“What if the Church Isn't Growing?”

Monday, April 09, 2018

There may be any number of reasons why churches in some areas of this country and around the world are not growing.

I do not want in any way to imply that, if a local church isn't growing, then the group is not pleasing to God. They may be doing something wrong that displeases God, but numerical growth, or lack of it, is not a singular indicator either way. It is not my purpose in this series to imply that all a church has to do to grow spiritually and numerically is to follow my advice. This is not intended to be a fool-proof, works every time, money back guaranteed program.

These blog postings are simply things I have observed over the years that have helped some churches to grow. It is my desire that these articles encourage some Christians, who have grown despondent and believe that nothing can be done to help struggling churches, to develop hope for the future. The last thing I want to do is to further discourage the down-hearted. Sometimes things just don’t work out the way we had hoped they would.

• Noah preached (2 Peter 2:5) for 100 years and didn’t save anyone outside of his family. He had to have been discouraged at times. But he did save his own family. And that is awesome.
• In Acts, Paul did not have equally glowing success in every place where he went to plant a new church. In some places he was ignored; in some he was thrown into prison; in some he was stoned or otherwise persecuted. (Read 2 Corinthians 11:22-30). 
• And, lest we forget, even the Savior Himself did not convince everyone He taught to become Christians. As a matter of fact, He was killed by some of the very people He tried to teach.

And sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, we work very hard with little visible results.

There are many factors that can lead to a church that is shrinking in size, rather than growing. Churches age (because all of us as people do also), sickness and death occur, people move away from a community, the culture of an entire city or town can be affected by outside influences and all of these things can have a shrinking effect on the Lord’s people. Some places are just harder fields to work in than others are.

Churches go through cycles, sometimes up and sometimes down, and it can be difficult to know if a downturn in attendance is part of a cycle that is beyond anyone’s control or whether it is evidence of a decline that will ultimately lead to the death of that church.

The easiest thing that churches often do is to blame the preacher if things begin to go badly. It may be that he is the problem and I am convinced that most churches need to do a better and more thorough job of choosing a preacher. More time should be spent in finding out if the churches where he has worked before have grown spiritually and numerically or if they have declined in number. Sometimes they decline and it isn’t his fault, but there are preachers who systematically destroy every church they work with. They don’t mean to, but they don’t have a very realistic view of themselves that will allow them to admit that they hurt the church more than they help it. Not everyone who preaches should be preaching, but it is hard for most men to admit that they are the problem and the churches that have been in decline would have grown if someone else had been preaching there.

My family attended a church once while we were on vacation and the preacher told me that they were getting ready to move to a newer and smaller building. He said, “We’ve grown so small here that we don’t need this much space.” We’ve grown so small? That is an interesting way to describe a church that is dying. I am afraid to even try to find out if that church is meeting at all now, about 20 years later.

Before I give a few suggestions about what to do in this type of situation, please allow me to give a word of warning about what not to do.

Do not turn to gimmicks, games, entertainment and other unbiblical “methods” to try and draw a crowd. It can be tempting to try something that the big denominational group down the road is doing that has resulted in huge crowds attending there now. Never forget that the gospel is God’s power to save (Romans 1:16) and “food, fun, and fellowship” may well attract bigger numbers, but they will not save souls.

But what we can do sometimes is to try to find different ways to reach the lost with the gospel than we have used in the past, without changing the message. We can look for better, Biblically authorized ways to do what God wants us to do.

I have previously suggested going back to the basics of the gospel to try to ground the members you already have and encourage them to share the truth with their lost friends and neighbors.

A suggestion I have made to churches that are disheartened (to help them not give up) is for every Christian to take an entire year and focus on one lost person. Then pray for that person, spend social time getting to know him better and when the opportunity arises, invite him to attend a service or to have a Bible study at his convenience, wherever he would be willing. Just concentrate on one person for a whole year. If a church of 20 people would do that and not drop the ball, but stay on task, in one year the church would be 40 people. And then, if everyone would choose one person for the next year and stay with him, the second year, there would be 80 people. And, if they all did it again for another year, after only 3 years, those original 20 members would number 160 members. After 4 years, you would have 320 members and after 5 years, 640. Now, of course, some would move away, some would pass away, some would fall away, but is it that difficult to think about spending a whole year working on one lost soul, to bring him or her to the Lord?

Acts 14:21 says, “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to…(other cities).” That’s how it works, friends. We preach the gospel to people and it results in new disciples. If your garden isn’t producing as many fresh tomatoes as you want, you plant more tomato seeds. If the church isn’t producing new Christians, you have to plant more gospel seeds.

How long has it been since you personally met and taught someone who became a Christian? 10 years? 5 years? 1 year? 25 years? Have you ever done that? It isn’t that hard; we just have to stay with it.

So whatever else you do, don’t quit trying. Don’t give up. Lost souls, who need the Lord, are out there, everywhere. They need you to keep trying to reach them. Their eternal destiny is on the line here.

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). Don’t grow weary and do nothing. Never give up.

--Roger Hillis

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