Most people don’t like change! They say they do, “No really I actually like change,” but they really don’t. I think maybe it is seen as uncool by some especially in my generation to say that they don’t like change, to admit they just prefer the good ‘ole stand-by/status quo ways of doing things, so people say they like change. By the way you can tell if people really like change by how they respond to it and how long it takes them to wrap their head around an idea or if they resist at all. People that really like change don’t usually resist to every “change idea” initially. Some people, I believe, think they do like change simply because they are able to change, but being able to change and liking change are two far different things! And most people don’t like change, and this is frustrating to me as a Pastor, especially as a pastor that likes change! Now let me be honest, I don’t like change in all areas. It took me a long time before I decided l liked Chinese food, Indian food, Thai food (I love them all now, but it took some time). If you go to a Mexican restaurant there may be something wrong with me if I don’t order cheese enchiladas. I still prefer and use a hard copy to do list over the new technology that allows me to digitize all my tasks, unlike my good friend Rodlie who is In Lust Over Wunderlist. I still prefer baseball games that are a 2-1 pitchers duel over the crazy 10 to 9 games of the steroid era! So I don’t like change in all areas.
But where I do like change is in church! Why is this? Because 80% of all Adventist churches in North America are plateaued or dying and I personally cannot just sit around accepting things “as is” when so many people still need to be introduced to Jesus and to learn the full truth’s of scripture. Or while the church I love dies a slow death of irrelevance in North America. So what am I willing to do? I am willing to change in every area without compromising principles in order to reach people for Jesus! What I have discovered is that other people don’t feel the same way as me! And this honestly has at times about driven me CRAZY! Because I have interpreted often, which is what drives me crazy, that people who don’t like change, really HATE change and refuse to like anything different.
So what does this have to do with U2, Bon Jovi, & AC/DC? All these bands are old! AC/DC first entered the rock music scene in 1973, U2 was formed in 1976 and hit it big in 1980, and Bon Jovi in 1983. These bands by the ever changing music world are old! Yet in 2010 Bon Jovi, AC/DC, & U2 were the top concert draws around the world! Old or not, people have gotten used to them and people like what they are used to. It doesn’t mean people don’t like other types of music or other music groups, they just like to come back to some of the old classics.
I think this is good for me to remember as a pastor…maybe it isn’t that most people hate all the changes, they may not like change, but they don’t hate it, they just hate that at least of the few “old classics” still aren’t around. Like singing out of a hymnbook, pathfinders, old school evangelism, etc. So maybe the thing to do is while in the midst of change to make sure we keep around a few of the “old classics” or to at least bring them out for a tour every now and then so that people can know that all they once loved is not completely dead.
Kinda like I have accepted that the new Heritage Singers are a better fit for the time and era in which we live:
I still like to go back and get a little of the “Old School” every now and then:
The church I work for is growing! There is a Kingdom movement happening that God is doing through the power of prayer that is just absolutely awesome to see! In two years we’ve gone from a church of around 300 (*corrected) active members to 500 active members (attending at least once a month). We have gone from average attendance of 200-225 (this included our children) to 350-400 each week (this doesn’t include our children whom have Children’s Church each week). When I got here there was a staff of three, I made four, we are now six. Our Children’s Pastor, Pastor Carron, a little over two years ago shared with me that she knew every kid’s name that attended our church. Two days ago she told me, “Chad I don’t know half the kids here. At first that made me sad, but now I love being able to share Jesus with sponges that have never heard about Him before.”!
