I’ll start with a simple question: Are you trying to grow your church or reach people?
The distinction might be more important than you think.
I love growth-minded leaders and I always appreciate pastors who are trying to reach their community. That’s the fuel for why I do what I do around here.
As a result, I’ve written on church growth for years, and, as you know, church growth gets a lot of shade from some Christian leaders (no surprise, I know).
I realize that sometimes the criticism of church growth and criticism of megachurches can come from leaders whose churches aren’t growing, or from people hurt by church growth. And that’s fair.
But deep down, I’ve always struggled with critics of church growth. After all, why would you criticize a church that’s reaching people with the hope and love of Christ?
The Hidden Danger of Focussing on Church Growth
And then it hit me.
In my mind, I’ve always conflated church growth with reaching more people. That is, if you want your church to grow, it must be because you want to reach people who are far from God. And to me, that’s a great thing.
Call me very late to the party on this one, but I then realized that perhaps every leader is not motivated by the desire to reach new people. They might, instead, simply be motivated by the desire to grow.
As I look back on my leadership, I realize that’s a constant tension for me, too. There’s something so seductive about growth that you can decouple it from the mission.
It still sounds good, it still seems noble, but it’s got an ugly underbelly.
Wanting to grow your church is one thing, but wanting to reach people is quite another. They seem the same, but deep down, the desire to grow can become sinister. The desire to reach people, well, that’s mission-focused.
Jesus was people-obsessed, not growth-obsessed.Wanting to grow your church is one thing, but wanting to reach people is quite another. Jesus was people-obsessed, not growth-obsessed. Share on X
There’s a big difference between wanting to reach people and wanting to grow your church. If you want to reach people, you’ll make different decisions than if you simply want to grow your church.
Wanting to reach people grows your heart. Simply wanting to grow your church can kill your heart.
So, in the spirit of giving us all a good motive check, here are three things growth-motivated leaders do that people-motivated leaders won’t.
1. You’ll Change Your Values To Drive Results.
If all you care about in the end is the numbers and metrics your church tracks, then you’ll do anything to see them go up.
You see this on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram all the time. Influencers trying to hack the algorithm will do anything it takes to get views, becoming extreme caricatures of themselves because it drives growth.
Pastors aren’t exempt from that, either.
Numerous pastors have discovered that becoming an ‘anti-woke’ church can drive almost instant growth, so they go there. Being more partisan or extreme can bring in floods of new people, so they get more partisan or extreme. Numerous pastors have discovered that becoming an ‘anti-woke’ church can drive almost instant growth, so they go there. Being more partisan or extreme can bring in floods of new people, so they get more partisan or extreme. Share on X
Fighting the culture wars from the pulpit, and becoming more partisan or extreme is arguably not the most faithful or wisest move for 21st century Christians to make. The culture needs an alternative to itself, not an echo of itself. And that’s what the Gospel offers.
The worst part of the ‘growth at any cost’ mindset is that it can lead you to change your values in order to change your results. I wish this wasn’t true, but I’ve literally heard pastors say that the reason they became anti-woke was to drive growth. Sigh.
Pastors who are motivated to reach people realize that people who need Jesus aren’t looking for a political or ideological solution to their problems, they’re looking for God.
Another value you’ll compromise is your integrity. As much as the scripture talks about integrity and even honest weights and measures (it shows up so many times in the Old Testament), we’ve all met pastors who inflate numbers to make themselves look good.
If you change your values to drive results, you’re in greater danger of losing your soul than you think. Pastors who are motivated to reach people realize that people who need Jesus aren’t looking for a political or ideological solution to their problems, they’re looking for God. Share on X
2. You’ll Be Fine With Transfer Growth When You Shouldn’t Be.
If you’re obsessed with growing your church, any growth looks like good growth.
It might feel good to say, “We’re growing by 30% a year” but if all that growth is transfer growth, you’ll end up with a very different church than a church that’s reaching people who don’t know Christ.
It’s true that some transfer growth is inevitable. Believers might move into your community and end up at your church. Other Christians might get frustrated with their church and come to yours. And, increasingly, as churches close, the remaining Christians will look for other churches to attend.
As inevitable as it is church transfer growth has its own set of challenges.
If you’re a leader driven to reach people with the Gospel, though, transfer growth won’t fuel you because it’s not tied to the mission as much as reaching unchurched people is.
An ambitious rule of thumb is that 50% of all new growth should come from people who don’t regularly attend church. I know this sounds impossible, but the church where I’m founding pastor has done this consistently year after year for decades.
Reach truly unchurched people and you’ll discover a whole new vibrancy to your mission. I realize that’s a stretch, but if your church’s growth isn’t focused on reaching new people, it’s not really growth it’s consolidation. If your church’s growth isn’t focused on reaching new people, it’s not really growth it’s consolidation. Share on X
But in an era when only 25% of Americans attend church weekly, there are so many people left to reach.
3. You’ll Make Numbers (Not People) Your Goal, Which Has Disastrous Consequences.
Numbers are important. They help you keep score and can indicate what’s working and what isn’t.
But if numbers are your only metric, you’ll do whatever it takes to drive them higher. You’ll also stop asking questions as soon as the numbers go up: after all, the end justifies the means.
The other problem with numbers is that they can distort and kill your soul. That is because, as Tim Keller perceptively pointed out, when you let success go to your head, failure will go to your heart. When you let success go to your head, failure will go to your heart. Share on X
If you fall into this trap, when numbers are up, you’re up. And when they’re down, you’re down.
Along the way, you can end up using people as a means to an end. And people, I mean your staff and your congregation.
People can become tools in service of the god of Growth. If they’re not helping you hit your numbers, you’ll end up manipulating them until they help you reach better numbers or dispose of them when they don’t. Anything to get a little more growth.
But if you’re committed to reaching people, you’ll realize that people are the end, not the means. They’re the point, not simply disposable collateral along the way.
The Future Church
When you look ahead at the next decade or more, it’s clear that inflating numbers and idolizing ‘growth’ as a goal isn’t going to produce a healthier church. It will produce a more sickly one.
However, churches that prioritize reaching people can have a vibrant future. A future in which people inside and outside the church are loved and led into a growing relationship with Jesus is a bright future.Prioritize growth, and eventually, you’ll lose both your soul and your goal. Prioritize reaching people, and you might just get growth as well. Share on X
