Ten Ways To Grow a Church Without God
By Ray Baumann

I have spent many hours figuring out how to grow churches. I recently found some old notes that I had taken at a conference some years ago. To my surprise, I had an outline for success that was void of a Savior even being involved. Back then I focused on what attracted people to church. This is what my list read:

1.  “Leadership is key.” This will be my number one way to grow the church without God. Thinking back, I would say that if I had a board comprised of wealthy businessmen, I’d have a great foundation for growing a church. You need resources to reach the community and what better way than to have many resources at your fingertips?

2. You want to create an oasis at church; let’s take a few ideas from Starbucks. Starbucks created a community of coffee drinkers. Starbucks is less about coffee and more about a place to commune. That is what you want to reproduce on Sunday; a place where people want to gather.

3. Next, your church has to offer something others don’t.  You have to ask yourself who is your target audience. Find out what your audience wants and give it to them. This includes the type of music, programs, length of service and other variables. You want people to know that all of their needs can be met at church.

4.  Spend money on logo and website design. You have to out market the church down the street. Mass mailings, newspaper ads and website traffic are key.

5.  Advertise in the phone book, at movie theatres and during school programs. Call the media every time you have an event to get free publicity.  

6.  Be creative with your presentations. Be sure to utilize all of the latest technology for your cool short video illustrations. To get the full effect, you must have video projectors and plasma TVs.  Lighting is also essential to set the mood during services.                                                                                                  

7.  Don’t let anyone come to church and leave without getting their information. You have one chance to make a first impression. When you have a visitor they must be greeted and shown around the facility and introduced to other church members. Giving them a free gift, like a thumb drive with the church’s information preloaded, is a nice gift.

8. Always be planning for your next event, whether it is an Easter egg hunt or Christmas drama. Every two months something big must be occurring to create excitement.

9. Have sermons focused around life issues such as parenting, managing money, eating right, getting along with others and making the best of your life.

10. Network. If you are going to grow a church, people must know who you are. Make it a routine to eat at the same places frequently. Always be involved with whatever is happening in the community. 

All of the above could probably have come out of a Marketing 101 textbook. Not everything on the list is bad, but it is the order that I had them in and what was missing. Looking back, it was an issue of priorities. I believed God wanted me to market for Him but the product was nothing our Savior would endorse. God’s top ten ways to grow a church would look very different. You can see how quickly a church can become self-centered.  When the focus is attracting the unchurched or people burnt out on church we travel far from the biblical model. I am firmly convinced that you can get people to show up at your church if you have the money to spend to get them there.  Money-marketed churches will be packed with unsaved people who are looking to get something, and it is not the gospel.  If you attract them with entertainment you have to keep them entertained. 

Recently I overheard two pastors taking about a mutual friend that was asked to resign from a church because attendance was down by 10% and the leadership had decided to go in a new direction.  I said to myself, “You have to be joking.” Church leadership is so brainwashed in this numbers game that many churches could care less about what is being preached on Sunday morning as long as the people and money are coming in by droves.

Church leadership must decide who is going to grow their church. You either grow it with man or with God. God’s way produces disciples changed for life; man’s way produces attendees that come as they are and leave as they were.

By Ray Baumann Email: Ray.baumann@mac.com Click here for bio and archived articles