Here’s another ethical consideration that needs to be thought about when planning outreach in your community. Be careful when you are planning your church’s communication that you are not using your marketing ability and budget to compete with other churches.
Some churches have the mistaken impression they are growing because they think they are very evangelistic, but when their membership statistics are studied, it becomes clear they really are growing through transfer of memberships from other churches. This is “market share” growth. That is, growth in the church’s share of people in their community who already were going to church somewhere else, now attending their church. To the people in the growing church, the ride of rapid growth feels great, but I see a couple of negative effects on the Kingdom of Heaven.
First, in these churches, the huge crowds make the church members feel like their church is bursting at the seams with evangelistic growth. But the reality is far from it. New programs, new people and new facilities notwithstanding, rapid new growth through transfer memberships (or merger with other churches) could have the negative effect of making your church less evangelistic by leaving your church members with the feeling that the work of reaching the community is being done without them needing to reach out to others with the good news. This is the main reason larger evangelical churches do not reach unreached people as well as smaller churches.
A second negative effect of rapidly reaching people who already go to church through marketing outreach is the fact that huge churches receive more money from their offerings from already tithing members who transfer to the congregation. Their media budgets and media staff size grow in proportion to their new dimensions. They then usually use those resources to their church’s market share advantage, when they ought to use them for the advancement of gospel in general.
If you are one of those churches with a big media budget, be careful not to use your marketing ability (or larger budget) to compete with other churches. Sure, you may have the ability to be the “800 Pound Gorilla” in your community, but that doesn’t justify any outreach that is targeting people who are already part of a church fellowship. Resist the urge to become the “Wal-Mart” of the community that puts the “Mom and Pop” sized churches under. We are members of one another in God’s church.
“But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other”. (1 Corinthians 12:24-25 NIV)
Some ministry leaders seem only to show interest in the activities and ministries that help their church grow. Consider how your church might play a role in helping smaller churches grow or enlarge the Kingdom by starting new ones. Not every new ministry your church starts needs to be an extension or another venue of your ministry. I am not against multi-site churches, but I do think infatuation with the multi-site strategy may lead some people to choose multi-site, when they really ought to consider church planting.
Be Careful Not to Use Marketing Savvy to Develop a Bonsai Church
Churches that grow mainly through membership transfers may not realize it, but they are turning the community of Christians and the Kingdom of Heaven in their town into a bonsai church. If you have ever seen a bonsai tree you may know how they are cultivated. They are kept in a limited container and systematically trimmed at the roots. A bonsai tree looks like a full grown large tree, only in miniature form. In bonsai cultivation the focus really is on the Gardner’s skill more than on the plant itself. People gasp, “Man, how did he do that?”
In order to cultivate a bonsai tree, you need a dedicated Gardner who is skilled in the trimming of the plant to keep it from growing. If left alone, the bonsai plant would grow to its full and normal size. Since growing bonsai trees is hard work, a Gardner would only be willing to plant as many trees as he could manage.
Do bonsai churches exist? Yes, in my opinion the American church is a bonsai church in many respects. Some of our dedicated “Gardners” try to contain growth in the containers of their mega-churches, and unwittingly are trimming the roots of church growth in their community. These leaders are not usually very interested in church planting, instead the want growth they can manage under their ministry leadership. Missiologist tell us America is the only place on the planet where the church is not growing.
To grow the kingdom bigger, think smaller. Little churches may look ineffective to the leaders of larger churches. They don’t have all the flash and splash. They don’t have the large staff. But there are more of them and given the chance would do a better job of reaching the community and growing more naturally than any single church Gardner could ever cultivate in a mega-church. We need more little churches!
Here’s church growth formula you can count on:
LOTS OF LITTLE CHURCHES = KINGDOM GROWTH
Little churches may not look like growing propositions, but they are. Actually, in most cases, the smaller churches are better at reaching people than the larger ones. Leave them alone! They almost always have a lower number of people per capita for each person who comes to Christ than the larger churches. If all the churches became Wal-Mart in size, or part of a multi-site church, it would spell disaster for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Are mega-churches wrong? No, I don’t think Jesus put a cap on how big a church should grow. But we don’t need any more mega-churches that mainly grow through transfer growth.
Lord, help us to not be a part of making a cute little American bonsai church!
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