Breaching the barriers in attendance

Are you tired of adding names to church books, while attendance remains flat? When I began ministry as a young intern, I was sent to a large city to assist a successful evangelist in a series of meetings. That church had a book membership of over 300, and its Sabbath attendance was around 175. My job was member visitation. We worked our hearts out and were rewarded with 56 baptisms. We were happy for the results.

About a year later I learned the attendance at the church was still around 175. What had happened? Many reasons were given for the failure to hold these people; however, the simple answer was that the church was up against what some church growth specialists call an "attendance barrier."

Some believe we should abandon the effort to grow churches because "it simply cannot be done." The push is on to plant churches, and it should continue because it promises to boost the Church in North America. However, we must not abandon efforts to grow existing churches. It can be done! All those empty seats represent places where people can come weekly and meet with God and His family. We must learn how to move our churches through attendance barriers.

Growth in existing churches is biblical

The parables of Christ show that the gospel is a story of life, expectancy, and growth. The Day of Pentecost, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, created almost instantaneously a large congregation (Acts 2:42, 47). Large congregations were formed everywhere as the gospel spread (see Acts 4:4; 8:6; 9:35, 42; 11:21, 26; 13:44, 49; 14:21, 23; 16:5; 17:4, 6, 12; 19:20). We should expect no less today. "'Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations'" is God's command (Matt. 28:18-20, NKJV).

We believe that there will be a global spreading of the gospel before Christ returns (Matt. 24:14). We should expect this even in areas such as North America, Europe, and Australia. Such an expectation demands that Adventists understand how to move through barriers to growth. Thousands of small Adventist churches need to be moved through attendance barriers as we move to accept the final influx of people for the kingdom.

Ellen White called for a plan of action to bring members of large church communities into active service. The call is to have every member a minister working to bring the gospel to those around the church.¹ She calls for reform and more effective organization. Large churches are called upon to assist smaller churches. They are to train and send the trainees out into new areas.

Structuring to meet the demands of large churches

Imagine a large auto factory trying to operate under the same organizational structure as the local hardware store. The store could be a sole proprietorship, but the large factory will never be successful as a sole proprietorship, or even a partnership. It must organize and operate as a corporation with a high degree of structure. Likewise, if a church has, or desires to have, 1,000 people in attendance in its worship service, it cannot organize or operate as a small group, or even as a small church. A church will tend to be what it is envisioned, structured, and organized to be. If there are 12 in your church and you wish to have 100, you must structure and operate like a church with an attendance of 100. If you have 150 in attendance and you wish for 400, you must structure and operate like a church of 400 in attendance.

There are different barriers that may make it difficult for a congregation to grow without changes in structure and operation. While these numbers are somewhat arbitrary, I believe there are growth barriers at 12, 75, 200, 400, and a 1,000.

My experience and concern for the lack of growth of attendance in existing Adventist churches led to the topic of my dissertation. I chose the 200 barrier because the literature described it as the most stubborn barrier number. Ten churches below this attendance barrier were surveyed and compared to ten that had moved beyond the barrier. These findings were applied to the Northwest Houston Seventh-day Adventist Church. The results were that it grew from an attendance of 180 to 300 in about four years. I would like to share what I have found about moving churches through barriers in attendance. While each size of church will have its unique answers there are elements that are common to all.

Structure for growth in attendance

First, we must realize that different sizes of churches demand different types of organization. Once we identify where we are, we can begin to structure and organize for the next level. Just the knowledge that we must be different to reach the next attendance goal should be empowering. Change should be easier in a congregation if we understand that it is necessary to make alterations in our present structure to reach our desire for effective evangelism and growth.

Physical facilities and growth. While church growth literature speaks of crowded facilities as a hindrance to maintaining attendance above the barrier, my survey revealed that churches maintained attendance beyond the barrier in spite of crowded conditions. We must not say, "We can begin to grow as soon as we build a new church facility or parking lot."

The churches I surveyed below the barrier had a great deal of extra capacity, yet they hadn't breached the barrier. Crowding is not a guarantee that growth will be arrested or reversed. Growth can come first and the problems dealt with along the way as growth occurs. The churches above the barrier dealt creatively with the problems. They would park on the lawn, have two services, or use portable classrooms for more Sabbath School space. We should move ahead and deal with the issues as they arise.

Location and demographics. While urban and suburban locations are beneficial for growth, small cities and towns are also ripe places, even where larger churches already exist. These churches are not there because of their location or because the congregations are younger on average. These churches are able to sustain larger attendance in a multitude of locations because they have transformed into a different kind of organization.

