5 Small-Thinking Mindsets That Stunt Your Church’s Potential
So what’s really holding back your church’s potential?
As hard as it might be to admit, ever think it might be…you? More particularly, ever think it might be the way you think?
I’m firmly convinced I’m my own worst enemy. I limit what God can do because I don’t think largely enough or expansively enough.
I pulled together 5 commonly held mindsets and beliefs that I’ve had to struggle through personally and that I hear again and again from leaders.
The myths I outline below are ones we had to break through in our ministry at Connexus Church, where I serve as Founding Pastor. The average church in Canada is about 75 people. It’s not that much bigger in the US.
Our church now reaches 1400 people each weekend in three locations and we just saw nearly double that on Easter weekend, which even 7 or 8 years ago was not exactly a massive reach weekend for us.
In addition to double-digit growth on the weekend, we’re seeing triple digit (sometimes four digit) growth in our online reach—something many leaders these days say kills in-person attendance, especially in a church that’s a decade old, like ours.
The point? So much is possible even when people tell you it’s not. The Gospel can reach people even when everyone tells you it can’t.
Of all the things that limit growth, a leader’s small mindset is the most deadly. The greatest limiting factors actually exist inside our minds.
It’s not that we had a different start or any kind of ‘advantage.’ Before we launched Connexus, I served three little mainline churches that saw many reached with the Gospel and explosive growth. But we didn’t begin that way. One of the churches where I served had 6 people attending and an annual budget of $4000 (nope, neither figure is a typo). I’m incredibly grateful that some of those same people are still part of Connexus Church today.
To get to where God has brought us today definitely involved a whole lot of grace on God’s part. Sometimes God blesses because of us. Often he blesses in spite of us.
But I also know we had to bust through many myths and beliefs that grip the mindset of too many church leaders, and we had to tackle many obstacles people said were impossible.
Here are 5 small-thinking mindsets it’s time to dump forever if you want your mission to flourish.
1. What Works There Won’t Work Here
You’ve heard it so many times. Maybe you’ve said it. “What works in the Bible-Belt/big-city/suburbs/fill-in-the-blank won’t work here.”
Really? Why?
Are you honestly that different?
When it comes to what works where – it’s often your attitude that determines the outcome.
We launched Connexus on as one of the first North Point Strategic Partners. People were both fascinated and critical, wondering how anything that originated in the Bible-belt of the US could work in a postmodern, post-Christian Canada.
But surprisingly, it does work.
Whenever people ask me how much translates to north of the border, my answer is always the same: about 90%. We run Andy Stanley’s teaching via video and people love it. Imagine that… American video teaching working in Canada.
People also claim video teaching doesn’t work. So that’s two birds… one stone.) Sure, I also teach live. But attendance really doesn’t vary based on the communicator. Two of our locations are 100% video. And—surprise—our online ministry is also 100% video.
Most of the model translates directly. So do the branding and marketing.
Occasionally, we won’t run a series because it’s explicitly American or cultural (we didn’t run Andy’s election messages or the Christian series because it addressed Bible-Belt issues). But for the most part, we run the model and our boots-on-the-ground team of staff and volunteers focus as much on the execution as the invention.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Henry Ford, who said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Bang on.
2. My Context Is Different
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a church leader say this, I think we could pay off the national debt.
Look, your context absolutely matters. A city church is different than a country one. Urban is different than suburban. West Coast is not East Coast. North isn’t South. I get that.
But I don’t think I’ve ever heard a leader pull out the “my context is different” argument as a reason for their success (my context is different, and that’s why we’re reaching X thousand people…it can only happen here!!).
I’ve only heard leaders talk about context to justify a lack of progress.
Leaders trot this out when they want to explain why they’re not able to do whatever someone is suggesting might help them
But the reality is that you are ministering to people. And people have some pretty universal tendencies. Think about it.
In the West, we:
Listen to most of the same music.
Wear the same clothes.
Drive the same cars.
Struggle with love/hate/shame/unforgiveness/brokenness/bitterness.
People are people.
And sure, a few more people drive Priuses and Teslas in Vancouver and California than they do in Montana or Ohio. But that doesn’t mean the Gospel should die because of it.
Your context isn’t that different from anyone else’s as long as you’re ministering to people. And should definitely not be a reason the Gospel can’t move forward in your neighborhood.
3. If You Build It They Will Come
Field of Dreams was a great movie. But the tagline doesn’t make for great theology or an effective approach to reaching more people.
Too many church leaders think their problem is their building or lack of it.
If their church wasn’t portable, it would grow.
If they got out of their ancient building, they’d grow.
Or maybe something bigger/smaller/better would move them to growth.
A building can help you grow, but it won’t make you grow.
Conversely, there are more than a few hole-in-the-walls that serve amazing tacos that have long lines of people waiting to get in.
You can lead a growing church in a dying building, and a dying church in a great building.
Buildings don’t reach people. People reach people.
Often the longing we have for a new/different facility won’t solve our problems because the facility isn’t our core problem.
4. People Don’t Give
I hear this often, especially in a context like ours which is deeply post-Christian. But just because most people don’t give doesn’t mean your people won’t give.
Over the last seven years, we have worked really hard to raise the level of giving among all ages at Connexus, and we’ve seen amazing results.
It’s a systems approach we’ve used that has seen us run over 750 people through a budgeting course that has resulted in a ton of financial freedom for our congregation, especially for Millennials. They know we’re for them, and we want them to save for retirement, save for their kids’ education, save for their vacation and give generously. More importantly, we’ve shown them how to do it.
And we’ve given them a Kingdom vision for what can happen when we pool our money to reach and help people.
The result? We have more money to reach people than we ever have before AND our families have more money for their lives.
Leaders ask us all the time how we do this. The strategy is outlined in detail in a new resource by Joe Sangl and Michael Lukaszewski I’m very excited about called Fully Funded (affiliate link). It’s helped us fund a facility, a growing mission, and online campus and much more, plus help our families get on their feet. Even in Canada.
5. People Don’t Like Big Churches
The data just doesn’t support the view that people hate big churches. Many large churches keep growing. And many smaller churches keep shrinking.
It’s important to keep your church relational and feeling ‘smaller’ as you grow.
The bigger your church is, the smaller it needs to feel. But through small groups, serving teams, multisite and other ventures, larger churches continue to grow even as they establish smaller footprints. That’s been our approach, and it’s been Life Church’s frankly.
It’s not a question of whether people like big churches or small churches. People like effective churches.
If a large church is effective in reaching people, people come. If a small church is effective in reaching people, people come and bring friends until (often) it’s no longer a small church.
Tackle Your Barriers
If you’re reaching more people but you’re currently stuck at an attendance plateau, I have some practical help for you.
Breaking 200 Without Breaking You is a course I’ve created that provides strategies on how to tackle eight practical barriers (including a more nuanced and practical dive into everything I covered in this blog post) that keep churches from reaching more than 200 people. And it’s designed so I can walk your entire leadership team or elder board through the issues.
So whether your church is 50, 150 or 250 in attendance, the principles will help you gain the insight you need to break the barrier more than 85% of churches can’t break. Even churches with attendances of 300-500 are finding the material helpful as they try to reach more people.
What Other Excuses Should We Eliminate?
As we’ve said many times in this space, you can make excuses, or you can make progress, but you can’t make both.
What other excuses should we eliminate? Scroll down and leave a comment!
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