South Dayton Presbyterian Church

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South Dayton Presbyterian Church

• Barriers to Continued Growth and How to Address
  Them

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Resources

• Professional Interviews
• Rev. Andy Hughes, Zion Community Church of the
  Nazarene Bloomington, IN
• Rev. Walter Wood, North Cincinnati Community
  Church Mason, OH
• Rev. Dave Schutter, Northwest Presbyterian
  Church Dublin OH
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• Books
• Overcoming Barriers to Growth, Michael Fletcher
• The In-Between Church Alice Mann
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• Internet
• Leadership And Church Size Dynamics, Tim Keller,
  Senior Pastor, Redeemer PCA http//www.redeemer2.
  com/themovement/issues/2006/fall/church_size_dynam
  ics.html

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Attendance First Service Monthly Average
Attendance First Service Yearly Average
Through 6 Months
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Attendance Second Service Yearly Average
Through 6 Months
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Attendance Combined Services Monthly Average
Combined Services Yearly Average
Through 6 Months
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Barriers to Growth

• Barrier 1 Staffing
• There is a need for another ordained pastor
• From my reading, it is suggested to have a second
  pastor who is seen as a minister/pastor at around
  150 members
• From my interviewing of pastors of mid-sized
  churches, this was confirmed and seen as a higher
  priority than the size of the building
• From my own sense of feeling overwhelmed by what
  needs to be done, this is a priority

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Staffing For Growth   Growing churches face a
dilemma. They dont have enough households to
fully support a new staff person, but they will
never gain those households without additional
staff energy. In general, a church must staff
somewhat ahead of the immediate need in order to
keep growing. St. Peters kept lagging behind the
immediate need and so precipitated a decline.  
(From The In-between Church navigating size
transitions in congregations, by Alice Mann)
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Staffing For Growth Roy Oswalds article in the
appendix provides a guideline As a rule of
thumb, if you desire to staff for growth, you
need one full-time program person on your staff
for every one hundred active members usually
based on average attendance . . . You are
staffing for maintenance if you are just slightly
under that figure. You are staffed for decline if
you are seriously under that figure. (From The
In-between Church navigating size transitions in
congregations, by Alice Mann)
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Staffing For Growth This one-per-hundred rule
assumes that you already have the basic services
of a church musician (worship planning, Sunday
music leadership, a midweek rehearsal) staffing
for growth might involve adding hours or personal
to start additional choirs, plan a new kind of
service, or link music with community outreach.
Secretarial support and janitorial staff are also
needed over and above the one-per-hundred
mark. (From The In-between Church navigating
size transitions in congregations, by Alice Mann)
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Barriers to Growth

• Barrier 2 Space issues
• Children's Sunday School classes are already full
• Sunday morning worship will be at capacity (in my
  opinion) at about 250
• Not enough room for multiple adult Sunday School
  classes
• Not enough storage room
• Not enough kitchen space
• Office space is cramped

This number might be too high due to the SS
class room pressure.
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Barriers to Growth

• Barrier 3 Organizational Issues
• Smaller churches typically have less formal
  organizational structures whereas mid-sized
  churches need to be more organized. They must
  have written systems, policies and procedures.
• Committees must become more organized and
  effective in overseeing their areas of
  responsibility
• Elders must move from being ministry
  leaders/doers to ministry leaders/equippers
• The need for staff positions grows with the size
  of the church

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Barriers to Growth

• Barrier 4 Identifying New Visitors
• Visitors are harder to spot and welcome to the
  church
• Difficult to know how many times a new visitor
  has visited
• Difficult to help the visitors and newer
  attendees to get involved in the life of the
  church

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Barriers to Growth

• Barrier 5 Emotional response to growth
• While longer term members are happy the church is
  growing, they dont like not knowing everyone
• It is embarrassing not to know or remember
  everyones name
• Some members may feel overlooked as newer
  members are recruited for ministry
• New policies and procedures seem restrictive to
  the old way of doing things
• There is a general sense of a loss of control.
  There are more things going on than anyone can
  keep track of
• There are new leaders that some people dont know
• The senior pastor is less available to people /
  there is often resistance to being pastored by a
  staff pastor

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Addressing the Barriers to Growth

• Addressing barrier 1 Staffing Resolutions
• Hire an Assistant Pastor
• This person should compliment the Senior pastor,
  having strengths that compensate for the pastors
  weaknesses and ability to provide leadership and
  pastoral care in the church
• This person will give pastoral care in the areas
  our church seeks to mature believers in Christs
  likeness
• Christian Education
• Shepherding
• Welcoming

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Addressing the Barriers to Growth

• Addressing barrier 2 Space Issues
• Establish a building committee to make plans to
  immediately add more office and Sunday school
  space and to develop future plans for building a
  worship center. (The goal would be that we are
  building or in a new worship center by 2015.)
• Establish a building finance committee to
  organize, manage and raise funds for both the
  immediate expansion as well as the new worship
  center.

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Addressing the Barriers to Growth

• Addressing barrier 2 Space Issues
• Continue to work at bringing more families into
  the First Worship Service
• Begin planning a Third Worship Service
• Third service to target singles and college age
  people
• Third service to meet Sunday afternoon or early
  evening
• Goal to have 50 people to be the core of our
  third service look for a one year commitment

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Addressing the Barriers to Growth

• Addressing barrier 3 Organizational Resolutions
• Help committees begin to organize, systematize,
  and reduce to writing their policies, procedures,
  goals and directives
• Help the committees recruit competent and
  qualified people who will work to complete tasks
  and assignments in a timely manner
• Help elders improve their skills in recruiting,
  equipping and deploying others to do the work of
  the ministry
• Hire another staff person who can help with the
  above changes (Same person that is mentioned
  under staffing resolutions.)

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Addressing the Barriers to Growth

• Addressing barrier 4 Identifying New Visitors
• Develop a Welcoming Committee to organize, plan,
  and oversee strategies for identifying and
  welcoming new visitors to the church
• Assist New Visitors by getting them plugged into
  life groups and ministry opportunities in the
  church

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Addressing the Barriers to Growth

• Addressing barrier 5 Emotional Response to
  Growth
• Clearly define the changes people can expect to
  see in the coming year or two
• Provide teaching on how to accept the changes
  that are happening and teaching on ways to
  participate in the life and changes taking place
  in the church
• Seek to help people who are struggling with the
  changes associated with growth by talking through
  our desire to be faithful to God

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