So what is a Dynamic Church?

Jeff Hook — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 21:02:00 GMT

Dynamic, simply put, means change. When we say we accelerate the dynamic church we mean we help it accelerate in growth. So how do we do that? We help it accelerate in growth by helping its processes scale so that it takes less people to do more things, such as contact follow-up, activity registration, activity check-in, etc. If a church does not invest in some forms of automation, then as it increases in size, it takes more people to accomplish the same things just from a volume standpoint. Sometimes this is achievable through volunteers, up to a point; most of the time, it simply breaks down in execution.

A thriving, healthy church should be changing all of the time. The Christians who have been attending for a while should be maturing in their faith. That maturing should enable them to accomplish things that they were not able to accomplish before – remember, faith can move mountains! These same mature Christians should be mentoring younger Christians who are maturing as well. In both cases, the maturing is change. Both of these groups should be inviting and bringing in seekers and sinners, thus changing the landscape even further. This changing body, if done at a successful rate, is thus creating a dynamic environment. A church that is not dynamic is dying.

Having everyone who enters the church doors, who is going to stay, conform to the culture of the congregation is no longer valid. Even middle class America is changing and no longer as we once knew it. Whatever made us think that God produced us using some standard assembly line in heaven like some car manufacturer putting black hair on some, blond on others, white skin on some, and then brown skin on others? As our mommas always taught us, we are ALL unique. This uniqueness (we now also refer to it, in some cases, as diversity) adds to the dynamic nature of a healthy church.

Some say that being accepting of others and how they live will be the downfall of Christianity. The fact is we are all sinners and we all sin; it is our nature. Some of us sin very publicly; others sin in private and then others even without our own knowledge. For example, many prideful people do not even recognize their own sin, which at times includes me; sometimes it has to be pointed out by someone else or perhaps the Spirit. The “Church” (that is you and me, we make up the church) needs to get past judging people because they are not like us, their skin color, their political party, or their sin. Jesus’ second great commandment is “love your neighbor as yourself.” He did not add any qualifiers to that statement.

So what does that have to do with a dynamic church? We can all become more dynamic if we embrace change by embracing others who are unlike us. What does that have to do with Fellowship One? This diversity can be better serviced if those differences are tracked and then catered to by addressing the individual needs of each segment of the congregation. Even though some of our needs are universal, we are all different and have some different needs. Not only that, because we are always changing, those differences that are tracked are dynamic as well. Without a strong church management system, the church can lose track of the needs of the different groups within the body of Christ.

Grace to you as you embrace change,

Jhook

Return on Ministry statistic . . . how fast are you growing?

Jeff Hook — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:10:00 GMT

On Tuesday, October 17^th, 2006, the United States passed the 300 million mark in population. We are only the third country to ever pass this mark; the other two being China and India. This is amazing growth when you think of the modern age and where recent historical birth rates seem to be heading in most of the industrialized world. What does this have to do with a dynamic church?

Too often, when a church tracks its success, it only looks at the internal growth rate; how the church is growing compared to itself in previous weeks, months, or years. But in business, a thriving company looks at how well it is growing compared to itself but also how well it is growing compared to the overall market growth. In other words, how the company is growing compared to the all companies in that segment and to the market potential.

When compared to the population growth, shouldn't successful churches be growing at a more rapid pace than the overall population growth? Perhaps the overall US population is too broad, but shouldn't the standard then be the local population growth rate? Conversely, if a geographical area is in the decline and the local church is shrinking at a lesser pace than the population, is that not success? In that case, the percentage of the population going to church would be increasing.

If a company is not growing as fast as the marketplace, it is looked at as failing; even if it is the fastest growing company in that vertical space or industry. Is attendance growth rate against population growth rate a metric your church is tracking? To have an honest assessment of a church's health, I believe it is one that should be.

Question to ponder: Can a dynamic church exist in a dying town?

Grace to you,

Jhook

Accelerating the Dynamic Church : Church Growth

So what is a Dynamic Church?

Return on Ministry statistic . . . how fast are you growing?