Let’s set the record straight:
There’s no quick-fix Miracle-Gro formula that’s going to grow a church overnight.
If there were and it could be bottled up, someone somewhere would be incredibly rich by now.
And it’s important to recognise that the size of a church isn’t the sole indicator of church health.
The number of bums on seats doesn’t necessarily equate to the number of disciples being made.
Smaller churches also possess unique advantages over megachurches…
While they don’t have the “wow factor” bigger churches have, members of smaller churches tend to enjoy closer relationships and higher commitment levels.
Saying that, there are valuable lessons we can learn from church congregations who have experienced substantial growth.
With real-life case studies, here are the 10 steps you can take to grow your church congregation in 2023.
10 Steps To Grow A Church Congregation
1. Make Sunday The Main Event
2. Add A Second Service (Or An Extra Venue)
3. Welcome Church Visitors Well
4. Create A Culture Of Community
5. Invest in the Next Generation
6. Involvement in the Community
7. Get Your Church Online
8. Pastor, Donโt Try and Do Everything
9. Be An Outward-Focused Church
10. Pray
1. Make Sunday The Main Event
The vast majority of churches that have seen growth in their congregations have done it by making their Sunday morning worship service an event.
Theyโve done this in a variety of ways:
From improving the quality of their worship set, implementing multimedia in their service through video announcements or live visual feeds during worship.
However, preaching remains the primary reason someone visits your church and stays.
Research conducted by Thom Rainer showed that for 90% of unchurched people, preaching is the biggest reason they will join a church.
People enjoy listening to sermons that are relevant and useful in their everyday lives.
Learning how to improve your preaching could be your biggest key to church growth. The pulpit really is the rudder that guides your church.
You can create excitement around your weekly church service is by creating monthly sermon themes where each month has its own preaching topic.
This encourages first-timers to return the next week for the next instalment and gives your people a reason to invite their friends and family to church.
You probably wonโt be surprised that congregations grow because people invite people. And if your members donโt feel confident bringing other people along, thereโs something wrong.
And this doesnโt mean watering down your message.
Pastor Phil Moore of the Everyday Church in London believes that “When the church is most controversial, it is most relevantโฆ”
The subjects of their monthly sermon series have included money, sex and answering the tough questions.
“This combination of letting God be God and preaching Godโs Word in all its offensive glory has been behind our considerable growth”, he says.
2. Add A Second Service (Or An Extra Venue)
Research shows a church congregation stops growing once the worship venue reaches 87% seating capacity.
Thereโs just something in the psychology that once a place is seen as full, first-time church visitors canโt see a place for them.
As soon as many churches meet this โtipping pointโ they move into a new, bigger building.
But for many, moving into a different venue just isnโt an option. This is where adding an extra service is the best step to take.
Some churches will move to a larger building when they outgrow the old one, but if this isnโt an option, adding an extra service may be the obvious step.
Recently the Holy Trinity Church in Brompton added a Sunday afternoon service to run alongside its Sunday morning service.
Attendance quickly grew in the new, second service without having a detrimental effect on the other service.
And theyโre not the only onesโฆ
Potterโs House in Croydon very recently launched a 9:30am Sunday morning service and within just nine months attendance in both services had grown to where they were both running at full capacity.
โGrowing a church is all about opening new front doors to the church.“
Everyday Churchโs congregation in London has grown from 250 to 750 in the past four years. The serving pastor Phil Moore, says this:
โWe haveย gone from one venue to three venuesย and we are planning to launchย two new venues in September.
We didnโt jump on the multi-venueย bandwagonโฆbutย we felt very strongly that God wasย leading us into it and it has proved aย very powerful strategy.โ
3. Welcome Church Visitors Well
In the same way youโd prepare to welcome guests to your house for dinner, be ready for first-time church visitors when they come.
Train your welcome team.
Have church welcome packs ready to give to them as soon as they walk through the door.
Prepare your church welcome speech (or church welcome poem) in advance.
You’ve probably heard the saying that you can never make a second first impression, and it holds true for your church too.
Welcoming your guests warmly from the moment they drive into the car park significantly increases the chances of turning them from one-time visitors into long-term, committed members.
Put yourself in the shoes of a newcomer and view your church through their eyes.
As regular attendees, we may inadvertently overlook the challenges that a visitor might encounter. Taking a step back allows us to identify areas where we can enhance the guest experience and make them feel genuinely valued.
Visitors will be thinking things like:
- Will people even talk to me?
- What if my baby makes too much noise?
- Where should I sit?
Mark Landreth-Smith, pastor of The Beacon Church, Camberley, has seen his church congregation grow significantly over the last five years.