Vision and goals. Pastors and staff, along with church leadership, must truly understand the concepts in visioning for the future. Vision and goals must not be confused with one another. A vision is a view of a desired future; goals are measurable steps along the way to attaining the vision.

The vision and goal concepts must then be communicated continually to the church family. The pastor's understanding of the vision is critical for a church to be able to move through barriers and maintain attendance. Both the leadership and the congregation must see it as God's will that they grow. A clear vision, discovered by the church, and constantly communicated allows them to be willing to do what is necessary to transform and grow. Without a clear vision a church is destined to plateau or decline.

Leadership is key to a successful push-through and a sustained attendance above an attendance barrier. If the surveys I did showed me any thing, it was that the future of the church depends on leadership. Leadership must discover, stimulate, and communicate the vision on a continual basis.

Church staffing. The staffing of a church is critical to growth and maintenance above an attendance barrier. The literature I surveyed spoke of one pastoral staff member for every 100 to 150 in attendance. My survey showed this to be true (at least in North America). If we wish our churches to grow, we must staff them properly. If we feel we can't afford such staffing, we can be creative in how we find these full-time equivalents. Beyond the pastor, we can use Bible workers, retired pastors, and lay ministry teams to name a few suggestions.

My survey showed that longer stays by leadership in a pastoral position is important. Growing a church through an attendance barrier is a long-term project. Pastors must stay long enough to provide continuity to make this happen.

Ministry training. Professional pas tors should spend more time and emphasis on training lay leaders for ministry. This would bring them less role frustration, as lay leaders take on greater ministry responsibility.

The survey indicated that larger churches tended to offer a wider range of training events. Some were evangelistic and others were more nurturing in nature. These churches tended to be more creative and less traditional in the training events.

Small groups. Most church growth literature is almost unanimous when it comes to the importance of small groups in the church. Our local survey showed that only 17 percent of those attending the Adventist churches we covered were involved in formal organized small groups. Relationships are completely necessary to moving and maintaining attendance above the barrier.

Our definition of a group must widen beyond the formal, organized small groups. A pastor should foster a wide range of opportunities for people to be engaged in. All these should have a strong relational component undergirding their reason for existing. Win Am defines a small group as, "a face-to-face fellowship of per sons (normally 10-30) who meet at least monthly."² Small groups are absolutely necessary. The forms and reasons for their existence are almost limitless.

Prayer. Scripture, church growth literature, and church leaders in general are unanimous in affirming that any plan to grow the church of God involves communion with God in prayer. Jesus spent large amounts of time in prayer to complete His mission. Our survey indicated that the pastors in churches that had broken through a barrier spent significant time in prayer each week. A church wishing to move through an attendance barrier needs to intensify its prayer life. After all, it is God's dream, vision, and mission we wish to follow.

Worship. Our survey indicated that a more contemporary mode of wor ship is part of growing a larger church. Increasingly we find our selves needing to discover ways to make secular people, or nominal Christians, into devoted Christians and Seventh-day Adventists. What was formerly comfortable to people with a strong church background is often no longer valid today. Many of the people we desire to fellowship and worship with us have no context with which to compare today's church, except perhaps the professional and other venues they encounter in their everyday lives. A church that wishes to grow must rethink its liturgy. It must ask the question "What will 'worship' mean to the particular people we wish to have with us in church this week?" Whatever the answer is, it must be done with excellence.

Evangelism. God ordained evangelism. The survey of churches showed that just an emphasis on major evangelistic events was not enough to bring about growth into a larger, growing church. The larger churches tend to have a wider definition of evangelism. Evangelism today must be innovative.

We need to be willing to think out side of the box. A more relational approach is more effective. Whether the new people in attendance at worship are denominational transfers from elsewhere, reclaimed members, or new people from the community, the reason they have come and stayed is almost always because they have been able to build new relation ships in the church.

The future

God has commissioned Seventh-day Adventists to carry a last-day message to the people of the world. The thousands of empty seats across the continent should be used to bring people to worship a saving God. Much of this can be done without the need to build new buildings, parking lots, or classrooms.

We must learn how to move our small churches through the different attendance barriers until they are strong centers for the gospel. These centers can then be a source of trained people and resources to move out to yet other places where we can plant new churches and bring the message of the gospel in its end-time setting for the benefit of a struggling world.

The dream of every pastor, evangelist, and our Almighty God is for us to bring to Christ and to baptism large groups of people and have them stay a part of the church family. We can organize and structure our churches so they can hold more and more people to the glory of God.