Dynamics

1
Dynamics Issues That Contribute to Continual
Growth
Best Practices

• with
• Tom Cheyney

2
Sited Resources

• www.ChurchPlantingVillage.net
• www.NAMB.net/CMR
• www.Barna.com
• Nine Habits of Effective Churches George Barna
• Comeback Churches Ed Stetzer
• Eleven Innovations for Growing Churches Elmer
  Towns

3
Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations

• How can churches today be as vital as the
  early Christian communities described in the Book
  of Acts? How can we reclaim the fruitful piety of
  the early saints of days gone by?
• Lets look at five foundational practices to
  help congregations be fruitful in ministry to
  their members and in service to the world.

4
Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations

• Analyzing the basic building blocks of
  congregational life, here are the key practices
  of fruitful congregations
• Radical hospitality the active desire to bring
  people to Christ and his church
• Passionate worship fresh encounters with God
  that transform lives
• Intentional faith development learning together
  in community
• Risk-taking mission and service an outward
  focus that changes the world through missional
  activity while invigorating the church
• Extravagant generosity sharing that exceeds all
  expectations

5
Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations

• The adjective in each of these phrases is the
  key to understanding what makes it fruitful.
  Without the modifier radical, hospitality
  describes the status quo. Worship, unless it is
  passionate, is business as usual for the
  church, and so on.
• God longs for the church to be so much more
  than it often is today.

6
Transforming Lives

• We don't plant churches just to have people
  show up on Sunday. We don't even plant them to
  simply convert the lost. We plant churches to
  transform lives so that God may be glorified.
  Most churches struggle with finding the balance
  between evangelism and discipleship. Focus on
  one, lose the other. Evangelism and discipleship
  are not an either/or.
• They are a both and!

7
Wrongful Habits that are Detrimental to Effective
Best Practices

• Habit
• Printing the Bible verses for the sermon in a
  handout or on a large screen!

• Detrimental Effect
• Encourages people to stop using their Bibles
  during the week, as well as no longer carrying
  them to church!

8
Wrongful Habits that are Detrimental to Effective
Best Practices

• Habit
• Conducting an annual Easter and/or Christmas
  event.

• Detrimental Effect
• Many of these events begin with great intentions
  but fizzle after a few years, becoming activities
  for their own sake, attracting few of the
  outsiders they were originally intended to
  attract!

9
Wrongful Habits that are Detrimental to Effective
Best Practices

• Detrimental Effect
• While there is always value to stability, the
  predictability of the service has created
  disenchantment among many because it is too
  routine and the message communicated is one of
  resistance to change in a world defined by change!

• Habit
• Maintaining a rigid order of service in the
  weekend event.

10
Wrongful Habits that are Detrimental to Effective
Best Practices

• Detrimental Effect
• Far too many churches pay one salary for the
  minister and expect the spouse to act as a
  full-time employee without pay. This adds stress
  to the ministers family and unrealistic
  expectations for the church!

• Habit
• Expecting the pastors spouse to be the catch-all.

11
Wrongful Habits that are Detrimental to Effective
Best Practices

• Detrimental Effect
• This will undermine the trust the church has for
  the pastor.

• Habit
• Requiring the pastor to be the chief fund-raiser
  for the church.

12
Wrongful Habits that are Detrimental to Effective
Best Practices

• Detrimental Effect
• This will undermine the church and provide static
  information to people. Those who are 30 or
  younger are not looking for info, they are
  looking for interactivity. The rest simply are
  not looking!

• Habit
• Developing an information-laden web site.

13
Habits that are beneficial to Effective Best
Practices!

• To avoid creating bad habits in ministry we must
  be very conscious of what we do, when we do it,
  why we do it and the outcome of those actions.
  Here are four elements that make a habit
  desirable and not negative
• It is a intentional behavior. (Anything
  unintentional pulls away from the experience!)

14
Habits that are beneficial to Effective Best
Practices!

• To avoid creating bad habits in ministry we must
  be very conscious of what we do, when we do it,
  why we do it and the outcome of those actions.
  Here are four elements that make a habit
  desirable and not negative
• 2. It is a strategic behavior. There is
  purpose behind the action. It is consistent with
  the mission, vision, and values.

15
Habits that are beneficial to Effective Best
Practices!

• To avoid creating bad habits in ministry we must
  be very conscious of what we do, when we do it,
  why we do it and the outcome of those actions.
  Here are four elements that make a habit
  desirable and not negative
• 3. It is a productive behavior. The goal is
  changed lives. Anything less needs to be
  removed.

16
Habits that are beneficial to Effective Best
Practices!

• To avoid creating bad habits in ministry we must
  be very conscious of what we do, when we do it,
  why we do it and the outcome of those actions.
  Here are four elements that make a habit
  desirable and not negative
• 4. It is a biblical behavior. Everything must
  be examined in light of Gods principles and
  parameters.

