In Church Growth philosophy there is a recognized wall that churches run into when they grow to about 200 members. It's called the 200 barrier. This barrier is especially hard to grow through because a group of 200 people is about as large as most people can handle being associated with. In other words, we can only realistically deal with knowing about 200 people.
So when a church grows to around the 200 member mark, it naturally settles down and growth stops. For growth to continue, something needs to change in the structure of that church. In particular, how people (and particularly the pastor) relate to each other. The church needs to move from one single congregation to multiple, connected congregations. The pastor needs to move from being a shepherd to a rancher.
A shepherd handles one group of people, but handles every one individually- all 200! A rancher handles a smaller group, and each person in that group- in turn, handle another group, who handle another group. And so on down to every last person. Everyone is covered and connected personally to another group of persons, but it is not one pastor who is expected to cover everyone.
Admittedly, this is not an easy change to accomplish (for a lot of reasons), but once it happens, the church can grow again and their is no upper limit to their numbers. The largest churches in the world follow a form of the rancher model.
I propose that in The Salvation Army, the 200 barrier is actually the 60 barrier. That, because a Salvation Army officer has much more on his plate than the average pastor who "just" runs a church. Because of this, we have become a denomination of (mostly) small congregations hovering somewhere around the 60 mark. Granted this mark can vary widely because of many reasons in any particular corps, but the concept is a good one.
In order for our congregations of 60 to move beyond this membership wall, we need to be intentional about changing the operation of our congregations. Everyone is not going to know everyone in the room on SonDay's. Not everyone will know the corps officer- personally/closely. S/he will not be expected to visit everyone (or do everything in ministry), rather their "pastor" will be responsible for their pastoral needs and each person will exercise their own spiritual giftedness within their small group.
This is a huge change for people to accomodate- I realize this. But I also realize that if we are going to get beyond our 60 barriers, we can't just keep doing things the same old way and expect different results.
Are you ready for a change? Are you willing to take the steps necessary so that your corps can reach more people for Jesus? It's not going to be easy, but we can do it if we commit.
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2 comments:
We are starting to creep closer to that 60 person mark. I'm hoing that it will be possible for us to make some changes to allow for more of a team ministry in our corps.
That will, I hope, help us to be effective as we continue to grow.
This numbers thing is interesting. The Hutterite communities put the ceiling at 120, and in Church Growth course just completed here in Manchester UK, it was suggested at 120-150 in UK churches. I agree that needier congregations would have a lower ceiling,and many SA ones might qualify on that count, but so would at least some congregations in other denominations - though the church here is mostly in leafy suburbs. We have a load of Anglican churches that are designed for large congregations but have never been full since they were built.
Coming back to SA, I have been in two congregations locally here that have been standing room only on an ordinary sunday, so people are willing to pack in here, in fact it gives a good feeling to the meeting. A lot also depends on the minister and the quality of discipleship training/cell leaders. With the best will in the world a weak cell leader isn't going to give the kind of perceptive pastoral care a minister can, but a stronger one can be better. I can also think of a local congregation where the minister is great, but doesnt have the one-to-one touch for pastoral care, but she thankfully has a sig. number of spiritually mature lay leaders who do a great job for her. It is not the case everywhere though.
I have been reading that some congregations in Australia are offering different services with different styles to cater for growing congregations, and they are finding that it does not divide the congregation as feared. Alban Inst. Congregations Mag has an article in a recent issue I think.
Every blessing
Ellina Rosen TSSF
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