17 Oct Breaking Through the 200 Barrier

In the book Effective Staffing for Vital Churches, Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittian do an excellent job describing 4 different points of transition in a church’s growth and how pastors need to make mental shifts along with these transitions. But he also brings to light a big barrier that affects a large percentage of churches. This first barrier is having your church attendance grow over 200 people. There are TONS of these churches all across the country and according to some pretty conservative figures, at least 80% of these churches are never successful getting past the 200 person barrier. This doesn’t always mean that their doors end up closing, but it means that they often end up in a stagnant growth pattern or that they see consistent drops in attendance over the years. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with pastoring a small church. The issue shouldn’t be small church vs. big church but rather, many people connected to Jesus vs. many people disconnected.

So if growing your church means expanding your influence and reaching more people, who would be opposed to that? So then, what is the real issue that these churches are facing? Why can’t they grow beyond the 200 barrier? While every church is different, Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittain say that the majority of these churches can’t break through this barrier simply by hiring more staff or having a kick-butt pastor. The problem lies in the mental and behavioral changes that must be made in the congregation. And here is where things start to get messy. In order for the church to continue growing and break through the 200 barrier, the pastor needs to begin devoting 70-80% of his time developing networks and building connections throughout the community. (Meaning people who are not connected to the church or do God for that matter). Now this may be a surprise to you, but typically when the pastor begins to focus this amount of time on people outside the church, the people inside the church tend to get…cranky. They begin feeling like they are not as important as the people outside of the church and don’t feel like they have unlimited access to the pastor anymore.

Okay so now we face the age old question, who comes first? The people inside your church or the people outside your church? While we could spend a long time debating and diving into Scripture concerning this, I think it can be sufficient for now to say that the church cannot possibly exist for Christians. Because the church IS CHRISTIANS! Who would be so cocky to say that the goal and mission of the church (a group of Christians) is to make itself (Christians) more happy and comfortable? It doesn’t make any sense.

So then what does this mean for church growth. Well, typically two things will happen at this point. One, the church can decide to stand with their pastor and follow the direction that God has led Him in. They decide to be just as focused on those outside of the church as their pastor is and support him in the decision to reach out to those far from God. Not only do they choose to support him, but they also choose to reinforce him, by making sure their church’s atmosphere is welcoming to those who do come for the first time. This doesn’t mean giving a great first impression until they come regularly and then forget about them. It means loving, giving, and serving one another like the church was intended to. Even when times are uncomfortable for them, they decide to band together for the greater good.

Or they can decide to be stubborn and unwilling to alter how things “have always been”. Instead of supporting the pastor, they grumble, they become bitter, they create division, and they eventually leave, leaving the body of Christ bleeding and broken. And the pastor is either fired or left to try and bandage up the wounds. It doesn’t take very long in repeating this process before the pastor is burned out, has the life and passion sucked from him, or stumbles into moral failure. So the question lies with the congregation. How much is the Kingdom of God worth to you? Is it only worth it if you get the programs you want, sing the songs you like, and stay comfortable? Or is it worth giving up your comfort, placing your trust in God and your pastor, and giving every last bit of you so that there can be one more person to share eternity with you?

For more of these ideas, check out our video on Effective Staffing for Vital Churches.