Three Things To Grow Your Church Within 30 Days
By Raul Rivera
This year's summer has been brutal. Not only have we had one of the hottest in recent history, it has also been filled with political turmoil, spiritual apathy, and unsettling financial issues. By now many pastors feel like the end of their dream is at hand. As one pastor bluntly put it, "I can't take another week preaching to the same 20 people with little to no results." I know where you are. During two of the ten years that I pastored, I lived with a feeling that Sunday was the worst day of the week. Hang in there. Your call is a noble task. We applaud you for saying yes to the Lord. Whether it means 20 people or 1,000, we are excited for you because you are in the front lines of Kingdom business. We have always considered it a great privilege to serve pastors in the business side of church. We have enjoyed seeing churches start with just a few people and grow into churches of hundreds and thousands. You will grow, but you must remain faithful and stay diligent over the work entrusted to you. Let me give you three things that will cause your church to start growing within 30 days.
1. Summer is ending
Summers are usually very difficult on pastors and ministry leaders. The membership tends to dwindle each passing day and it can make you feel isolated. As a pastor, I always struggled with summers because no matter how hard I tried to prepare myself, preaching to 20 people always made me feel like God abandoned me because just a month ago I was preaching to 160. Never mind that our church was in a small town of about 1,000 Spanish-speaking people mostly working in agriculture. Summers meant the only time of the year they could visit their families in Mexico or other Central and South American countries. When I pastored, the end of summer was always welcomed. It meant a return to structure and schedules. Kids returned to school (parents always said amen), vacations ended, and out of town weekend trips diminished as the fall season approached. It always led to a more consistent pattern of church attendance and the ability for a church to make more concrete plans for outreach. This post summer season, (between August 12th and September 30th) I challenge you to do two things.
Communicate with your congregation every week: You can do this by writing letters of encouragement, appreciation and gratitude to members and key leaders. I also strongly recommend that you start a pastor's blog and encourage the church to sign up for it. For many, it is a way to stay connected with the congregation during the week. I know of several pastors that send out a blog once or twice a week. They share personal thoughts, challenges, encouraging words or whatever is on their minds. A good number of the members of the congregation read it and leave comments. The pastors make efforts to reply to each one personally. Every Sunday, many of the members feel that they have had a personal conversation that week with their pastor.
Prepare a six-week sermon series on hope to begin the first Sunday in October: Preaching messages that connect require planning. Part of growing a church is planning the release of timely and well-studied messages. In the meantime, as you prepare the messages, market them on your church website and through mail. There are many online resources that will get you the names and addresses of thousands of families that meet your church's criteria and would likely respond to a nice, color postcard advertising the upcoming sermon series on hope. To best take advantage of mail marketing your church should apply for and get a bulk and non profit mailing permit.
2. Become a person of confidence
There is something about confidence that can never be faked. You either have it or you don't. If you do not have confidence, believe me, you will fool no one. Everyone will know. There are two words that define confidence: certitude and assurance. You can only have confidence in an area if you are certain about it. When you are certain about something, it gives everyone around you assurance. That is why confident men/women have many followers.
Becoming a person of confidence requires investment. You cannot be confident in who you are in God without spending time in His presence. If you do this one thing, the members will have the assurance that you are worthy to be followed and it also becomes very attractive to newcomers. People are always looking for someone to lead them and it may as well be you. Paul the apostle was so confident in who he was in the Lord that he told the Corinthians, "Imitate me, just I also imitate Christ." Do you have the confidence to say that wholeheartedly? Remember, when you say it, people will perceive your confidence, or lack thereof, in those words.
In the same way, you cannot be confident in your books and compliance with the IRS unless you purposefully invest the time and resources necessary. When it comes to church business and IRS compliance, knowledge leads to confidence. Growing your church means that more people will join the congregation, but in order to maintain that growth, you must have more income. Just think about this for a moment. If you lack confidence in your church's books and IRS compliance, why should people give to your ministry? They have to have the assurance that they are giving to a solid organization. Your level of confidence in your own organization's books and IRS compliance imparts that assurance. Lack of confidence here can be devastating because it is felt at every level of your organization. To have the kind of culture that exudes confidence, some changes may be necessary. If you are reading this, and you are not confident in the state of your books or your IRS compliance, I want to encourage you...begin to make a change today! This one area can be a catalytic area that helps you gain the momentum you need for the future. One great way to start making a change is investing into your administrative team at one of our upcoming conferences.
I am confident that I can help you become confident
I am 100% confident that you and your church will benefit from our conferences. In fact, I offer a full-money-back guarantee. That is one promise I have never had to honor. I want you to join me so that you too can say you are confident in your own church. Your church will love you for it.
3. Preach a message of hope in uncertain times
As I mentioned earlier, a message of hope is a desperately needed message today. There is no better time to prepare a relevant message for today than one that describes our God as a God of hope. Hope is the anticipation of good from God in every area of life. People need to know that God has "plans to prosper them and not to harm them, plans to give them hope and a future." (Jer. 29:11). Is your message convincing? Are people's hearts filled with hope when you preach? Charles Sawyer once said, "Without hope men are only half alive. With hope they dream and think and work." Hope enables the next generation to move forward in God, rather than being afraid of their future; it speaks of the nature of our God, who has wisdom for every challenge and specific answers to lead us into hope-filled tomorrows in Him. If you take the time to fully prepare a six-week sermon series on hope, you will be able to build on and sustain growth because the members of the church and those who come for the first time will cling to it. You never know, you just might find yourself leading more people than you thought possible.
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