Just the same as individuals make new year’s resolutions, churches will sometimes use the dawning of a new year as an opportunity to kick off some new initiatives. It’s usual that new initiatives are designed to bring some kind of growth – either in the form of new people coming to church or deeper discipleship among those who already do. Later in the year we’ll take a look at discipleship, so for now let’s have a think about new year’s initiatives to produce numerical growth.
It’s very, very common for a church leadership team to ask, “What can we do to grow?” and the most common type of answer is to do something additional to what the church is already doing, which usually means spreading the church’s human and financial resources just a little thinner. It’s an uncommon church that has ‘spare’ capacity just waiting to be put to use. New initiatives usually involve the committed people committing a bit more.
A common effort at growth involves a focus around a single event, often with a very broad focus in the hope that lots of new people will attend. Church fetes and festivals, concerts and community carols are common in this category. Less common is consideration around ‘What’s next?’ I asked this question of a church that planned to revitalise their fete targeting its appeal to families with primary school aged kids. Their ‘next’ was a school holiday program.. The whole design of the fete was to engage families (not raise money) and to promote the school holiday program. The fete was ‘successful’ because the school holiday program (same mission focus, one step forward in the pathway) was filled to capacity. If you’re contemplating a new one-off event, consider how people will be invited to a ‘next step’.
Another type of new year’s initiative is to start a new program that inadvertently ‘competes’ with a program already operating. This is most common in the ‘belonging’ stage of a pathway. A church with a struggling playgroup will start a mainly music program, both seeking to foster belonging among parents with toddlers. The two programs compete for people to run them and for participants. If you’re about launch a new program, it’s helpful to ask, ‘Are we already doing something for the same people at the same stage?’ If the answer is ‘Yes’, you may want to ask some questions around program effectiveness and most efficient use of resources.
A different type of new-year’s initiative is to begin a new program designed to reach a mission focus group you’re not currently reaching. If your church has done well reaching families with toddlers, it makes sense to add a ministry to serve families with primary schoolers as the toddlers grow into schoolkids. And you’ll need to think in terms of the whole pathway, not just one program. Before opening up a mission front with a totally unrelated mission focus group (for example, university students), you’ll need to think through implications of capacity, social media presence, worship service suitability and discipleship processes. In this regard, you might consider advice from Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger in ‘Simple Church’: “Say ‘no’ almost everything.”
Before you jump into a new growth initiative, it may be better to ask, ‘How come we’re not growing sufficiently with our current programs?’ Coming up with a well-informed answer may save you from burning out your most willing volunteers.
If you’re Melbourne-based and want to optimise your mission effectiveness without running yourself into the ground, consider joining the 2025 Pathways Learning Community. Online info sessions on January 30th and February 4th. Go to https://pathways4mission.com/events/ to find out more. If your church among the 80% of Australian Churches seeking to reach families with kids, why not sign up for a short online workshop on how best to reach them? Info on the events page (link above)