Podcast

048 – Traits of Growing Churches

Church Growth

Posted on August 24, 2020December 4, 2023 by Ryan Sparks

What’s in this Episode?

Have you ever wondered why it is that some churches seemed to grow all the time and others don’t? Well, in today’s episode, we’re going to look at specific traits of growing churches. And when a church has these traits in place, it positions them for growth and greater influence.

Read the Transcript

Jonathan Hardy 0:19
Well, in the previous episode, we talked about three cultures of growing churches. That’s Episode 47. So if you haven’t listened to that one, we want to encourage you to do so. But today, kind of is right on the heels of that episode. And it’s not necessarily a part two, but they kind of tie together in tandem. And as it relates to this episode, today, we want to talk to you about three traits of growing churches. And, you know, it’s been interesting with the whole COVID-19 thing, how you start learning what people like of church of their churches and what they miss of the churches when they all of a sudden they didn’t get to have that in-person experience over those different months where churches weren’t meeting. I know some still aren’t. But, you know, one of the things I noticed from various generations was the desire to have the live music or be able to engage in the live worship music. And, you know, I know you had someone, buddy of yours that’s in the mid 60s, you know, that, you know, felt that way. And that’s coming from a little bit more of a traditional church model. I know people that are more my age that are coming, it’s more of an upbeat you know, worship type. So the style of music is way different, but they miss it. So and that’s, and that’s just one of the traits. There’s a variety of traits of growing churches, but today we want to focus on three of them. And so Dick, why don’t you kick us off?

Trait #1: Good Preaching

Dick Hardy 1:46
Well, the very first trait of a growing church is that they have good preaching. Now this can immediately for pastors create senses of insecurity. Oh, my preaching’s not as good as this guy over here. And that’s not why we’re bringing this up. But the the operative word on here is good preaching. You as a pastor need to be a student of good preaching. I recommend when pastors are saying, well, how do I get better? I mean, there’s certainly opportunities for you to get better for various courses and teaching. But you really, I recommend that you follow two preaching pastors that you resonate with, that you can learn from them. You pattern your preaching, after some of the mannerisms you see from them because communication is a learned art and skill. So I certainly, it should go without saying but I’ll say it, you need to study to prepare for preaching. You don’t be going up there on a Sunday because you pulled out a Saturday night special and you slap a few scriptures together and call it good. That’s not gonna work. You don’t have to be. You don’t have to be Steven Furtick and Chris Hodges or Craig Groeschel, you need to be you. But you’ve got to work to have good preaching at your church where people know that they’ll be taught the Word of God by a pastor who has studied the Word and delivers good preaching.

Trait #2: Good Worship

Jonathan Hardy 3:20
Yeah, that’s good. Second trait goes to what I was talking about a moment ago actually is good worship and worship music. So, you know, it doesn’t matter the style necessarily, because different people connect with different you know, I mean, even in my example, you know, your person is connecting with a different style of music.

Dick Hardy 3:39
They like the some of the hymns or traditions you know.

Jonathan Hardy 3:42
But that’s a trait that is very important for the church to do well. And so I think that’s the key is whatever the music I mean, you don’t have to be doing the latest Hillsong songs or, you know, all the different churches that are pumping out their worship songs these days. You don’t have to do that necessarily. What you do have to do though is whatever songs you’re going to sing, make sure they’re, you know they’re well prepared. And so that means that the worship team has to be prepared, you know, I was at a church, oh, two years ago, I think. And, you know, they, the people had the iPads with the songs on there and you know, honestly, the worship pastor should know the songs, but you could tell either they were uncomfortable scared, or something, but I mean, their head was down in the you know, it’s like, come on, like, you know, let’s give your best, which means you got to be prepared. And so we want to make sure that whatever it is as the worship team people, they’re giving their best, so that they can lead people into worship. And that’s where I felt like this person. You know, if they were more prepared, they could have done a better job of leading the people in worship, rather than having to focus on making sure that they knew the words of the song. So that’s, you know, that’s a trait that’s important.

