What is it that causes a church to grow – really grow in all the ways that matter? Numerical increase in weekend attendance is not always numerical "growth." A church in my city recently reported they “grew” by 2,000 over the past year when indeed they merged with another congregation in the last few weeks of ’06. Indeed, for a month they achieved a grand total of that 2,000 addition. However, as mergers go, within six weeks, half of those new people had left. Now, some six months later, the total weekend numbers aren’t far from the original size of the smaller of the two churches – a common phenomena with mergers.

Some numbers are important
“Are we bringing in more than we are spending?” I like that question. The answer is called the “Burn Rate” – if you are burning through more than you are bringing in, something has to give pretty quickly or the staff will all be working at Target in their favorite department. Actually, that’s not a bad idea in the least, I had as many as 3 jobs at a time with my last plant, it’s a quick way to thin out the hirelings from the shepherds!

Another great question – an even better one is, “How many people are coming to Jesus each week, month, or year?” If that number isn’t over 10% of your weekend population, that is a sign of looming disaster.

I am highly concerned about the confusion that is widely spread these days among “seeker” _____ churches (there are many versions of seeker churches – I feel I am a “seeker aware” leader). Among these churches and their various leaders, there is an increasingly lower and lower conversion rate – assuming there were conversions to begin with. I now wonder if what was initially happening was mostly just lateral moves from various churches to better, more impressive shows, my church at the time included in that observation.