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Church Growth - Stagnation
This thread is not a discussion about small churches vs mega churches or house church. It is a discussion of what should be expected of a church regarding normal growth.
Church growth is affected by many factors. Churches in small communities with declining populations who maintain the number of church members may in fact be "growing" as their percentage of a declining area population increases even though their number may remain constant.
I strongly believe that the population area around a church is also something to measure a church's proper growth by. That is one of the things that always made the Pentecostals of Alexandria such an amazing story within "mega" UPC churches. When I was young they were running over 1,000 people each Sunday in a town that had less than 50,000 people. So percentage wise they were reaching more of their community than any other UPC mega church at the time.
If you pastor a church of 50 in a community of 5000 people if you could reach 5% of that population and grow to 250 that would be a great success in my eyes although, of course, the ultiimate goal is to reach many more of that population.
Likewise if you pastor a church of 50 in a town of 50,000 people and you are not growing then, in my opinion, something is wrong. Obvioiusly many factors go into a church growing. Sometimes pastors inherit dysfunctional churches that might take a few years to bring to a place where outreach and growth is possible. However that should happen.
What made me decide to start this thread is that I was looking at a Pentecostal church website. The church has been there for many decades in a Southern town with a population of around 200,000 people. I know nothing about the church or the pastors who have pastored it. However in reading the church history they mentioned that when the current pastor came about 20 years ago the church doubled from 60 to 120 members in two years. Then it proceeded to say that currently the church runs 100-120 members. I thought to myself that it seems incredible this church in a decent sized city would see virtually no growth in 20 years. It made me wonder how that pastor, church, and other pentecostals look at church growth and how they measure their success in carrying out the great commission.
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"I think some people love spiritual bondage just the way some people love physical bondage. It makes them feel secure. In the end though it is not healthy for the one who is lost over it or the one who is lives under the oppression even if by their own choice"
Titus2woman on AFF
"We did not wear uniforms. The lady workers dressed in the current fashions of the day, ...silks...satins...jewels or whatever they happened to possess. They were very smartly turned out, so that they made an impressive appearance on the streets where a large part of our work was conducted in the early years.
"It was not until long after, when former Holiness preachers had become part of us, that strict plainness of dress began to be taught.
"Although Entire Sanctification was preached at the beginning of the Movement, it was from a Wesleyan viewpoint, and had in it very little of the later Holiness Movement characteristics. Nothing was ever said about apparel, for everyone was so taken up with the Lord that mode of dress seemingly never occurred to any of us."
Quote from Ethel Goss (widow of 1st UPC Gen Supt. Howard Goss) book "The Winds of God"
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