Change and Church Growth

Two significant events took place this past week which could have major impacts upon First Baptist Icard in the days ahead. The first involved myself, Tom and Jeff. We were invited to be one of five churches across North Carolina to share at the NCBSC Discipleship Training Division’s Special Workers’ Training session.

As pastor, I had the opportunity to share what God has been doing through our church during the past six years. The bulk of this message concerns the report or model presentation as they called it, which I presented to the Baptist State Convention’s special workers.

The other event of tremendous importance happened just yesterday morning here at FBI. Our newly formed Long Range Planning Committee or Vision Committee meet for three hours of training to kick-off our assignment of writing our church’s future.

Making disciples ought to be the passion of us all. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19,

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (NIV).

I also began with a confession. A confession I often bring to the Lord. I often find myself losing focus regarding our mission. I tend to confuse the priority of our mission. Sometimes I focus on the means and not the end. You see, I really do believe that the end purpose of our mission in the church is to make disciples. That is our mission. Make disciples. But often our talk, our plans, our programming seems to focus on “Growing the church,” and not on the individual process of discipleship.

What the Lord reminds me of is this; “if we make disciples, then the church will grow.” But our focus should not be on “growing the church,” but on making disciples! (You’re not too tired to give me an amen on that are you?)

I shared something of my background. I told them I was the pastor of the FBI. I came to First Baptist Icard on April Fools’ Day of 1990 and I’ve been fooling them ever since. You might be interested to know that I have served two other churches during my 16 years of pastoring. For seven years I served a church in Gaffney, SC, and before that I served a small seminary pastorate while attending SWBTS, in Fort Worth, Texas.

FBI is presently a church with slightly more than 1000 total members. We are situated in what is really a rural section of Eastern Burke County, between Hickory and Morganton. The Icard community itself is reported to have about 800 residents.

When I came to FBI we had 465 total members. Our average Sunday School attendance was near 150. Recently we have been averaging about 430 in SS. We have baptized more than 400 people the past four years.

I wish I could give you a statistic for the number of disciples we have made during that same time. But Southern Baptist don’t keep those records.

Our church staff includes myself, and one other full-time minister. (Brethren pray for us). Tom Quarles is our Minister of Education and Youth, and Jeff Brown is our Minister of Children. We also have a part-time Minister of Music, and one full-time secretary. In September of this past year we began a Daycare ministry employing a director and 17 additional workers. We call it the Child Enrichment Center. We have about 80 children six weeks to 5 years old. In this evening’s service we will have our first graduation or commencement service for our five year olds.

One principle I have sought to ground into our people is that “We Must Be Willing To Change.” Following close on the heels of that principle is another, “We Must Be Willing To Fail.” Not every change we make will work. That’s okay. It’s all right to admit some things will not work. Move on. Don’t spend time playing the blame game or accusing or saying, “I told you so.” Just learn from it and move on.

The story I shared about FBI was a story of change. A story of a willing people who have over the years, been overwhelmingly supportive and faithful. Trusting and obedient to follow the Lord in every challenging opportunity He has given us.

I love the summary statement of the study for Celebrating God’s Pattern of Change for His Church. “Churches which embrace and respond to change are growing. Those which don’t, aren’t.” Over the years we have changed a lot.

In fact I want to use the study as a guide for this message about FBI. What I found as I read the study and made comparison to our church is good news and bad news.

Good news: Despite the fact that FBI is an older church, organized in 1918, we are one of the 17 churches in the study which are growing despite our age. So we have been able to break with tradition in some degree to grow our church.

SIZE

It’s good news that we are in the percentage of the fastest growing churches with 400 or more people in attendance. It’s comforting to know that the larger we become, does not necessarily make it more difficult to reach people.

DESCRIPTION

I would describe FBI as a progressive, innovative, evangelical, church. Our worship style blends the traditional with the contemporary. We use hymns, but like singing chorus and clapping. You’re more likely to hear strong, upbeat contemporary music than anthems. Our people like strong preaching, but put up with anything. We work on creating an atmosphere that is light, personal and informal. I know it’s cliquish, but our people really are friendly and receptive to all people. With a church like ours, I don’t know why we haven’t reached more people than we have!

OUR COMMUNITY

And I think its good news that although we are located in a plateaued community with less than 1% growth, we have somehow managed to reach people!

INTENTIONAL CHURCH

We are an intentional church when it comes to evangelism. (And I think that’s good news) We practice intentional, confrontational evangelism. Our setting still affords us the opportunity to practice Acts 20/20 Evangelism, from door to door. What do I mean by intentional? Our church has voted that no other church programming can be conducted on Monday nights except for Evangelistic Visitation. And that’s what we do on Monday nights. We go out and share Christ with our community. We believe the promise of the Scriptures that say, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” John 12:32. We simply seek to lift up Jesus. We have found that 1 out of every 3 times we share the Gospel, someone is saved. We have witnessed more than 100 persons trust Christ on Monday nights alone.

We are also intentional in our worship services. We rarely have a Sunday service in which an invitation is not offered. I always seek to appeal to the lost to trust Christ. We applaud for those who make decisions for Christ. We moved baptismal services to Sunday mornings when the majority of our people are gathered. We applaud for those who are baptized. We think it’s a big deal when some one gets saved!

Intentionally in Evangelism has made a difference for us.

INTENTIONAL WORSHIP

We’ve made changes in our worship services over the years and we’re still changing. We believe our people like and want a more expressive style of worship. They seem to participate more in chorus singing or praise singing than in traditional hymn singing.

