Growing a Church in the Third Millennium

1
Growing a Church in the Third Millennium

• Source Gary McIntosh,
• American Society for Church Growth,
• john.chandler_at_vbmb.org

2
How is 21c like 1c? (Bob Dale)

• Fast-changing
• Cultural Chaos
• Non-Scientific Mindset
• Global Outlook
• Era of Spirit
• Churches with Infectious Faith

3
Growing Church Culture

• Church Growth Holy Spirit empowerment of ten
  core right principles

4
The Right Premise Gods Word

• Growing churches in 21c will have a strong
  commitment to the authority of the Word of God in
  Scripture
• Dangers
• A). Loss of belief in authority of Scripture
• B). Extension of authority beyond canon to new
  revelation from God
• Prophecies, vision, Words of Knowledge

5
2. The Right Priority Evangelism

• Can a church be healthy but not growing?
• Jesus command I will build my church
  commission make disciples
• Church growth in 21c a matter of making our
  priorities line up with Jesus priorities
• Seeking and saving the lost

6
3. The Right Process Discipleship

• Growing churches in 21c will balance their
  disciple-making processes comprehensively around
  3 elements
• Finding
• Keeping, and
• Building people

7
The Right Power Prayer

• 21c growing churches will focus on prayer as
  their connection to power
• No persuasion stance works apart from aligning
  with the activity of Gods Spirit
• Beyond strategy to spiritual factors of
  church growth
• Wagner (prayer), Towns (fasting), Blackaby models

8
The Right Pastor A Team-Builder

• Growing 21c churches will have pastors who build
  networks of teams
• See themselves as coaches
• Not owners
• Not players

• Characteristics
• 1. Relates well to folk
• 2. Good communicator
• 3. Clear priorities
• 4. Goal-oriented
• 5. Self-motivated
• 6. Team-builder
• 7. Open to change
• 8. Has solid family
• 9. Takes logical risks
• 10. Certain of Call

9
The Right Philosophy Cultural Relevance

• Growing 21c churches will relate to their
  communities in culturally relevant ways
• Jesus related to Nicodemus (John 3) via formal
  theological discussion and Samaritan women (John
  4) via inductive, personal conversation
• Swim with currents on style, stand on rock in
  principle

10
The Right Plan Target-Focused

• Growing churches in 21c will design ministry to
  reach a clearly-defined people group
• Will understand the person they are being called
  by God to reach

11
The Right PlaceReceptive Areas

• Growing churches in 21c will focus on receptive
  and responsive people
• Those with ears to hear
• Age 12 better than 20
• Crisis time is riper
• Spend the most on that which gives the most
  results
• The harvest will not always be ripe, but will
  quickly rot

12
The Right ProcedureSimple Structure

• Growing churches in 21c will simplify their
  organizational processes
• Postmodern people expect results, not a
  maintenance-orientation
• The ability to move with speed is today more of a
  factor than ever before

• Each age produces a form of organization
  appropriate to its own tempo.
• Alvin Toffler

13
The Right People Effective Ministers

• Growing churches in 21c will be composed of
  worshipers who invest their lives in personal
  ministry
• Pastor must move over, people must move up

14
And finally, some good news The
Multiplication Effect

• As a church effectively builds on each P
  factor, there is a multiplication factor that
  impacts the other P factors
• That is Growth in one area will positively
  impact other areas, making exponential growth
  possible

15
Sum The Right Stuff

• 1. Premise Bible
• 2. Priority Evangelism
• 3. Process Discipleship
• 4. Power Prayer
• 5. Pastor Team-builder
• 6. Philosophy Relevance
• 7. Plan Target-focused
• 8. Place Receptive areas
• 9. Procedure Structure
• 10. People Ministries

16
Growing a Church in theThird Millennium

• Dr. John P. Chandler
• The Ray and Ann Spence Network for Congregational
  Leadership
• www.rasnet.org
• Copy Right John P. Chandler, 2001