Church planting is considered to be one of the best ways to evangelize in our nation. There are a number of organizations and churches that envision planting churches, to this end. Yet in the midst of this are the scary church plant statistics like, 80% of all church plants fail (not sure if this one is true), many church plants that fail do so in the first 5 years, nearly 60% of churches in the US have average weekly attendance of less than 100 people. While these kinds of stats might give pause to many a church planter, the real question is what do these statistics really mean?
I believe there is one obvious meaning. Some churches fail some churches don’t! I know your thinking this guys statistics analysis skills are second to none. The difficult question, the one shrouded in mystery is…Why? I know that in our current church planting era there is a lot to be said about strategy, aesthetics, choice of music and a host of other things that generally attract the world. Yet I don’t believe that human factors are the greatest determination for the success or failure of many churches.
Before I give my novice, humble opinion let me say that I believe there are, perhaps, a number of factors that attribute to church “success” and failure. I must also include that I realize that for some, a successful church is not a church growing in numbers, but a church where people are growing and being equipped spiritually. I would never argue against that point. But I also recognize that the book of Acts gave some credence to the fact that church growth was an indicator that God was moving, which is why it’s mentioned twice that God added to their number. My real objective is to acknowledge what I believe is a BIG factor in church growth, at least in our ministry.
One early morning In 2006 while in a closet praying, God spoke to me about starting a church. At this time pastoral ministry was not something I was interested in or seeking, but I understood what God was saying and surrendered to the call. What happened after that were a series of events that I consider to be nothing less than super natural..miracles, moves of God! A series of events that would take a new church plant from a hotel with 20-30 weekly attendees to 4 1/2 years later, being weeks away from entering what we call D-Way 4.0, a 10,000 sq. ft. space to worship our God and continue to mature our current 300 plus, weekly attendees, in addition to whomever God has destined to bring to this new space.
In 2009 I moved my family to Tampa, Florida to start Designer’s Way Christian Church. Three other families would uproot from North Carolina and make the move with me. We started our church as many do in a hotel. Which didn’t last us more than 3 months. At the end of three months we began to have an issue with the hotel. We were too loud and complaints were coming in, not only from guests but from another church who also rented space on Sunday. In fact we found out on a Thursday that we really needed to hold service somewhere else on the following Sunday. We had 2 1/2 days to find another location. Those of you who have looked for church space know the challenges that come with the search. There are so many conditions that need to be right for a church and a 2 1/2 day deadline almost certainly spells destruction! But instead of failure, God began to show me something that to this day I still don’t fully understand but do have complete confidence in. I began to learn that if God has called you He’s also going to sustain you. That Friday my then Minister of Music, Mike (he’s Pastor Mike now), had found a pastor on Craigslist who was looking to share a space with someone. My wife and I went Friday evening to look at the space and that Sunday we were having church in a new building. Not only that, whereas we never saw more than 20-30 people in the hotel, our fist service in the new building had nearly 50 people including children.
That building was an incredible blessing it made the difference at a time when our 3 month old church was nearing collapse, but it wasn’t the last time that God had to save his work. A month after we got into the building the pastor we were sharing with informed us that he could no longer stay. He was closing his ministry. We were able to take over the building completely. That summer we experienced our first “summer lull”. Our church was already small but summer vacations really dwindled our numbers. The numbers were so bad that one Sunday the offering was $24 dollars and the other offerings prior to that weren’t much better. The lease for the building, was over $2000 dollars not including the electricity. It was close to the end of the month and we just simply didn’t have the money to pay the lease. I was deeply concerned, bordering on depression and I went to God in prayer saying something to the effect of (this is highly simplified) “God we need you to provide for us or we will have to close the doors of the church…”. The very next day my pastor called. He said “I have to go to Boston, I want you to come up and preach for me. We won’t give you an honorarium, instead we will take up an offering for you”. This was huge! An answer to my prayer. My pastor’s church at the time was a 5,000 plus member church with a Saturday night service, and three Sunday services. Needless to say the offering I received carried us through the summer. Once again God sustained the church that He established.
I didn’t mention that the space God blessed us with was on a dirt road on the outskirts of Tampa. It was a private road with moon-like craters. The fact that anyone drove down that road, week in and week out, for church was amazing. If anyone could find the church without help THEY were amazing. Yet God grew our church on a private dirt road, that wasn’t visible to anyone, there was no main street, no landmarks…just God! In this space we grew to about 70-90 adults in weekly attendance. Then he opened the door to our current space. In our current space which is more visible, on a paved road, and has decent parking, God grew our church from that 70-90 adults weekly to 300 plus adults weekly. In this space I added another aspect to my idea about the main factor in church growth and sustenance.
In this location our church nearly quadrupled in size. I believe the visibility, decent parking, contemporary style of worship, and sound biblical teaching factor into the growth. But we’re not the first or only church to have those things. So I began to think even more seriously about the statistics. We are now nearly five years old yet many churches fail within the first 5 years. We have 300 plus adults attending our Sunday service, yet almost 60% of churches in the US have a weekly attendance of 100 or less. I’ve had zero pastoral experience prior to starting this church. I wasn’t trained under any church planting programs (and there are some good ones out there like the Association of Related Churches aka ARC), and I’m not a genius. My pastor’s church provided a great model, but you know like I do, imitating someone else’s church doesn’t ensure growth in yours. So I’ve realized this: I’m not special in the equation, not me, not our church name, not our location, not our music, or aesthetics… but God. Why did he save us each time within those first few years, when we could have fallen like the churches in the statistics?
A friend of mine always says this “Some people are sent, some people just went”. I believe that a person of God, called by God, provided a vision from God, who steps out and by faith begins to fulfill that call, will ultimately be sustained by God and God alone. Think about it… could the church of Acts be stopped? Were there any missteps, traps, opponents, financial hang-ups that could have stopped what God decided would be a marked moment in history…the first church? I doubt it. When we think about the number of churches that fail are we counting unfortunate situations or situations, where perhaps, it just wasn’t God’s plan.
Designer’s Way is on the cusp of another great move of God. We are moving into a building at the corner of a main intersection in our city. Our sanctuary is going to originally seat nearly 400 people and will eventually seat more than 600. The price we are paying for this building in this location is unbelievable, we are going into the building on the strength of our own financials without the need for a guarantor, and even more than that 95% of the up-fit costs are not being paid for by the church. This is not my genius, not my vast experience, nor that of anyone in leadership at our church. We recognize that God is opening a door to continue what He started, we are just willing servants trying to steward well, what God is doing. We must include in church success the GOD factor. I believe it’s the biggest factor. Paul said “So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” – 1 Corinthians 3:7
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