He says:
“Weโve worked really hardย to have a good and well-drilledย welcome team.
Afterย newcomers have visited weโll followย them up and get in touch:
โItย was great to have you on Sunday morning, is there anything elseย we can do for you?โ
As you can see, making a great first impression and having a good follow up system will certainly play a pivotal role in growing your church congregation.
4. Create A Culture Of Community
God created us for community.
Once a visitor has walked through your doors for the first time, the next step is helping them feel like they belong.
An unchurched person, would have likely been nervously anticipating his or her visit for some time.
Their main worries will be about โfitting inโ and their ability to make friends; to not feel like an outsider.
Creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere can easily be done by making your existing church members more visitor-aware.
Your people should be approachable and friendly without appearing overbearing.
Cutting out insider-jokes and jargon from the pulpit also helps to make your services feel more inclusive.
Dr. McMillan has long studied the psychology of communities. Here is his definition of what a culture of community looks like:
โA sense of community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter toย one another and to the group, and a shared faith that membersโ needs will be met throughย their commitment to be together.โ
My UK church had the motto, “Belong. Believe. Become.” for good reasonโฆ
Forming solid friendships, having a sense of belonging and integrating into the wider church family must happen before any discipleship can ever take place.
5. Invest In The Next Generation
Surveys have shown that more than 80% of Christians make a commitment to Christ before they reach their 18th birthday.
So it makes sense to spend a considerable amount of your time in growing your church youth group and reaching young people.
Yet, on average, only a very small fraction of annual church budgets are used for youth or childrenโs ministries.
Lee Kricher became the pastor of a dwindling church congregation based in Pittsburgh in the United States.
Now, ten years later, he has grown Amplify Church to more than 1,600 regular members.
Pastor Lee attributes the growth to his emphasis on investing into the next generation through the churchโs youth and childrenโs ministries.
He says:
โI believe that young peopleย need to be purposefully placed intoย visible leadership roles and providedย the mentoring to be successful inย those roles.
We have a โ75% ruleโ, which is that 75% ofย all of the people in visible leadershipย during any given weekend serviceย must be the average of, or youngerย than, the community we serve.ย
Since that age is 35 for our churchโsย community, that takes a lot ofย intentional mentoring!โ
With the church planting efforts here in Thailand we have also placed a major emphasis on reaching young people.
In the last 12 months we have done a complete overhaul of both the childrenโs church and youth ministry.
We learned how to start small group Bible studies and Iโve been blown away by how many new families we have seen coming into the church as a result.
Every month our children do a special performance in the main church service. We send invitation letters out to all the parents to let them know about this special event.
Once you have a good church service, a warm welcome and follow up system in place, a culture of community, it doesnโt take long for the parents and families to become regular church members.
Take Your Church To The Next Level ๐
6. Involvement In The Community
Being actively involved in the life of your community gets your church name out there and makes you relevant.
Many churches experiencing growth started out by asking the question:
โWhat need is their in our community that we can meet?โ
They looked at the local issues people were dealing with and came up with creative ways to meet them.
Life Church in Newton Aycliffe, UK is the home of Christians Against Poverty; a creative social ministry that started when local Christians came together to help people struggling to get out of debt.
They very quickly had a church of over 100 as the people they were helping and building relationships with started asking them about their Christian faith.
Another example from my home city is from the Leeds Youth Cell Network; once a month they organise โDemonstrate Daysโ where they might do street clean-ups, gardening for local residents, community cafes and family fun days.
Church members need to place community engagement alongside evangelism.
Whether it be the pub quiz or a community barbecue, allowing unchurched people to experience some of what the kingdom is about is an important step before you preach the gospel.
Demonstrating Godโs love in practical ways shows that your church isnโt some strange, fringe group but a group of ordinary people who have discovered something of the power of God.
7. Get Your Church Online
This relates to point 6, because the best marketing is the kind that comes from positive interactions with the local community.
Giving people a reason to walk through your church doors is the biggest hurdle.
So make the most of Christmas, Easter and any other holidays or events that give you an excuse to invite people.
And donโt forget your church website.
Many churches spend more on their external signage than they do on their online presence.
9 out of 10 people will see (and judge you on) your website before they ever set foot inside your building.
A tired-looking website with outdated information will immediately raise questions about whether a church is worth visiting.
If your church doesnโt have a website yet (and 40% of churches donโt), Iโve laid out exactly how to build a church website in my newbie-friendly guide:
How to Build a Beautiful Church Website Today โ Step by Step
You also need to get your church on social media.