17
Best Practices That Can Contribute to Growth

• Strategic Prayer
• Engaging in Strategic Evangelism
• Led by Strong Transformational Leaders
• Preaching
• Childrens ministry
• Youth Ministry
• Relationship Building
• Attitudes
• Finances/Stewardship
• Leadership Development
• Lay Mobilization

• Missions
• Assimilation
• Genuine Worship
• Small Groups / Sunday School
• Structure of Organization
• Marketing
• Change Agents (pastor, new staff etc.)
• Community Service
• Facilities
• Servant Hood

18
Here are the top nine best practices

• Strategic Leadership
• Effective Organizations
• Relationship Building
• Genuine Worship
• Strategic Evangelism
• Systematic Theological Growth
• Holistic Stewardship
• Serve the needy
• Equip Families to minister

19
Strategic Prayer

• Strategic Prayer was listed as one of the top
  three factors for church revitalization and I
  would add for new church growth as well (other
  two were Evangelism and Preaching).
• Forty-four percent of respondents say that the
  key ingredient in growth is strategic prayer.
  Prayer changes things! It is a learned behavior.
  No one masters prayer and there are no experts.
  An increased emphasis in prayer and our prayer
  patterns in a church is vital.
• 
  
  Pg 200, 55 Stetzer

20
Engaging in Strategic Evangelism

• Four out of five protestant churches describe
  their church as evangelistic! The difference for
  highly effective evangelistic churches is that
  they are engaged strategically in evangelism.
• It is an act of love not a pressure to accomplish
  sort of thing.
• A large focus on Child Youth evangelism. (These
  ministers are perhaps the primary evangelist of
  the church!)
• These finish the task by completing the
  evangelization process through personal
  discipleship of new converts!
  Pg 103 Barna Habits

21
Preaching

• Twenty-five percent of respondents stated that
  preaching was one of the top three factors
  towards growth.
• These churches dont just preach the Word of God,
  they do it in ways as to motivate the people into
  action while using their preaching as a regular
  form for casting of vision.

22
Led by Strong Transformational Leaders

• Churches that are serious agencies of life
  transformation have leaders who possesses the
  same qualities a vision of what they seek to
  create, a respect based relationship with a team
  of competent assistants, effective communication
  skills, a strategic mind, purposeful courage, and
  an unquenchable passion about the outcome to
  which they are committed.
• This is a big change from the present day norm
  where pastors are afraid to lead or are incapable
  to leaded and appear to be in neutral.
• 
  
• 
  
  Pg 22 Barna Habits

23
Significant Relationship Building

• Relationship building will either make you or
  break you as a pastor/leader. If you are
  effective in drawing people around you in
  effective lasting relationships you will have a
  greater chance to be effective.
• What makes a church secure and stable is not mere
  friendliness but true concern, compassion, and
  caring for others.
• Most churches give little thought to how
  relationships develop within the church. There
  needs to be a purposeful commitment to
  relationship building with other believers (most
  of this is outside of small groups)!
• 
  
  Pg 65 Barna Habits

24
Finances Stewardship

• There is a holistic approach to finances and
  stewardship among highly effective churches!
  Stewardship is a big issue in these churches and
  they communicate this regularly. When
  communicated it is in terms of managing all of
  the resources that have been entrusted to us by
  God. All things are His, but He has appointed us
  the guardians of His estate. We have free reign
  with these resources, but will ultimately be held
  accountable to Him, by Him, according to the
  guidelines provided in the Bible.
• The underlying motivation is that stewardship is
  a biblical behavior.
• 
  
  Pg 135 Barna Habits

25
Facilitating Genuine Worship

• America has worship challenges! Research
  shows that 1/3 of congregants never experience
  Gods powerful presence in worship! Further, ½ of
  regular attendee's say they have not experienced
  Gods presence in worship during the past year!
• Re-engineering of worship vital.
• Re-designing of worship is critical.
• 
  
  Pg 75 Barna Habits

26
Facilitating Genuine Worship

• Indicators of Genuine worship
• People are clearly shaken by their experience
  physically, emotionally, pr intellectually.
• People are anxious to return church for another
  God encounter.
• Worshippers have an undeniable sense of Gods
  presence in their midst.
• Individuals experienced a deep need to repent
  before God.
• There is a willingness to surrender control to
  God and allow Him to direct ones life.
• The message provided a biblical impetus for
  people to clarify their worldview and to grow
  holistically.
• 
  
  Pg 75 Barna
  Habits

27
Structure of organization

• Structuring the church for impact is part and
  parcel of any growing endeavor. Failure to do so
  hinders the potential for success. Successful
  churches cannot be agencies of transformation
  unless they are structured to facilitate
  effectiveness. Here are the most common traits
  of these churches
• Participation is critical
• Salaried staff is limited
• Structure fits ministry
• A reasonable growth plan in place
• Accountability is embraced by staff not feared
• Structure exists to foster ministry impact, not
  to
• impair it!
• 
  
