Growing the Small Church

  What are the things holding small churches back, well the bible says we parish for a lack of knowledge. As I stated in earlier post small churches don’t have a database of resources or ideological practices to guide them. Many small churches neglect business practices or don’t have the desire to be innovative in how they handle services. What makes a small church a small-minded church has a great deal to do with desire, people have to want to grow. Per Joe Mckeever and many others who study church growth, the number one reason churches stay small is: Wanting to stay small. “We like our church just the way it is now.” While this attitude usually goes unspoken — it might not even be recognized by its carriers — it’s widespread in many churches. The proof is clear in how the leaders and congregation reject new ideas and freeze out new people. This is worst when people say they want growth but have no real desire to do so. Lip service with this can cripple a movement; this isn’t exclusiv

  Why am I pushing tribes so hard, well tribes unlike groups and organizations, are people driven. Tribes create movements, sustainable change, and radical thinking. Tribes are organic and fluid in how they operate. Organizations and groups tend to work on a hierarchical platform. This means unless there are strong leaders willing to be transparent and not threatened by others taking the lead for areas of expertise. A tribe mentality is necessary when working in unison to tackle a herculean task. Growing a small church is difficult if you don’t have the right people on the bus. Jim Collins wrote in his groundbreaking business book Good to Great, in order to tackle large issues, and the issue that are more abstract in nature; we need the right people. Things that require more than innovation and owner mindset require people to have a stake in the work executed. Tribes are people motivated to make change and for small churches, there are not many resources to explore. This database needs

  Hello good people, let us talk about why building the small church is so important. As I stated in earlier articles, mega churches rock, I come from one (shout our pastor Brad and Northridge in Plymouth MI) but as awesome as the ridge is and for the good it does in the world; it doesn’t and shouldn’t have to support the District 3 area of Detroit. RTTM is there and has a better grasp on the concerns of the neighborhood. While an outside perspective can help in the overall product, the ones closet to the situation are the experts to deal with the issue. Keeping churches in the neighborhood also helps anchor that community. Now in Detroit there is a store front church and liquor on every corner and some see that as a waste but this article is about defining the small church and the small minded church. I agree small minded churches are not helping the communities nearby, so their issues make sense, so we have to determine what makes the 2 types of churches different. What is a small mi

  I am really excited to get this tribe of small church leaders established; I can’t wait to see how many hands make the work light applied to action.   Before I get too far ahead let me explain where I’m starting in my small church. My family’s church Returning to Truth Ministries was established 2/9/2003. When our church started it was not as diverse as one would like for a startup, (In time you will see I make many comparisons to a church and a startup firm) the demographics were either over 35 or less than 20, black, low income, and unemployed. So we started off rough, we also started off with less than 20 members. We fall into a group not even listed in most church size classifications.   Needless to say we’ve had the hamster wheel affect when it comes to growth. As the under 20 crowd grew and had children the numbers increased and for a while we hit the magical 50 number but people lost interest ,lost passion, or gained independence and stop coming(myself included for a few yea

  Welcome to this new blog: Growing the small church. I hope through my trials and errors we are able  t o grow small churches. Mega churches are awesome but they can’t be on every corner nor can they affect every neighborhood in how they need support. Despite how the trends look, there is a place for small churches in the world. In this bleak moment where Covid-19 has made gathering difficult mega churches small churches have the opportunity to fill a void. My family sized church (50 members or less) falls under the criteria for gathering, we’re in Michigan one of the strictest states with Covid restrictions so being able to have service is a great thing. Depending where you live and worship things may differ but soon people will want more than a streamed service (shot out to the churches mastering Facebook live and paying for other streaming services) and when that happens we have to be ready to support our communities and people of God. Needless to say I hope to help everyone accomp