Three Characteristics Of A Growing Church

Bro. Gary Sones

The key to sustained growth in an area, is sustained growth in the local churches. Although most of our churches do well in some areas, there are certain characteristics that growing churches all display.

1. Training A. On a National level, we try to train our pastors. We have found that a better trained pastor will be more productive than the untrained pastor. This is also true on a local church level.B. On a local level, there is very little training that takes place beyond singing and Sunday School.

1. A church will reach its limit, if training in all areas of ministry does not take place.2. Jethro told Moses that “The thing that thou doest is not good.” The rest of chapter 18 is about training leaders of 10, of 50, of 100, and of 1,000.

3. Altar workers need to be trained. Ushers, receptionists, sound, projection, they all need to be trained. Bible study teachers, cell group leaders, every aspect of your church must been trained continually.

4. If training is done on a continually basis, when someone moves on for whatever reason, there is no hole left.

5. The scripture is full of training examples:

a. The five-fold ministry’s responsibility is to equip (train) members so that they can do the work of the ministry. (Eph. 4)

b. Paul instructed Timothy to “teach others also”. (2 Tim. 2:2)

1. If a saint cannot responsibly run a department in a church, they certainly will struggle pastoring.c. Many want to work; They just do not know what to do and how to do it. Teach them!

d. Train your leaders and they will give your church growth.e. Some ask me if I could start over knowing what I know now, what would I do differently. The one thing would be to train intensively from the beginning.

2. Effective Evangelism

A. There is a difference between evangelism and effective evangelism.

1. You can have crusades and revivals, but there must be many others things in place to be able to retain a certain percentage or you have wasted your time.

2. The great commission was not “go out on Saturday morning and invite people to church”. The command was to go and teach, or as it says in Spanish, make disciples. A disciple is a follower of a teaching or a person. Discipleship takes time.

a. I have a saying: “Just a Disciple or a disciple maker”.

3. The easiest way to make a disciple is to teach them a Bible Study.

4. The other method that has been so productive for us is cell groups. While still in Spain, we had been doing cell groups for the last six years in the church, attendance has gone from 430 to 836. We have 3.5 times the numbers of visitors to cell groups that we do to services.

5. Bible Studies and cell groups have their bases in the Word. Jesus said to go into every town and village and find a house that will receive you (will let you in). Teach and preach the Kingdom of God, heal the sick. And then he said “don’t go to another house”. It is the Master’s method.6. The difference of a growing church and a stagnate church are “Effective soul winners”.

3. Retention

A. Retention is the most important element of constant growth. You can win thousands, but if you don’t retain…what a pain! The objective must always be to make disciples!B. There are systems that can help greatly with retention:

1. The bible study teacher forms your first line of defense - They form the first real

relationship.2. A new converts course given during your main service on Sunday. That way, you assure yourselves of the greatest attendance possible.

3. Mentors assigned to each new convert for at least six months.4. Attendance lists.5. Visitation teams that will follow up on your attendance lists.

6. A pastoral staff member that can be informed and follow up on problems.