We’ve moved our announcements to the beginning or ending of our services. Although I believe it is very important to promote, and motivate our people about upcoming events which help us to achieve our purpose, that of reaching people, and making disciples. We have moved our traditional “prayer request” time from Sunday mornings to Sunday evenings and Wednesday nights. We have miced our ushers offertory prayer so it can be heard and enjoyed. We have an informal time of greeting our guests (not visitors), with a lot of movement. That’s the good news.

There is some bad news in our worship however. Our Sunday morning worship is often crowded with our efforts to promote all that is happening at church. I am often challenged to bring the message in less than ideal time. There is a tendency to be too inhibited in our worship as well. We are still growing in our efforts to create the proper style of worship and praise our people enjoy and our Lord deserves.

SMALL GROUPS

There is also good news and bad news about small groups at FBI. We saw the need for small groups several years ago. Small groups for us are specialized groups which may or may not offer a special study. When they do, we have used MasterLife, Experiencing God, Lord Heal My Hurts by Kay Arthur, First Place, WiseCounsel and other courses from the LIFE series. We have had Single Parent Support groups as well. Most of these small groups meet on Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening or Wednesday evening. We also use DT as time for training SS workers, evangelism, (CWT), and Ushers and Greeters. The bad news is that we need to offer a broader curriculum or choice of small groups and additional on-going training.

ASSILMILATION

Likewise, there is good and bad news when it comes to assimilation. Over the years we have tried just about everything. “First Steps for New Believers,” “Survival Kit for New Believers,” New Christian Classes, Encouragers, and on and on with mixed results.

For example, our recent revival saw 142 professions of faith. We organized well for assimilation. Our people responded well. We contacted every person by letter and phone. We have nearly visited personally every person who is a prospect. (We sent more than half of these decisions to churches of choice). We have baptized about 60 people as a result. They are being assigned a Deacon and a Sunday School class. They are encouraged to attend a new Christians’ class. But even with all of that, many have not responded, and some are slipping away.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS DISCOVERY

One of the areas of training offered by growing churches which we have neglected is spiritual gift discovery. We have not taught nor helped our people discover nor develop their spiritual gifts appropriately. We believe involvement is crucial for maintaining spiritual growth but we have not provided adequately in this area. This is definitely bad news.

MISSION STATEMENT

FBI does not have a written mission statement. We do, however, have a mission statement. It’s found in God’s Word. It reads this way, “Go and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19). We love other scriptures like Acts 1:8, “but you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses..” or “as the Father hath sent me even so send I you.” (John 20:21)

If we have been successful at reaching, winning and developing believers it is because we have focused our ministry upon the precepts of God’s Word. We believe the Bible is the Word of God that directs our actions. When we have been true and obedient to do all He says, then we have His blessings. When we begin to grow weary in well doing then we suffer.

Let me close with just a few additional thoughts on why I think God has blessed our church and a few words on things we need.

LEADERSHIP IS VITAL

I believe the spiritual leadership of a church is absolutely critical to its ability to reach people. Beginning with the pastor, the staff, and its lay leadership, primarily deacons and Sunday School teachers, we must have consistency in strong leadership. If the pastor and staff, walk close to God, and serve Him diligently, then so will the people. If the deacons and SS teachers are careless in their commitment then the whole of the church will suffer.

As pastor of a large church, I realize my roles and responsibilities are shifting. I can no longer be involved in every decision, every meeting, every need of our church and its members. I give this up reluctantly. I suffer from a small church mentality as do many of you. I spend as much time in administration now as I do in all other areas of pastoral responsibility combined. I have become more of a rancher than a shepherd.

But I still believe my active leadership needs to be felt and seen. “I will never ask my people to do anything that I myself am not willing to do or have done.”

Leadership is both a strength and a weakness for FBI. We desperately need additional staff ministers and administrative personnel for the future. Our lay leaders need to continually evaluate their own commitment and make adjustment in service and faithfulness.

We could use more structure to communicate what is expected and training to help our leaders do the job we need and expect.

SUNDAY SCHOOL

I still believe in the Sunday School as a people reaching, people keeping organization. I love the Sunday School. I think Flake’s Formula still works. Every church I’ve pastored has grown as a result of focusing on growth through the Sunday School. Creating new classes, developing new workers, organizing for outreach in a class still works.

Do we have problems in our growing Sunday School? Yes we do. We could just about summarize it with a few words. One of these is the word “SPACE!” We are out of space for future classes and future growth. We do believe we should never allow lack of space to be a hindrance to growth. As a staff, we are already at work anticipating possible solutions to assure our continued growth.

EDUCATION is also a need for our Sunday School. I don’t have in mind here the education or teaching we do on Sunday mornings in the class, although we could improve here as well. Somehow we must educate our people about the importance of moving from that small church mentality when it comes to preparation and training. We are no longer a small church. We are a large church! But we are a large church with a small church mentality. That must change. The days when being a Sunday School teacher meant showing up to teach your class on Sunday are over! There’s much more expected of our teachers and workers than there use to be. Some have not awakened to this reality yet. They will!

BIG EVENTS

We believe in BIG EVENTS! Special days, emphases on attendance, revival, unique studies, have all produced excitement, faith, new members, and prospects for years to come.

We will offer more and more big day events in the future. We will focus more on the small groups as well which offer diversified training or helps for individuals and families.

All in all, FBI has a bright future. In closing, I would ask you to please pray for several things. First, our LRPC. They have six months of diligent and difficult work ahead as they prepare to present to you our plans for the future. Second, pray for yourselves and the part you may play in our bright future.

Related Media

Related Sermons