Sticky Church - part deux

Let's continue our thoughts from the book "Sticky church" by Larry Osborne.

He asks, "why do lots of front-door churches start out fast and then suddenly stall out?"

I agree with his statement that, "as long as the front door remains larger than the back door, any church will appear to be growing. But sooner or alter the front door can't get any larger; either the budget or the skill set runs thin."

So what happens then?

Hopefully, the leadership team beings to take a hard look at what they are doing, and how and why the church stopped growing.

Finally (and hopefully) they will come to the realization that the back door was always large - that as long as more people were coming in the front than going out the back - no pays much attention to it.

Don't you think that this is the reason why some churches "stall out" at 400 in attendance, and then at 800 or even at 1200?

Some might even grow in small spurts, but then that growth is followed by another small decline - like a slow lead in a tire. You pump it up and figure you are ready to go, only to come back in a few days and find it flat again.

So the question becomes, how do we close the back door?

Again, through life groups......now, lot's of churches have small groups. But, if the truth be known, most churches use them as an add-on to their existing ministries, rather than a churchwide priority.

We desire to transition from a Sunday morning church that does small groups on the side, to a church of small groups that meet once a week on a Sunday morning to celebrate what God has done in our midst throughout the week.

Let me suggest to you one way that we can disciple new Christians in our church. One way might be to have your small group "sermon based" in that your group discusses the notes from the sermon given either that day or the week before. This allows new Christians (or everyone for that matter) to digest the sermon in a deeper way - and here's the key - to learn how to apply it to their lives.

It also gives continuity to the teachings and discussions taking place in life groups themselves.

Tomorrow we will look at why some groups jell and some groups don't.