfort him. He told me that in the sister battle with the complicated illness; she was confined to the wheelchair. On the morning following the day she died, which was Wednesday, she requested that she be taken to the church to pray. For some reasons, this request did not happen. On that Wednesday night she died. Those in need often need solemn hours to be in the church. Your church should be that 24/7 hope for the needy center. By doing this, you church will secretly win peoples heart as they will not forget where God meet them. Churches that keep open door throughout the week will grow, because people are always in need of solemn church alter to pour their heart before the Lord.
9. Engage actively in social media evangelism
Our world is changing. More people today spent more than 70% of their leisure and active work time on the internet. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, has become a busy hub for most internet connected individuals. Take advantage of this network to publish your church program, messages, prayer meetings, charity events, and testimonies. The effect and response is sometimes instantaneous, but you must put a plan in place to manage it and sustain the platform with messages, discussion and conversion. It may cost you some money if you like use the paid advert option. Overall, the social media platform is a cheap way to reach many people, preach the gospel and win souls for the Lord and grow your church. You be surprised that most of your church members already have accounts on these platforms. Create and account for your church today at www.facebook.com, www.twitter.com. It is easy.
10. Start Radio/TV preaching, prayer program
Radio has remained an age long means of reaching a very wide audience at low cost. It has survived many decades of technological advancement. Both the poor and the can afford radio and listen to it. During passive times like driving, people glue their minds to rich Radio program. Book a radio hour could be the next level in your drive to spread the word that God has given you. Do not be afraid of the cost, management and implication. Start by seeing the huge impact it will make in the life of the people and your church growth. Approach local radio station and make enquiry for 15mins or 30mins slot. Generate radio program partners from your church. Give the program a name say, ‘Salvation hour with Pastor Radio’. Smiling! Yes give it a name to launch. It gives it a life.
11. Welfare
When you lead a church, you lead people, and people have needs. Some are general needs like feeling hungry after spending 4-6 hours in the church. Some may be periodic and more demanding needs such as house rent issues, debt, and health challenges. It is in the interest of the church to provide a support lifeline for its members who are in desperate need. Providing biscuits, cakes, puff-puff, chin-chin and other simple snack to members after service is a great way of making member to relax. Providing a welfare fund through welfare offering will help. Soliciting from external welfare support from righteous sources will help your members tremendously. If a church does not support her members through welfare, members will gradually begin to murmur and feel unsupported. Soon you will begin to hear statements like, ‘my church does not help anybody’. This is a bad testimony for all your hard work. Before you get hear this type of statement, get your welfare working.
12. Give to other ministries
Giving opens door for increase. Let your church partner with other ministries. Support those ministries where you can by giving. You can give advice and counseling. You can give them instruments, vehicles and personnel. You can give fund and materials support. You can give your time and talents. As long as your help goes to support the kingdom work do it and watch God reward your own effort. Unfortunately, many pastors are inherently stingy with helping other pastors succeed in their programs. Do not be like one of them if you want your church to grow.
13. Prayers
If you do all the above without effective and fervent prayers, for numerical growth, your effort will be short-lived and may not bear fruit. Numerical growth in a church is a direct result of prayers for souls. Compassion for souls leads to fervency in prayer for salvation. Pray that the angels of the Lord will advertise your church and ministry to men. Pray that the Lord will send men of like minds to come in and work with you. In the spiritual realm, many churches gates are covered with spiritual dark clouds, making it impossible for potential members that daily pass-by without noticing the presence of the church. Even the songs and praises from the church can be spiritually diverted to sound like just a noise.
Take action today and begin to grow your church. i know that you can do that as you read through this effective ways to grow your church...
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