Last week I talked to someone who was worried about their church growing. I don’t mean they were worried it wouldn’t grow; they were worried it would.
This person was worried for two reasons: The church would grow bigger and they wouldn’t know everyone, and people would come in that weren’t like them. It really got me thinking, so I’ve put together a list of 10 ways to make sure your church doesn’t grow.
10 Ways to Make Sure Your Church Doesn’t Grow
1. Don’t have a clear vision for the future.
Make sure you don’t have a vision for the future of your church. If anybody in your church does have a vision, make sure you keep it muddy and don’t let many people know.
If there is no vision, the people will perish, and you won’t have to worry about growth (Prov. 29:18).
2. Don’t have any leadership structure in the church.
Your church won’t grow if you don’t have strong leaders. If your church is unfortunate enough to have strong leaders, it won’t grow if you don’t let those leaders lead.
Stand in the way of the pastors, staff, directors, teachers and anyone else with a position in the church. Cause division, and try to get others in the church to go against the leadership as well.
Don’t Miss
The more arguments and problems you can cause, the more time leadership will have to spend on them and less time they will have to focus on growing the church.
3. Make sure you don’t build relationships with anyone outside the church.
Who really wants to meet new people? (Especially unbelievers!) Stay away from people and don’t build friendships with them.
If people try to speak to you, smile, nod, and then quickly get away from them. Your parents taught you to never speak to strangers, so you’re just trying to be obedient, right?
4. Try locking the doors to your church building before worship.
I know it seems rude, but it really isn’t. I mean, after all, it is your church. You can lock the doors if you want. If you keep it locked, it might discourage someone that needs help from walking in.
If you happen to hear a knock, just sing louder. It will stop soon, I promise.
5. Talk bad about your church with everyone you can.
Be sure to tell everyone how much you dislike your church. Tell your family all about that nasty color of paint in the nursery that you wanted to vote against. Be sure to tell your hairdresser how long-winded your pastor is. Don’t forget to tell your neighbor all about the fight you started with the door greeter last week.
Just focus on the negative and spread it all over town! Be sure everyone knows you aren’t happy with the direction your church is going.
