The Church Growth Network, founded in 1987, provides a wide range of professional consulting services for churches. Our firm is particularly well-versed in church analysis, strategic planning, staffing, breaking size barriers, coaching of church planters, and generational change issues.
Today’s interest in the growth of the Church is attributed primarily to the pioneering work of Donald A. McGavran. The Church Growth School of Thought that grew out of his ideas, was rooted in several streams from his life and ministry. The Passion of Donald A. McGavran traces these streams that contributed to his developing church growth school.
Read MoreThis article investigates the history of famine in India, and the ministry opportunities such tragedies provide. With particular focus on the mission efforts of the McGavran family, insights for making disciples during calamity are enumerated.
Read MoreThis article examines the information explosion taking place in our modern age. Dr. McIntosh considers some of the negative implications of information overload.
Read MoreThe first flickering images hit the airwaves on April 30, 1939. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a short speech declaring open the New York World’s Fair. It was the first public broadcast of an electronic medium called television.
The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) aired Roosevelt’s speech. Fewer than 100 sets of the new “picture radio,” had been sold. The screens ranged from five to 12 inches.
The Early Years
The first daily broadcast was from Radio City in Manhattan. The first portable back and white TV was introduced in 1956. The first battery-powered set in 1960. NBC became the first network to televise all programs in color in 1966. Here are few other interesting “firsts.”
• First televised sporting event – a college baseball game between Columbia and Princeton on May 17, 1939.
• First televised major league baseball game – the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers on August 26, 1939.
• First televised newscast – December 7, 1941 as the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) reported the events of Pearl Harbor.
Read MoreI just finished a consulting assignment with a small Presbyterian Church. One of the interesting things discovered in the consulting process was that the church kept an average of 15% of its first-time guests. Actually this is just barely below the national average of 16%.
Further research found that this church only attracted about two guests each month. With an average of 24 visitors per year and a 15% retention rate, the church is able to add only four new people a year!
This church illustrates a common pattern among churches. It does a fairly good job of keeping people once they come but just doesn’t attract enough guests to see much growth.
If this church could only attract one guest per week, it would add eight new people each year. If it could attract two per week, it would add 16 people per year.
Preparing for Guests
When you know that guests will be coming to your home for a visit, you spend time cleaning the house, fixing a meal, and generally making the atmosphere as delightful as possible. In a similar way, before you even begin to ask guests to your church, do some house cleaning.
1. Develop your church’s concern.
Is your church good at welcoming new people? It not, then it is doubtful if many new people will be attracted to your church.
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