Customer Reviews

Planting Fast-Growing Churches

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Based on the research of 52 struggling church plants and 60 fast growing churches, Stephen Gray identifies those factors that differentiate fast-growing, dynamic church plants from slower-growing, struggling church plants.

Here are the observations that I found most interesting:
* Church planters who had strong emotional support, personal investment, and conceptual freedom were more likely to succeed than those who had weaker support, investment, or freedom. (p 9)
* Church plants who received more funding for longer periods of time were overall less effective than churches that received less funding for shorter periods of time. (p 10)
* If a church plant doesn't break 200 in weekly attendance within its first two years, there is an increased likelihood that it never will. (p 40)
* 93% of church plants do not reach 200 in attendance and become self-supporting within three years. (p 51)
* If a planter cannot bring a church plant to be self-supporting within three years, this likely means that the wrong leader has been chosen. (p 64)
* A shorter period of financial support forces the planter to be more aggressive in growing the church, raising additional funds, and teaching stewardship. An extended period of support is detrimental to the development of a church plant. (p 67)
* Church planters who received specialized training achieved a worship attendance that was three times higher than those who received no training. (p 95)
* 88% of fast-growing church plants had a church planting team in place prior to public launch. By contrast, only 12 percent of struggling church plants had a church planting team. (p 102)
* An approach that utilizes a healthy dose of both small groups and preview services is the best way to go about building a large core group. (p 112)
* 92% of growing church plants offered three or more ministry opportunities from Day 1 (typically worship, children, and youth). Conversely, 64% of struggling church plants offered only an adult worship service on Day 1. (p 122)
* The early introduction of stewardship teaching is a critical factor affecting the size and survivability of a new church. According to this research, after four years, church plants that expected tithing experienced an average attendance of 120. Those new churches that did not teach any form of financial stewardship averaged around ninety in attendance. (p 126)

There were a total of twenty-one significant differences discovered between fast-growing and struggling church plants. For a summary of these 21 principles--see my blog.

Only 7 percent of 2,285 church plants in five denominations could be classified as "fast-growing", according to this book. Church planting is a challenging and often frustrating task. Gray conducted a study in an attempt to determine what it was that caused some churches to be successful, whereas the majority were struggling. His findings included the following:

* Leaders of successful churches were assessed on average as having higher leadership ability according to the Ridley Assessment (an assessment designed for evaluating church planters).
* Successful churches received some start-up funds from mother churches, but not too much.
* Successful churches were given more freedom in determining their own course.
* Pastors of successful churches received more emotional support.
* Successful churches were planted by teams rather than individuals.
* Successful churches waiting until they had a larger core group before launching.
* Successful churches gave generously to missions.

Two criteria were used in categorising a church as "fast-growing": the church plant had to reach financial self-sufficiency and an average attendance of at least 200 within three years of its public launch. The author acknowledges that these criteria are far from perfect, but argues that a church with fewer than 200 people is typically limited in the types of ministry which it can offer, and a church which does not break the 200 barrier within 3 years is never likely to do so. It's an interesting book, as statistics books go, and I recommend it for anyone interested in church growth.

Stephen Gray did his homework in this fact filled and easy to understand book. I was even able to contact him and work through some of the ideas as they relate to my everyday issues in planting my second church. Pastor Derrell Chastain

Gray's book is a survey of the characteristics of fast-growing churches. While some of his observations are important, I have to admit I disagree with the premise that fast-growing equals healthy. I do not think that fast-growing churches are negative or unhealthy necessarily, I just feel that a book helping churches identify what a "healthy" church looks like would be better.

As a recent church planter, I was interested to find out what characteristics fast-growing churches have. Unfortunately, many of the characteristics are not necessarily things I have within my control any more. That was a little frustrating.

This would be a good book for someone to read BEFORE starting the process of planting.