Everyoneโs on Facebook and creating a church Facebook page is easier than you think.
We use it everyday and yet, most of us have yet to tap into the hidden potential of leveraging Facebook to promote our churches.
Your page can be used to invite people to your events, tagging people in photos and letting people know thereโs something happening at your churchโs a powerful way of getting your church on peopleโs radar.
8. Pastor, Donโt Try and Do Everything
As pastors and church leaders we have to be careful not to spread ourselves too thin.
It’s an easy trap to fall into but it severely limits your growth and is a one way street to pastoral burnout.
The key to building a strong church is knowing what your proper priorities should be.
Sociologists say that the average person can manage about 150 people in his or her circle of friends.
This might go some way to explain why many churches fail to grow beyond this number when they adopt the view that the pastor must be accessible to everybody in the congregation.
Churches that have been able to grow their congregations have done so because theyโve developed pastoral support networks that allow everyone in the church to be ministered to without the pastor having to do it all.
Remember that your job as the pastor is not to do everything, but to equip your people for the work of the ministry as per Ephesians 4:12.
9. Be An Outward-Focused Church
Many churches, especially in the UK, have experienced growth in numbers from running evangelistic courses such as Alpha and Christianity Explored.
These outreach programs can be a great way to connect with members of your community who have questions or are searching for meaning.
Whilst these programs can really spearhead your churchโs growth, they can only have the maximum desired impact if your church members are outward-focused.
This may take a slight shift in the culture of your church as the natural tendency is to veer towards the inward.
Training your people in friendship evangelism an really help by showing them how to share the gospel in an easy and friendly way, or how to share a personal testimony with their friends and family members.
Not only does this help give them confidence in sharing their faith with others, it automatically puts the primary mission of the church at the forefront of their minds.
Chris Sinkinson helps to lead Alderholt Chapel in Dorset, where the congregation has trebled in size over the past decade.
He says the Christianity Explored course has been the single most effective activity through which people have come to faith in Christ, but that its success depends on the evangelistic energy of the whole church.
โIf it werenโt for menโs groups, parentsโ and toddlersโ groups, and good friendships, there would beย no one feeding into Christianity Explored.
Strategically, the churchย needs to be missionary-minded soย that every member knows they haveย a role in sharing their faith, inviting friends and ensuring that visitorsย feel at home.โ
10. Pray
Whenever you see church growth, you can be sure itโs built on a strong foundation of prayer behind the scenes.
In all of your efforts to grow your church, remember that itโs Godโs church and He will build it.
We can have all of steps 1-9 in place, we can run well-organised evangelistic outreach programs, but we will only see fruit if Godโs hand is on it.
We need Godโs blessing.
The Jubilee Church in London has seen a period of rapid growth to more than 1,000 in attendance at the multiplex cinema it takes over on Sunday mornings.
But the senior pastor, Tope Koleoso, says there were years of prayer before the church ever grew.
โThe first key in our transition toย growth was a renewed emphasis onย prayer.
A few of us beganย to meet weekly and really cry outย to God for his presence and for himย to cause us to grow. As that prayerย meeting grew, our passion for Godย grew and our concern for the lostย grew too.โ
Praying for the unchurched and unsaved raises our faith level and gives us Godโs heart for the lost.
I am confident that when we submit our plans to Him and seek to serve Him in whatever we do, God will build his church to be all she could be and should be.
God has placed you where you are for this time so you can be confident knowing He will never call you to something without giving you everything you need to accomplish it.
I pray that these 10 steps to growing your church congregation will help spark new inspiration, creative ideas and fresh vision for what God can do and wants to do in and through your church. ๐๐๐
Are You Ready To Grow Your Church? ๐
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What Has Caused Your Church To Grow?
This was a mammoth article to write โ well done for getting through it! I really hope youโve found this helpful.
Iโd love to hear from you on this one!
What have you seen that has caused your church congregation to grow?
Scroll down and share your comments below, weโd love to hear from you! ๐ค
Hi need some advise,
I have started my ministry in the UK and sometimes its 2 of us or just me I pay 900 pounds for t he rent of the building which is kind of a strain on me any advise on what i could do to grow the church from scratch.
thanks
Hi Shaquille, wow that’s a lot of money. If I were you I would start with a home group, then two, then three until you have, say 50-100 people in your groups and then launch church at home until you’re ready to rent a building.
I’ve seen this approach work really well in Asia and elsewhere because, well, the early church started in people’s homes and you can grow your ministry without the pressure of financial stress.
I really hope this helps.