Dick Hardy 5:03
A couple things on this particular trait. One is, you might say, as you’re listening to this, well we have a church of 75 people, I mean, we don’t have much to pick from, versus a church of 4000. Okay, we get it, that if you’ve got a pool, total pool at your church of 75 people, you don’t have everything that this church of 4000 has. But let me tell you what you do have, you do have the people that God has assigned to your body to lead in worship. That which takes to this the other point I want to mention to you is people who are gifted in music, want to do their gift well. No musician says, I want to do crummy music. Whether they’re a entry level in a smaller church, or professional, they want to do it well and they want to do it well unto the Lord and it’s your role as a pastor to help encourage them to do it at the highest possible level. And then the Lord will bless them. He really will.

Trait #3: Good Ministry to Children

Dick Hardy 6:04
Okay, so good preaching, good worship music at the church, and the third is good ministry to children. I hope you’re catching the operative word for all three of these things. It’s got to be good. Good ministry to children. By the way, if you paid attention to the previous episode, you’ll remember that this is the one point that ties to the third point of Episode 47. And that the culture of ministry to young families, so this has got to be good ministry to children. You’ve had it happen. We’ve had it happen where someone says to me you know, we say you know what kind of church you’re looking for. Well you know, are you Baptist, Assemblies of God, you know, Lutheran, Methodist, well, I don’t care. All I want to know is what is here for my children? Now you know, if you’re a company man, you know you want to Baptist church, your Assemblies of God church, your Lutheran church, this probably is not gonna… You could feel like this is working against you. It’s not. Just have good ministry to children. In the context of your fellowship, if you’re an independent church, good ministry to children, what does that mean? That means you’re coming prepared on Sunday or Wednesdays or whenever your group gathers together. You’re giving age appropriate instruction to the word for children. So the infants the toddler the early childhood nursery or elementary, you want to challenge your children’s workers to be all they can be, and to come very, very prepared to reach these children. How old were you when you gave your heart to the Lord?

Jonathan Hardy 7:38
Four!

Dick Hardy 7:39
Okay, I was nine. And most of the people watching this podcast gave their heart to the Lord under the age of 14. So the fact is, you go, “well it’s just the kids,” no it’s not just the kids. Good ministry to children is a trait of growing churches. You want to be growing church, have good ministry to children. That’s right. So let me give you the recap on it. Did you have anything to add to that Jonathan?

Jonathan Hardy 8:03
Nope… Well yes. And not only good ministry to your children, but I was just as you were talking, I was like, I was thinking about safe, you know? That’s another thing as a parent I’m, more than ever now, I am wondering, okay, well, is it safe for my kids? What kind of safety precautions do you have in place? And, you know, that’s another element of the ministry to children that’s super important.

Recap:

Dick Hardy 8:29
Very much so. So here’s the recap. This is real easy friends. Good traits of growing churches, good preaching, good worship and music, and good ministry to children. If you’ll have these traits in place, particularly with the cultures we mentioned in the previous episode, you’re going to have the foundation the Lord to do great things in your church,

Jonathan Hardy 8:51
That’s right! Hey, we want to mention also that tomorrow is a big announcement that we’re going to be sharing with you so be sure to stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode. That will release in the morning. And if you’re on our email list, be sure to check your email because that is going to be just a big announcement.

Dick Hardy 9:07
Big, big, big. Have we mentioned big?

Jonathan Hardy 9:09
Yeah and it’s an announcement. Yeah, we’re excited about it. We’re excited to share with you some updates that are happening in leaders.church and so you want to be sure to stay tuned. And of course, as always, if you have not yet done so, please subscribe on YouTube, the YouTube channel or the podcast platforms, and give us a rate and review. We would love to hear your feedback about the podcast. In fact, we want to read one here from thedanjoh. And whoever this person is, they said, “leaders.church does an excellent job at bringing nut and bolt solutions to the everyday issues facing today’s church leader.” So we want to thank you for that review. And we hope that you’d be willing to give us a five star review and write a comment so that we can share it on the podcast. We’d love to continue to get the word out. Anything else, Dick?

Dick Hardy 9:57
Nope! All good!

Jonathan Hardy 9:57
Okay! Well, hey, thank you so much for being with us. We’ll look forward to seeing you next time. Take care.

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Podcast

048 – Traits of Growing Churches

What’s in this Episode?