The following questions provide clues for identifying the problem(s) for which non-growth is often a symptom:
1. Is the problem with the organization or the organism? Churches are both structural and spiritual, and a growth-restricting problem can sprout in either area. The solution, of course, must be in the same area as the problem.
2. Is non-growth due to a “growth-restricting obstacle” or a “non-growth excuse”? One is an actual barrier that keeps a church from growing. The other is a rationalization of failure to grow, often used as justification for non-growth. I have seen many churches die because “the community was resistant,” but then a different church moves into the same facility and experiences significant growth.
3. Is the problem “visitor volume” or “visitor retention”? Churches need enough people who: a) visit (volume), and b) stay (retention). For visitor volume, the target rate should be 5 percent: five of every one hundred people in church should be first-, second-, or third-time visitors. For visitor retention, a good rate is 20 percent: at least two of ten visitors should be active in the church one year after their first visit.
4. If the problem is “visitor volume,” are members inviting friends? Three of every four new members begin attending their church through the invitation of a friend, neighbor, or relative.
5. If the problem is “visitor retention,” is it a friendly church? Our interviews indicate that the number one reason first-time visitors return is “the friendliness of the people.” How do they decide if the church is friendly? “The number of people who talked to me.”
6. Is it a facility-saturation issue? A worship service stops growing once its average attendance (over a four-month period) reaches 85-percent room capacity.
7. Is it an options issue? One service, at one time of day, on one day of the week, with one style of music gives people only two options: take it or leave it. More choices means more people will say “yes” to one of them.
8. Is it a quality issue? Music, lights, sound, facilities, and space all speak to visitors about the church’s values. You don’t have a second chance for a good first impression.
9. Is it a relevance issue? The first response young unchurched people gave us when asked their impression of church was “boring and irrelevant.” By contrast, one reason visitors returned was because the church “spoke to my needs.”
10. Are visitors important? It doesn’t take long to know if a church expects (and desires) visitors. A welcome center, nametags, a public greeting, notices in the bulletin, designated hosts, gifts, and signs all communicate the value a church places on newcomers.
Church growth is not the goal. But church growth is an indication that Christ’s love and attractiveness is being experienced by an increasing number of people in that local congregation.