I am 83. I still serve a small indepentent church in my “retirement.” I postpone leaving because they would not afford to get a seminary trained pastor. That means a man with no training would probably get the post of pastor. I have spent six years teaching solid, bible-based materials. I don’t get off on sidelines of doctrine but stick to the gospel. The church sanctuary is beautiful, well-kept, up-to-date, etc. We have a baby grand piano with a pianist that brings it alive. We have prayer warriors, mission projects, and other things that should bring new visitors. But…we have only a few young people. All the rest are older adults. The church is nine miles from town, and in winter months there are times when it is hazardous to travel–we are in the snow-belt.
The congregation prays, studies, and for the most part regularly attends services, but we have very few visitors. We support a number of mission causes. We use media, have a website on Facebook, where we broadcast our worship service weekly, and have new signs at both ends of our road.
Tonight I plan on reading your 10-point article on church growth to the church board, asking them to take notes as to what might work for us to grow in numbers. Finances have not been a problem because our members are tithers. I need to find ways to help our congregation to grow. Any ideas would help. We are not a dead church, but need ideas that would help us fill our church.
Thanks so much for this guides am relieved. But I do not have stable members, becos its a youth church; once they got admission/ goes back to school its affect d numbers. Even those at home work outside d L/govt where church is, as such alternating their attendance for Sundays in a month. I find it difficult complaining caused its an answered prayer to their request. What do I do?
As I went through the teaching my eyes opened to new knowledge of growing a small Church to a mega one which has been my dream. I started BELIEVERS ABLAZE CHURCH almost two years ago in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria but I am just making effort to put up a structure, training leaders to head different departments. All the points listed are very innovative and inspiring. Lastly it is stated that “Praying for the unsaved gives us God’s heart for the lost.” This is commendable truly. God increase you real good for making out time to build us up. Thanks
Thank you so much Simon, I love this and I believe that by using these secrets with prayers, God will bless and increase his work in my hand. God bless you real good!
Wow! This is incredibly beautiful. Simon, thanks for this piece.
One interest I have found among church leaders is how to grow the church. Just like any business, when the church doesn’t seem to be growing it causes pain in the hearts of church leaders. This piece is so helpful in seeing about the desired. Thanks once again. More of this.
That’s so true. Without forward momentum everyone suffers. One of the core tenets of my church network is “We are for advancement and opposed to maintenance.” I love that because we should always be aiming to increase our impact to reach more people than ever before, raising leaders and releasing people into their God-given potential.
Wow! This information is both inspiring and educative. I have been newly posted to a church in the northern Nigeria.
From the stories I was told, the church use to have a large congregation but was seriously affected during a religious crises. As a result, a lot of members were killed while many left the church relocated to other safer areas.
Now I am a kind of starting from the scratch to grow the church both spiritually, numerically, infrastructurally and financially. But one of the major challenges I’m facing now is that most people are afraid of coming to the church because it is almost within an Islamic domain. I need some advice.
Hi Bright, thanks for getting in touch. That is not an easy situation to deal with. I can only imagine the fear and intimidation tactics that go on there.
If I were in northern Nigeria I think I would focus on building strong home groups. Meeting in someone’s home won’t have the same risk as going to a prominent church building. Just start with 2 or 3 people, meet at the same place and time each week and worship, get into the Word, build strong connections. Grow gradually and raise a leader to take over the group. Start another one and so on.
Not only is this less riskier, it doesn’t cost anything, your working within the local community and the relationships you build and the disciples you make will be strong.
Be strong and courageous Bright, knowing that God has put you here for this time and this place for a reason. Surely He will use you to build God’s Kingdom – the Heavenly Kingdom which is always increasing and there is no end.
If anyone else has any advice, please feel free to share.
Thank you Sir for this powerful guideline. It has inspired me a lot.
I have been struggling with the church I pastor for four years now. I feel so relieved and I believe that as I start to apply these methods there will surely be improvements.
Thanks and God bless you.
I’m so happy to hear that honestly. As a leader our lives can be complicated and we never feel like our work is ‘finished’ (which is why so many church leaders burn out) but by choosing a few strategic areas to focus on we’re helping ourselves, our leaders and our churches to get to where they’re meant to be.
My suggestion would be just to take 1 or 2 of these areas and work on making them more efficient, rather than trying to attack all 10 at once. Please let us know how you get on and get the help of the community here if you have any questions or ideas to bounce around.
Wishing you all the best!
Thank you very much for this Article! It really highly imparting and eye-opening! As I was going through it my spirit just kept surging for the joy and in-depth knowledge entering me! Seriously committed to putting these 10 Steps into action!
Thank you very once again!
