{"id":4529,"date":"2019-02-28T09:23:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T15:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nafwb.org\/?p=4529"},"modified":"2019-02-28T09:23:24","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T15:23:24","slug":"can-the-small-traditional-church-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/can-the-small-traditional-church-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Small, Traditional Church Grow?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matt Pinson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pastors and leaders of small, traditional churches find themselves\u00a0awash in a sea of church growth literature\u00a0that often seems useless to them. On one hand,\u00a0run-of-the-mill church growth books come from the\u00a0perspective of “when I came to First Baptist, we had\u00a0only 250 in Sunday morning worship attendance. Now we\u00a0have more than 1,000. Here’s how you can do the same.”<\/p>\n

On the other hand, most church growth books communicate,\u00a0whether consciously or subconsciously, that the only\u00a0way to achieve church growth today is to harness contemporary,\u00a0mega-church methods that have come into\u00a0use in the last two decades or so.<\/p>\n

Our Context <\/strong><\/p>\n

Most Free Will Baptist pastors start out with traditional\u00a0churches that have fewer than 100 attendees on Sunday\u00a0morning. \u00a0In fact, 36% of Free Will Baptist churches have 50\u00a0or fewer people. Another 24% have 100 or fewer. That\u00a0makes 60% of our churches with fewer than 100 people in\u00a0attendance. This is not unusual. The average church in\u00a0America, regardless of denominational affiliation, has fewer\u00a0than 100 people in attendance on a typical Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

So what’s a small church pastor to do? Is it possible for small,\u00a0traditional and small-town churches (the kind of churches our\u00a0Free Will Baptist churches are) to grow? I believe it is and experienced dynamic church growth in my seven years as pastor\u00a0of Colquitt FWB Church, a smaller, traditional church in a\u00a0small Georgia town. I’ve found that traditional churches that\u00a0want to grow can grow even if they don’t have the desire or resources to use contemporary or mega-church methods.<\/p>\n

Is Contemporary Culture Unique? <\/strong><\/p>\n

One myth of the modern-day church growth movement\u00a0is the uniqueness of our contemporary religious situation.\u00a0The only way we can reach out to a pagan, pluralistic, affluent,\u00a0educated, technologically advanced and morally\u00a0decadent culture, it is argued, is to employ marketing\u00a0methods that appeal to people’s pop-culture sensibilities.<\/p>\n

Most Free Will Baptist pastors couldn’t do this if they\u00a0wanted to, because their congregations are traditional and\u00a0wouldn’t go for it. Many pastors have an instinctive sense\u00a0that selling out to pop culture is not the best way to honor\u00a0Christ in the life of the Christian congregation.<\/p>\n

The good news is that we don’t have to sell out to reach\u00a0out. We can have growth without giving in to the shallow\u00a0pop culture that is based, not on a neutral worldview, but\u00a0on a non-Christian worldview.<\/p>\n

A few years ago when I was worrying about how to\u00a0reach this culture for Christ, it dawned on me that there are\u00a0a great many similarities between our culture and the culture\u00a0of the New Testament church.<\/p>\n

Our Culture and Paul’s Culture <\/strong><\/p>\n

When we compare the culture of today with that of, say,\u00a0the apostle Paul’s day, we find striking similarities. The culture\u00a0in which Paul ministered was, like our own, a pagan,\u00a0pluralistic, affluent, educated and morally decadent culture.\u00a0Paul faced a variety of philosophies (like the Stoics\u00a0and Epicureans in Acts 17) and religions. Popular and diverse\u00a0mystery religions that exalted illicit sexuality of all\u00a0types were rampant in cities like Ephesus.<\/p>\n

The coliseums were home to graphically violent gladiator\u00a0fights. The amphitheaters featured graphically sexual\u00a0plays. There was great wealth (and also an increasingly\u00a0top-heavy welfare system). People were surrounded by a\u00a0great deal of education and philosophy, and there was no\u00a0real religious consensus or even agreement on the meaning\u00a0of truth in the Roman Empire of Paul’s time.<\/p>\n

Any\u00a0of this sound familiar? The only major difference between\u00a0today’s culture and that culture (as it relates to reaching\u00a0unchurched people for Christ) is the use of electronic technology like\u00a0radio, television, video technology and the Internet.<\/p>\n

Early Church\u2019s Growth<\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Washington sociologist Rodney Stark recently\u00a0studied the phenomenal growth of the early church\u00a0in his book, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal\u00a0Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious\u00a0Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries<\/em>. \u00a0While I\u00a0would not agree with every conclusion of this fascinating\u00a0book, it raises an important point: The early churches grew\u00a0extraordinarily in a cultural environment much like ours.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, the early churches started out at first with\u00a0mostly poor people. So it wasn’t that they had a lot of money\u00a0to spend. They were almost always small and informal.\u00a0They usually met in houses or rustic locations\u2014sometimes\u00a0even in places like Rome’s catacombs (underground burial\u00a0places) so as to escape persecution.<\/p>\n

The demands were high because they faced persecution and even martyrdom. Membership requirements\u00a0were strict, and church discipline was stringent. Almost all\u00a0the money they collected went to the support of the ministry,\u00a0missions and the poor.<\/p>\n

They had simple worship that wasn’t very entertaining to\u00a0their members, who were accustomed to the garish and\u00a0spine-tingling amusement so common in Greco-Roman\u00a0cities. Like the Jewish synagogues, they were long on scripture\u00a0reading and teaching and preaching and short on musical\u00a0performance: they had no choirs, no worship teams,\u00a0no special music, even no musical instruments.<\/p>\n

Yet, soon these churches began to attract all levels of people\u2014the rich and poor, the educated and ignorant, the slave\u00a0and free, people of all races. Why? How could these churches\u00a0grow in a culture eerily like our own?<\/p>\n

Why Early Churches Grew <\/strong><\/p>\n

The answer lies in the New Testament itself. First, we must\u00a0get back to the basics of the early church: “They continued\u00a0steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in breaking\u00a0of bread, and in prayers.” They sang Psalms, hymns and spiritual\u00a0songs that accomplished three things: (1) teaching, (2) admonition\u00a0and (3) making melody in their hearts to the Lord.<\/p>\n

They spread the gospel and helped people go other places\u00a0to proclaim the good news. They had shepherds who lovingly\u00a0led the flock under Christ as servants and held themselves\u00a0up to the highest principles of biblical virtue. They had high\u00a0standards for church membership and discipline. They were\u00a0concerned about teaching people to take every thought captive\u00a0to the obedience of Christ.<\/p>\n

11 Necessary Growth Elements<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do the characteristics of the early church point to\u00a0as keys to success in church growth? Here are the main\u00a0ones, in no particular order:<\/p>\n