Why Churches Don’t Grow

Today I read an article by Todd Rhoades on why churches don’t grow. His top 5 list is:

5. Ineffective Attendance Tracking
4. Lack of Guest Follow-up
3. Lack of Hospitality
2. Ineffective Assimilation/Discipleship
1. Worship Services that aren’t Worth Shouting About

Number 5 seems like an odd reason, but if you are not tracking your numbers, it is impossible to tell when you are in decline. In thinking through the rest of the list, my opinion is that if a church is not warm and friendly, showing guests (and member alike) that they are appreciated, then why would anyone come back or stick around. In my church, we strive for genuine warmth and appreciation for all who come in our church. Our goal is to have each person greeted at least 5 times (at the entrance, in the welcome center, in the sanctuary, during the worship service, and upon arrival in their Bible Fellowship class. This does not guarantee warmth, but it sure does help.

Taking Rhoades list, I would simply change the list around:

5. Ineffective Attendance Tracking
4. Ineffective Assimilation/Discipleship
3. Lack of Guest Follow-up
2. Poor Worship Services and Preaching
1. Lack of Hospitality

I think you can be wonderful, but if you don’t attempt to show people you care they will not be back. If your worship services stink and people are not nourished, why come back? If people come, but no one cares enough to contact them, why come back? If you care enough to love on them and contact them, but fail to do anything with them (you have got to love people into the church before you can lose them), why stick around? If you are oblivious to who is where, how do you know what is going on.

This is an interesting thing to think about… Something churches need to track and think about. Let us be great at what we do for God!