Growing Churches

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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For Growing Churches

The Growing Churches pages provide an opportunity for you to interact with leaders of churches of similar size. Like human beings, churches move through various life stages which often correlate with issues related to their size. Learn from the experience of others in addressing these common issues identified by Gary McIntosh (One Size Doesn't Fit All).

Size is never a question in itself; therefore growth is never an end in istelf. There is no perfect size for a church in any abstract sense, and a large church is not necessarily better than a small one (or vice versa). Size is purely and completely a question of deeper issues such as purpose, vitality, mission, and what we might call a healthy homeostasis (dynamic internal balance). . . Size is simply the wrong question. It's like asking how big a building or tree should be. For the church, the only valid answer to the question of size is that the church should be whatever size best enables it to fulfill its mission and 'grow up in Christ.'”

--Howard Snyder with Daniel Runyon, Decoding the Church: Mapping the DNA of Christ's Body

Resources

Snapshot of the American Church

A slide illustrating the size and attendance patterns of churches in America from a copyrighted presentation by Mark Chaves of the University of Arizona.

McIntosh's Typology of Church Sizes

A chart from Gary McIntosh's excellent book, One Size Doesn't Fit All

Growing Churches Links

Center for Church Growth
The helpful website of John Ellas, a Church of Christ church growth consultant and author of Clear Choices and Measuring Church Growth: A Research-based Tool for Evaluating and Planning.

Church Central.Com
The website of Dr. Thom Rainer, church growth consultant and author of several well-researched and well-written books on reaching the unchurched.

Church Growth Institute
The website of the Church Growth Institute with a FREE online Spiritual Gifts Inventory and lots of practical tools and products.

Columbia International University Church Health Resources
The website of Columbia International University Church Health Department.

Easum-Bandy Associates
The website of authors and church consultants, William Easum and Thomas Bandy, with several excellent articles for you to download free.

Elmer Towns Online Libray
Here is the website of Elmer Towns with several downloadable resources designed to help your church grow.

Fresh Start Ministries
Robert Humphrey, Director of Fresh Start Ministries located in Rockport, IL is a leading consultant in working with small, plateaued or declining congregations. Fresh Start is a ministry of Mission to the Americas of Denver, CO.

New Life Ministries
This website includes numerous links to various articles on church growth and vitality.

Sonlife Ministries
The website of Dann Spader and Sonlife Ministries with helpful resources to download.

The Malphurs Group
The website of author and professor Aubrey Malphurs with lots of online resources and downloadable files.

Your Church Can Grow
The website for Great Commission Resources.

Online Church Growth Books

Church Growth Newtwork's Answer Book

Gary McIntosh's Church Growth Answer Book is available for you here. It provides diagnoses and presecriptions for growing a healthy church.

The Complete Book of Church Growth

This book by Elmer Towns, although outdated, is still one of the most comprehensive books on church growth in print.

Church Growth State of Art

This book by edited by C. Peter Wagner with Win Arn and Elmer Towns is written by church growth experts and addresses critical issues for growing churches.

10 Sunday Schools that Dared to Change

Another book by Elmer Towns that explores how churches are changing to reach a new generation.

10 of Today's Most Innovative Churches

This book by Elmer Towns explores what these churches are doing and how your church can adapt their principles for your church.