Pastor Paul Daramola, Greece
That’s great to hear Paul! It’s what you apply and not what you learn that will make the difference. These steps to church growth are not quick and easy solutions, I mean they take time to implement but even if you choose one and start with that I know you’re going to be taking your church in the right direction.
My ethos with starting GrowChurch is to give the most simple and straightforward, practical steps to help you as a leader know what areas of focus to concentrate your efforts on. I’m really happy you found this helpful and may God bless you as you choose advancement over maintenance.
Thanks for the this eyes opening to me sir God bless you richest sir. Pls let me get more of this information sir.
Hey, feel free to just call me Simon ๐
I’m super happy you found this helpful for you in your ministry. If you’re interested you can go ahead and sign up to my free 10 day email course where you’ll learn what I see as the 10 key areas you need to invest your focus and energy on to grow your church congregation.
Any questions, just let me know bro, all the best to you.
The steps discussed are useful and practical. Many thanks for a job well done.
Sir, I am ready in a branch of our church and the church is not growing as expected. Most of the members are not educated. Please sir, what else should I do to boost my attendance especially on Sundays?
You’re more than welcome ๐
You know your local context way better than I do so perhaps you have a better idea at what is stopping your church from growing. You mentioned the local people are not very well educated, maybe you could put an emphasis on teaching principles from the Bible that apply to every area of life.
An idea I just had would be to advertise local classes on business, farming, welding, computer skills etc. Invite the local people to come into your church for free training. Work on building real relationships with these people. Teach success principles from the Bible. Follow them up and start home groups from there.
Once you have close friendships and they’re attending a home study group, invite them to Sundays. I think this would be a great way to build a congregation, with the emphasis being on building relationships so you have influence in their lives.
I hope this helps. I’d love to hear how you get on.
Simon
Wow, this indeed is a great and inspiring article. I’ll apply this to my church youth wing, probably teach the church leaders on this. thanks Sir, God bless you real good.
I’m happy you’re happy – go and do it! ๐
WOW THIS IS REALLY A DIVINE INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATIVE PLATFORM TO PUSH THE GOD’S KINGDOM FORWARD MAY GOD CONTINUE TO INSPIRE YOU THE MORE ,YOU ARE MY MENTOR .YOUR BLESS
This is inspiring! Especially the way you cap it up with the art of Prayer behind the scene.
Great work am highly blessed and inspired by this article I belong to Dunamis in Nigeria and have just been sent to a location to start a branch of our church I will definitely apply them and trust God for a dimensional shift God bless you. Peter Alechenu
Thanks Peter, I really appreciate that. Wow that sounds exciting. I wonder are you going alone or do you have a team going with you? This is going to be a great learning experience for you for sure as you become a church planter.
Really glad you found this tips helpful, I think the basic point I want to make here is that as church planters we hould do everything with our clear purpose in mind. Everything we do should contribute/help us get closer to accomplishing the vision God has put on our hearts.
I would love to hear how you get on and I’m excited about what God is going to do through you.
Simon
This 10 steps is so educative and instructive. I love them and hope to apply them. Thanks
Thank you, I’m so glad you found this helpful! Bless you!
I really love this steps, I will work with this. Thanks hope to hear from me soon. The church is just 2 months old.
Very instructive. I’m trying to establish a church for youths in South Nigeria. Still considering a name. Also looking for team mates.
I wish you all the best Uwen and I hope you found this helpful.
Thanks this is useful and good for recommendation for all church planters and ministers of the gospel. more grace for the race in Jesus name.
Thanks Daniel, I’m glad you found this helpful. My goals is to try and encourage pastors and church leaders so if I’ve done that I’m happy.
EVen if you take just one of these steps and use it as inspiration to move your church to the next level it will help you.
Thanks again, all the best.
Thank you for this guideline. I have learned a lot from it and I totally agree with you, nothing grows overnight. It takes hard-work and commitment over a period of time to achieve results and if working with your 10 steps to church growth I can see how it makes it even easier and actually enjoyable to grow one’s church.
I like going to church. There is that feeling of togetherness that makes it a good break from everyday hustle and bustle besides the fact that it’s a time for prayer.
Thank you very much for sharing the 10 steps to church growth.
~Danielle
It’s true – there’s no such thing as a magic formula to super fast church growth. I think we use words like “planting churches” and “growing churches” for a reason – like a plant, the church is meant to be a living organism that, if healthy, will grow and develop and get stronger. This takes both time, lots of watering, a bit of pruning (changing as you find out what works and doesn’t) but most of all… consistency and diligence and hard work.
You’re more than welcome Danielle, great to see you around the blog – bless you!