Friday, October 9, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
No Room
Why are so many church plants in the habit of building too small? Is it because their leaders have taken no time to examine church growth, or do they not expect growth to occur? My natural inclination is to assume it is because they value the building more than they value people, which is probably why they felt that building such a small building was acceptable. This past week I have examined the websites and/or buildings of 3 local church plants and in every case have been amazed at 1) the fact that they have a building at such a young church age and 2) the incredibly small size of their building. All three churches proport to be similar in style to the type of church I hope to plant. This brings to mind two thoughts. Either they are doing everything right and the culture is denying the style, or they are doing something very wrong.
I don't understand why a 2-year-old church needs a building in the first place, but when a church does finally get around to choosing a building, they are deciding how big their church can grow. Yes, they can add multiple services to help offset that, but whey would you add extra work for yourself if it is not necessary? What buying a small building so early on tells me is that the leaders do not have confidence in themselves as leaders, their priority is not to win souls but to be conformtable, and most importantly, they lack faith in God to help them reach people. If you truly feel that you must get a building as a young church plant, I would suggest getting the largest building you can get your hands on. As T.D. Jakes said about the widow and the oil (2 Kings 4), God can only fill you to your capacity to receive.
One of the things that I greatly admire about Elevation Church is that even with the number of people they have, and even with the money that they brought in to build a perminent location, they still meet in 3 locations, 2 of which are still schools. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages of meeting in a mobile location is that it naturally provides opportunities for people to serve. They have to set up and take down everything at those locations and they have men and women who do it gladly. Meeting in a high school also gives them a greater connection to the community. The auditorium is huge at the school and they manage to fill it 5 times a Sunday. No, after only 3 and a half years, they reach over 7000 people a week. Imagine if, instead of expanding into a second service or a second school, if they had made the decision to move into a small building. Would they have experienced the insane growth they have? More importantly, how would their ability to touch so many lives for Christ be affected?
A final note. Any student of church growth, or general growth principles, can tell you that there is a psychological element to growth that only involves the occupancy of a room. When a room is 70% occupied, sociologically, growth is encouraged. The sense is that whatever is going on in that room is exciting and people are naturally drawn to it. Anything less that 70% encourages people to leave, especially when lesser occupancy occurs after a period of hightened occupancy. In that case it feels as if decline has occured which naturally encourages people to leave. At 80%, growth becomes stagnant because at 80% the room seems full. At this size, people are not leaving because they still feel that something exciting is happening, but rarely will new people be added as the room already feels to be at capacity. When a room reaches 90%, there is a strong sense of overcrowding that encourages people to leave. (The only time that 90%+ is acceptable is in a situation that is more compelling than the urge to leave i.e. concerts, movie releases, Macy's parade, etc.) If decline happens too drastically, the natural response of those remaining in the room is also to leave, not because the room any longer feels crowded but because there is a sense of decline, a sense that what once made the room exciting is now gone.
Understanding this principle is paramount to growth because is a simple way to encourage new people to join the room. This can be done by creating a false room constraint. A large room can always be made to feel smaller through the use of fake walls. This occurs much more often than we realize. Many coliseums have curtains that block off certain sections of the room, and many times they employ ushers to force you into certain sections, even when there is no anticipated threat of over-crowding. Colleges and offices have room dividers, with the intent of making the room larger when the crowd needs it, but how often does a small crowd meet in an over-sized room? Elevation encourages growth in their auditorium but setting up curtains along each side set of seats and removing them as needed. This allows them to control the feel of the room, so they can always encourage growth. Small church building do not allow this luxury.
Owning a building makes it very difficult for you to find a larger venue. If you wish to keep your building, your best option is to expand, which requires much more money. As a young church plant, I have to wonder what the rush is. Nobody will deny that it is more comfortable to have a place to call your home, but at what cost? I have no expertise and am certainly no expert, but it seems to me that you shoot yourself in the foot when you pull the building trigger too soon. We need to remember that our purpose here is to be Christ's witness to the world, and to make them disciples. What must be examined is does having buying a small building help us, or hinder us toward that purpose? I'll let you decide.
I don't understand why a 2-year-old church needs a building in the first place, but when a church does finally get around to choosing a building, they are deciding how big their church can grow. Yes, they can add multiple services to help offset that, but whey would you add extra work for yourself if it is not necessary? What buying a small building so early on tells me is that the leaders do not have confidence in themselves as leaders, their priority is not to win souls but to be conformtable, and most importantly, they lack faith in God to help them reach people. If you truly feel that you must get a building as a young church plant, I would suggest getting the largest building you can get your hands on. As T.D. Jakes said about the widow and the oil (2 Kings 4), God can only fill you to your capacity to receive.
One of the things that I greatly admire about Elevation Church is that even with the number of people they have, and even with the money that they brought in to build a perminent location, they still meet in 3 locations, 2 of which are still schools. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages of meeting in a mobile location is that it naturally provides opportunities for people to serve. They have to set up and take down everything at those locations and they have men and women who do it gladly. Meeting in a high school also gives them a greater connection to the community. The auditorium is huge at the school and they manage to fill it 5 times a Sunday. No, after only 3 and a half years, they reach over 7000 people a week. Imagine if, instead of expanding into a second service or a second school, if they had made the decision to move into a small building. Would they have experienced the insane growth they have? More importantly, how would their ability to touch so many lives for Christ be affected?
A final note. Any student of church growth, or general growth principles, can tell you that there is a psychological element to growth that only involves the occupancy of a room. When a room is 70% occupied, sociologically, growth is encouraged. The sense is that whatever is going on in that room is exciting and people are naturally drawn to it. Anything less that 70% encourages people to leave, especially when lesser occupancy occurs after a period of hightened occupancy. In that case it feels as if decline has occured which naturally encourages people to leave. At 80%, growth becomes stagnant because at 80% the room seems full. At this size, people are not leaving because they still feel that something exciting is happening, but rarely will new people be added as the room already feels to be at capacity. When a room reaches 90%, there is a strong sense of overcrowding that encourages people to leave. (The only time that 90%+ is acceptable is in a situation that is more compelling than the urge to leave i.e. concerts, movie releases, Macy's parade, etc.) If decline happens too drastically, the natural response of those remaining in the room is also to leave, not because the room any longer feels crowded but because there is a sense of decline, a sense that what once made the room exciting is now gone.
Understanding this principle is paramount to growth because is a simple way to encourage new people to join the room. This can be done by creating a false room constraint. A large room can always be made to feel smaller through the use of fake walls. This occurs much more often than we realize. Many coliseums have curtains that block off certain sections of the room, and many times they employ ushers to force you into certain sections, even when there is no anticipated threat of over-crowding. Colleges and offices have room dividers, with the intent of making the room larger when the crowd needs it, but how often does a small crowd meet in an over-sized room? Elevation encourages growth in their auditorium but setting up curtains along each side set of seats and removing them as needed. This allows them to control the feel of the room, so they can always encourage growth. Small church building do not allow this luxury.
Owning a building makes it very difficult for you to find a larger venue. If you wish to keep your building, your best option is to expand, which requires much more money. As a young church plant, I have to wonder what the rush is. Nobody will deny that it is more comfortable to have a place to call your home, but at what cost? I have no expertise and am certainly no expert, but it seems to me that you shoot yourself in the foot when you pull the building trigger too soon. We need to remember that our purpose here is to be Christ's witness to the world, and to make them disciples. What must be examined is does having buying a small building help us, or hinder us toward that purpose? I'll let you decide.
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