Thus with all this growth there is change, because, “growth changes everything and everyone.” And with change there has been a change in communication and knowledge that individuals have about what is happening or going to happen in the church, I believe this has been one of the most frustrating realities for many within our church, especially those that have been a part of the church since it was 175 members (we are now at almost 730 members). So today I heard a great analogy from Pastor Larry Osborne from North Coast Church that I thought I would share with y’all:
A small church 50-150 (maybe even 200) is like a group of buddies on a golf outing. Everyone knows and can see exactly what is going on. Everyone is hitting for the most part similar shots. Everyone is talking about the shots being hit, there is constant interaction with everyone. But churches grow…
A larger church 150-350+ is like a basketball team. On a basketball team everyone knows all the plays. Even the people on the bench. But only a few will know exactly what everyone is supposed to do. Usually this is the point guard(s) (1 guard) and the coaching staff. The coach because he/she wrote the play, the point guard because he has to know where everyone will be at the right time to deliver the ball to the correct person. On a basketball team though most individuals have different roles. No longer is everyone hitting the same shot and doing everything together, though everyone still has a general idea of what is going on and has the ability if they want to know exactly where everyone is and what everyone should be doing. But churches grow…
A church 400-500 and beyond becomes more like a football team. In football there is offense and there is defense. There is the special teams unit which covers punts and there is the special teams unit which covers kickoffs. Furthermore the defense may have a group that plays only on a cover two package or only on a nickel package; the offense may have a spread offense and guys that only are in on plays that are part of the goalline package…Are you confused? Exactly! Larry Osborne illustrated it like this:
“One of my friends was the fifth pick in the NFL draft back when we were in college. We were hanging out one day and I asked him what it was like to play against, and I named a specific running back? My friend said, ‘I don’t know.’ Come on man, is he amazing to watch? What is it like? You play these guys twice a year. ‘Larry I am an offensive lineman. During the week I don’t look at any game tape of him. During the game he is not on the field when I am on the field and when I am off the field I am sitting on a bench listening to our offensive line coach and looking through photos of the last series of plays to see where we need to improve or what we did right, or how to stunt block someone. So when I say I don’t know, I don’t know anymore than you.'”
On the football team everyone has their own unique area and very few people, if any, know everything! They all have their own assignments and their own roles, no one not even the head coach knows exactly every detail of every unit.
At the football or basketball level not everyone can share an opinion or know every detail in a meeting or else the meetings would go ’till midnight. And not every member from church can know exactly how everything is happening or have time to share their opinion or things would bottleneck.
Larry said that is the reality of being part of a growing church. And a person who is a member or a leader of a church that is in the basketball or football stage that is still wanting to be a “golfing buddy” will have a very hard time!
“People who were used to being golfing buddies are often in for a “relational shock” when the church grows and the game changes.“
Osborne gives two important indicators that the game has changed:
“relational overload and increased miscommunication.”
I believe our church is somewhere between the basketball team and the football team and it is a struggle!
Where are y’all at?
As the King James Version states it: “Pride goeth before destruction…” Proverbs 16:8
An article from The Christian Century and picked up by the U.S.A. Today have recently been passed around amongst Adventists affirming our church growth in North America. Yesterday my twitter and e-mail box was a buzz with this article. Most the comments from folk indicated excitement about our growth and making statements of pride regarding the growth of the Adventist Church in the U.S..
Here are a couple realities though:
We are the fastest growing church amongst the Mainline Protestant Denominations:
We are growing more than any other mainline denomination in North America, but our growth is minimal in comparison to our past history and to the world:
I believe it would be wise of all of us to celebrate the individuals that are accepting Jesus and the message we teach as Adventists, but to not celebrate our growth because we still have a LONG way to go and God can do so much more if we will all have the heart of Jesus to “save the Lost.” Matthew 18:11. If we don’t have that heart and instead our hearts are turned to pride over our “growth” we will soon find destruction!
It would be mindful to hold in our thoughts the comment of Dr. Ron Clouzet in the Christian Century article,
“We don’t feel that we’re growing very much, and that is a source of concern, especially for North America,” said Ron Clouzet, director of the North American Division Evangelism Institute at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich. Hispanic Adventists are “the one group that is growing very well,” he added. “If we didn’t have that group, we would look even more dismal.””
May God increase and we decrease!
Is 400 a number you ever think about? I do!In fact 400 has been on my mind quite a ‘bit lately! It is the latest barrier in our church. What do I mean by that? It is what is referred to in Church Growth textbooks as a “Growth Barrier.” And our most recent growth barrier is 400, that means we are having a hard time passing that number in attendance and then sustaining that growth.
Recently I went back to a book I read a couple years ago written by Carl George, “How to Break Growth Barriers.” Here are a few of the insights I gathered from George on breaking through the 400 barrier:
I believe we are having some success in areas 2, 3, & 4. We’ll have to continue working and praying on the others.
Below are the things I would add to George’s list, that I believe are essential, and even with the above items perfectly in place without these next items Growth won’t occur:
Our church has recently faced two challenges, challenges that are a sign of God’s blessing, but challenges none the less. The first challenge our sanctuary was reaching the 80% capacity and in church growth that is a dangerous number. The 80% rule of church growth is that, if your church reaches 80% capacity rather than growing all the way to 100% a church will in fact begin to decline. Our second challenge was that we were having a number of families that were attending our church and looking for a place to put their kids while they attended the main worship service. These families were typically unchurched and or from Sunday churches that provide child care during the worship service, either way we saw the need to minister to these families and to remove all barriers that would keep us from doing so.
