Last week on Conversatio Morum we went into why the style of music and the model of your church aren’t the hindrances to growth that you’d think they are. You can read that here. The reality is that you can look at any model or worship style and see churches that are, and aren’t, reaching people. You can find churches on all sides of this that are, and aren’t, making a difference. So, what makes the difference?
First, before we get there, I’d like to state that I feel on some level we need to change how we qualify success. The reality is that numbers don’t equal success. On the same note I would definitely be concerned if we as the church aren’t raiding hell like Jesus said we’d do in Matthew 16:18. So don’t take the previous statement as a way to excuse a lack of salvation. The number of people in your city who don’t know Jesus needs to bother you. At the same time I find one thing very helpful that most people don’t ever do.
What most people don’t do is actually ASK GOD how big He thinks their church should be.[Tweet That] You should do this. This will stop you from condemning and comparing when you have a church of 120 and that’s what God said, and when you have a church of 5000 and God didn’t say 10000. This will push you to grow when you have a church of 500 and God said 750 or a church of 1500 and God said 5000.
OK, rabbit trail over. Now onto what brings and keeps people. In 2012 there was a post on Church Relevance that you can read here or here that pulled from 4 studies done in the last 6 years regarding why people go to and stay at a church. It’s interesting that in all of the studies, worship style and church model was never listed as the top reason for why people go to or stay at a church. Here are the most interesting parts to takeaway:
- The top reason for why people attend church is “for spiritual growth and guidance”
- The top reason for why youth choose to continue attending after they leave their parents house is because they believe “church was a vital part of their relationship with God”
- The top reason for un-churched people to choose a church is the “Pastor/Preaching”
- The top reason for keeping un-churched people is “Ministry Involvement”
OK, well there are the reasons people come and stay. There’s more that I’ll say about this next week. For now, what are the implications in this that you can draw?