Breaking the 500 barrier

Nelson Searcy is a pastor in New York City, has worked on staff at Saddleback with Rick Warren and is a church leadership consultant.  http://www.churchleaderinsights.com

I’ve been listening to a Searcy audio talk on churches ‘breaking the 500 barrier’.  It’s widely acknowledged that churches approaching that size of membership need to overcome several cultural changes to grow beyond 500.  (Of course another option is to send off a portion of the congregation to a church plant, and stay below 500.)

Here are four bits from his introduction which I took note of:

1. Change is essential - with optimism and faith in God - to break through 500. 
2. Ask, ‘What is keeping my church from growing?’
3. Go from ‘good’ to ‘great’.
4. Move ‘occasional attenders’ of church to become ‘committed attenders’. 

These overlap nicely with what I’ve seen in Surprising Insights.  I noted the observation there that  excellence is intrinsically attractive.  If we’re determined to serve God with excellence, we’ll change some things that we do at church presently.  

The direction of change that I’m interested in is change for growth.   So I’m already asking, ‘What’s keeping us from growing?’  We’re already doing many things well, but how do we go from ‘good to great’, and in which areas first?  Moving occasionals to becoming committed attenders is certainly a top priority!  (I sometimes call it ‘discipleship’.)