In addition, I would like to thank the faculty of the Leadership and Learning in Organizations program, especially Dr. Eighty percent of the approximately 400,000 churches (or 320,000 churches) in the United States have reduced or are declining in their regular attendance (Olson, 2008). As a result, much of the recent decline in interest in the church seems to stem from this widespread perception that the church is irrelevant, outdated, and obsolete.
Conversely, external factors can be defined as those that are entirely outside the direct influence of the church. Olson (2008) uses the useful analogy of thinking about the church as an aging process like that of the human body. In doing so, the ability of the leadership to orchestrate much-needed innovations is significantly hindered.
20 enthusiasm for church participation to their own children or other members of the following. Broocks, noted a pastor who mentioned that the lack of evangelism in America is directly linked to the general lack of recognition of the importance of evangelists and their value to the Church. Therefore, the witnessing capacity of the Church to grow spiritually and numerically is directly linked to the leadership quality that equips the Church for service and witness.
Finally, maintaining momentum refers to implementing the change and “refreezing” or establishing a “new normal” regarding a new process (see Figure 6). After the interview was completed, the questionnaires were distributed to the congregation members, with the permission and assistance of the pastor. A copy of the informed consent form used in this study can be found in Appendix A.
The questionnaire gave a look at the practices and activities of the church from the attendee's perspective. Of the churches that practice evangelism, they are getting younger and seem to be more active. Growing churches must address the problem of aging congregations by finding new ways to recruit young people, even in the face of external pressures that turn young people away from the church.
Organizations must be prepared to adapt quickly for the development and survival of the organization (Hussain, 2018). For example, consider a situation where a church recently voted to change pastors because it was believed that the former pastor's practices led to the exodus of more than 150 members from the church. This episode also raises the question of whether the congregation understood the direction of the church.
In both examples, these church leaders structured their practices around the needs of the community to inspire discipleship that resulted in church growth.
Consider developing an Innovation Hub intended to inform member and non-member churches
Every nation and every pastor participating in this study has one thing in common: their goal is to grow Christian church attendance by making more disciples. As identified by this study, many best practices for Christian growth work well for the communities that employ them. The pastor's and leadership team's awareness of the local community's needs is critical in determining the most appropriate strategy for growth.
Considering the conceptual frameworks that guided this study as well as the wealth of educational resources that each nation has built to serve as training programs for its own. 83 capital available through many outlets such as personal training, books, published research, and social media, these resources do not appear to be connected to an innovation hub where member and non-member churches can access education and training, but they also make contributions. . A designated innovation hub based on the principles of innovation and knowledge transfer would establish a centralized resource for churches to learn how to use change management or leadership frameworks to add best practices that enable growth.
Applying this approach to EN means improving their current model by adding a Christian Center of Excellence as a fourth pillar. In addition to the pillars of church planting, campus ministries, and world missions, an Innovation Center can be a fourth strategy for growing Christianity by supporting the needs of nonmember churches to increase their participation and discipleship.
Consider sharing the EN operating model as an open platform for all who are interested
Regardless of each local church's growth path and where it is not yet, participating churches should consider taking a more intentional approach to church growth.
Regardless of each local church’s growth trajectory, and where not already in place, participating churches should consider a more intentional approach to church growth
Therefore, it is probably not possible to find "the one factor" that can be identified as the missing ingredient for growth. During this capstone project, a major external disruptor in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated quarantine negatively affected Christian church attendance across the country. Therefore, this study intentionally does not directly include the effects of the pandemic, although it is worth noting that most communities around the country were significantly affected during this time.
Furthermore, there are several additional key themes outside the parameters of this study that could be developed more fully in future studies (see Table 9). As a result, the pastor had the autonomy to send the questionnaire to attendees of their choice, leading to 48 percent of respondents with a leadership or employment position in the church. The Gift of the Evangelist, [Missiology Doctoral Project, Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies].
Kurt Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of management and employee involvement in organizational change. INSTRUCTIONS: Below are 31 statements describing characteristics of our church and your relationship with it, followed by 14 personal questions. Please rate your perception of the strength of each attribute using the scale provided and write the appropriate number in the box to the right of the statement.
Your responses will be kept confidential, and your participation will help our church leaders become better informed as we seek to discern future strategic initiatives for our church.
