Growth Barrier No. 4: Worship Service
Your weekly worship service is the front door through which people are introduced to your church. If not done correctly, it can become a big barrier.
To keep your service strong, always try to look like a church twice your size. If you are a church of 100 people, intentionally create a worship service that looks like it’s for 200 people. Take your preaching up a notch. Energize your worship time. Create the excitement that would be present in a bigger crowd. Moreover, it’s essential to get in the habit of looking at your service through the eyes of your guests and regular attendees. What kind of impression are you giving them?
Improve the quality of your service in the following ways:
—Tweak your transitions.
—Set up feedback and develop evaluation mechanisms.
—Visit larger, growing churches and benchmark against what they are doing.
—Attend cutting-edge seminars and leadership conferences.
Jeff Gunn, pastor of CrossWalk Lutheran Church in Phoenix, saw incredible growth when he was able to overcome this worship service barrier. A few years ago, Jeff started a new congregation in a long-standing community that was being transformed by new development. As a strong communicator, he grew the church to 100 people in no time. But Jeff didn’t have a worship leader. In his Sunday services, he was cueing up and playing recorded music.
When Jeff made the decision to improve his services by bringing in a worship leader, he quickly broke the 125 mark and grew to more than 200 people. As he’s learned, sometimes you have to get out of your own way and do what needs to be done to create a quality experience for your attendees.