So what did we do to meet each of these challenges? At first we were only focused on the challenge of space. We went back and forth debating the need for a second service. We prayed about this, planned for it, then backed off. We prayed, planned, backed off. We just didn’t see that we were quite ready to make this leap! It was during one of these planning sessions that we looked at model where one service was “family style worship” (meaning the entire family attends the worship together) and the second service provided a children’s church so that there would be options for families. As we were looking at this model we began to also think about our second challenge, ministering to families who were not comfortable or acquainted with “family style worship.” We realized at that point that on any given Sabbath (Saturday) we have roughly 50-80 kids attending our church, if we began a children’s church to meet our second challenge this would also meet the needs of our first challenge.
Well at the beginning of February we began our new Children’s Church. What has happened? Both of our challenges have for the time been met and removed. About 30 kids have been in our children’s church (ages 2-8) along with our nursery this has met the needs of about 40 kids each week, and the families that desire to take advantage of these ministries. One of our members contacted me this week and shared with me that a colleague of his was wanting to visit our church, but was wondering what they could do with their kids. This member was wondering what week we were going to have children’s church? I was happy to tell him that his co-worker could come on any week and find a place to send their kids.
Our second challenge is being met because we have now gone from bumping up against the 80% capacity mark to being closer to 56% of capacity, which means we can continue to grow without worry of beginning to decline.
We have killed two birds with one stone. What challenges does your church face and are you proactively looking for ways to overcome those challenges so that the Kingdom of God will grow and be glorified?
“There is an urgent need to plant churches if the North American Division (Seventh-day Adventist denomination) churches are to maintain their current presence in North American communities,” says Dr. Joseph Kidder in a recent article entitled “Reflections on the future of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America: Trends and challenges (part 1 of 2).”
It is alarming that there is an “urgent” need to plant churches just to “maintain” our presence in our cities. But does God call us simply to maintain our presence? As I read scripture and particularly the great commission the goal from our Lord is always to “GO and make disciples”, to increase presence. Dr. Kidder states, “Increasing the Adventist presence and visibility in local communities would require even more aggressive church planting efforts.” To me what this is saying is that we must become multiplying churches! Viral churches! Churches that not only plant once, but that plant over and over again, or churches that plant churches, that plant other churches, that plant other churches…
Why does Dr. Kidder make these assertions and why do I agree with them? In 1913 when our church was growing at one of its greatest rates we had one church for every 52,000 persons, but in 2005 (and I am sure the gap has grown even more in the 6 years since) there was one church for every 65,000 persons in North America. This is one of the factors for the church going from a 3.61% growth rate from 1913-1975 to a 0.06% growth rate from 1976-2005. If we were to have the same ratio of churches to population as we did in 1913 we would need more than 1,000 new churches.
What does this mean for my community?
The current population of Visalia, California is just a little north of 125,000 persons with 2000 professed Adventists, 1.6% of population, but in actuality only 800 active (attending church at least once a month) members, 0.6% of population. If we are going to reach all these people we are going to need more churches! I used to think we would just need bigger churches, but after reading Dr. Kidder’s article and doing a fair amount of other research, “New Churches” are better able to reach folk than necessarily “bigger churches.” Which is why I think it is time to begin looking at a model of church multiplication rather than just church growth.
Three zip codes make up Visalia and in those three zip codes which include some outlying rural areas as well. The zip’s are 46,000, 38,000, & 56,000 (136,000 total) in population. Why couldn’t there be an English church of at least 500 active members in each one of those zip codes? Along with a Spanish church of at least 500 active members in each one of those zip codes? Do you know that would still only be 3000 active Adventists only 2.2% of those zip codes combined? That means there would still be 133,000 persons still to reach in just this one part of the valley. So why not then dream bigger? Why not six churches of 1000 or maybe 12 churches of 500?
Here is the great thing though, none of these churches would be competing for members! The goal would be multiplying churches not just growing “my” church! The goal would be increasing the presence of Jesus and sharing the Three Angels’ Message not increasing our membership rosters. Right now what to often happens is a competition over the Adventists that already exist, even church plants are more often church splits that just siphon off members from other already existing Adventist communities. And in reality even our growing churches mine included, is more transfer growth than conversion or Kingdom growth. We need to stop competing and we need to start planting churches TOGETHER to grow the Kingdom of God and increase His presence and His message in the hearts of all people.