  
• 
  
  Page
  49 Barna Habits

28
Serving the community

• When surveyed, the most frequent answer to the
  question Why do churches exist? was to
  demonstrate the love of God by helping the needy.
• But one in ten churches are actually engaged
  in community while one if five pastors believe
  they are engaged. There is a balanced to struck
  for sure but all of could do more than we are
  doing.
• 
  
  Pg 143 Barna Habits

29
Equipping the Family

• Building up the Christian home is still a big
  priority for effective churches. Here are the
  seven perceived needs of the family
• Trustworthy counselors
• True partnership in marriage
• Better childhood development
• Better parenting skills
• Greater courage to change
• Greater emotional support
• A family-crisis safety net
• 
  Pg 156 Barna

30
Summation

• One interesting discovery was that it is much
  easier to become a highly effective church if you
  are working in anew church plant. Since it is
  not yet had the time to develop bad habits or
  become entrenched in routines.

31
Leadership development

• Leadership matters for churches desiring to
  either continue to grow or to travel through a
  revitalization strategy! It takes strong
  leadership to move churches through the real
  issues involved in growth or revitalization.
• These type of leaders
• Take the initiative for change.
• Challenge day to day excuses.
• Proactive leadership.
• Goal setting.
• Pray Matthew 937-38 Regularly and
• Passionately

32
Assimilation

• Imagine what it would be like if community
  leaders felt compelled to attend your church's
  two year birthday celebration because they had
  found a relational connection with you? What if
  at your 5th birthday party they came to express
  their thanks for being part of the community? And
  what if after 10 years they were trying to
  remember what it was like before you were there?
• Externally focused churches are convinced that
  good deeds and good news go together and that
  they are vital to the health and well-being of
  the community. Externally focused churches choose
  the window seat not the aisle seat and,
  regardless of size, age or location they can find
  a way to make a difference in the community.
• Becoming an externally focused church means
  helping people discover grace, grow in grace and
  live gracefully. These are the ideas we will
  explore together in Becoming an Externally
  Focused New Church.

33
Servanthood

• A heart for service is vital within any growing
  church new or old alike. Servanthood is taught,
  modeled, and practiced within churches that are
  interested in growth.
• Servanthood helps you keep an outward focus into
  the community.
• Servanthood is a great way to demonstrate that it
  is not about us but about others.
• Servanthood is a great way to lead people to care
  more about their community than their preferences!

34
Attitudes

• Before anyone can become motivated towards
  action, ones heart must be changed. Attitudes
  are one of the top challenges for any minister.

35
Lay mobilization

• When you engage more lay people in meaningful
  ministry the church benefits. It is also
  biblical to have the laity step up to their
  spiritual gifts and use them for ministry.
  Empowering lay leadership is key.
• When church members are expected to be involved
  and to use their God given gifts, talents, and
  skills the ministry wins and the Lord is honored.

36
Small groups / Sunday school

• Many a growing church already knows that small
  group assimilation is a huge indicator towards a
  growing church. It is the place where community
  and doing life together takes place! They are
  the basic building blocks on which the church is
  built.

37
Facilities

• Most church planters understand the need for
  space to grow a church! It is interesting how
  quickly we forget this once we are up and
  running. Keeps your space fresh and configure it
  in a new way regularly.
• Some ideas
• Add venues, childrens events, youth events, use
  multi-purpose space, remodel, retro-fit, etc.

38
Marketing

• Ten percent of American churches use marketing!
• Thirty-eight percent of growing churches use
  marketing.
• Three core convictions
• The church ought to be the most creative
  place on the planet The greatest message
  deserves the greatest marketing The church is
  called to compete in the middle of the
  marketplace

39
Missions

• These churches sense Gods moving and believe
  that being missional is foundational to healthy
  growth.

40
New Innovations that most of us missed!

• Many congregations wake up to discover that
  the church has changed and nobody has told us!
  The principles are the same but the methods are
  in a state of flux!
• Remember the old adage
• Methods are many
• Principles are few
• Methods may change
• But principles never do!

41
New Innovations that most of us missed!

• Some innovations on the horizon
• Recovery Revitalization Churches
• Multi-site churches
• Ancient/future churches
• City reaching churches
• Community transformation churches
• Cyber-enhanced churches
• Nickelodeon churches

42
New Innovations that most of us missed!

• Some innovations on the horizon
• Organic Churches
• Intentionally Multicultural churches
• Decision/Journey churches
• Attractional Churches
• Extreme Churches

43
Dynamics Issues That Contribute to Revival
Growth
Thank you for allowing me to be your MISSIONARY!!!

• By
• Dr. Tom Cheyney