1. Keys to Growing a Healthy Church

2. Why the 200 Barrier?
Research I’ve done over the years, as well as research done by others, shows that 200 is the most difficult barrier for a church.
The most common barriers are 35, 75, 125, and 200

3. 5 Keys to Growing Beyond 200 Know Your Purpose Have Great Faith
Get Beyond “Us”
Shift Your Mindset
Lead Better

4. 1. Know Your Purpose
Why does your church exist? What is God’s purpose for you?
“This is so God’s multifaceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens.” Ephesians 3:10

5. 1. Know Your Purpose
I will build My church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven.
Matthew 16:18-19

6. Why Purpose Matters… Forgotten purpose
Have you forgotten who you are as a church? When you forget who you are, what your purpose is in Christ, you will lose your mission.

7. Why Purpose Matters… 2. Misguided purpose
Has your church gotten off track and tried to become something God doesn’t intend it to be? When you change your mission, you shouldn’t be surprised that your church isn’t growing in the ways God intends a healthy church to grow.

8. Why Purpose Matters…
Don’t be surprised by ”purpose drift.” It happens to a lot of once healthy churches.
When people get a vision bigger than themselves, they are willing to sacrifice and change to get there. That vision drives the mission.

9. 2. Have Great Faith
Matthew 6:30 - If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you  —  you of little faith?
Matthew 8:26 - He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith? ” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

10. 2. Have Great Faith
Matthew 14:31 - Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt? ”
Matthew 16:8 - Aware of this, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread?

11. 2. Have Great Faith
Matthew 17: Then the disciples approached Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we drive it out? ” 20 “Because of your little faith,” he told them. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

12. 2. Have Great Faith You are in a spiritual war
The World is in rebellion. We are the rebellion against the rebellion.
You fight it by faith

13. 2. Have Great Faith Do you believe God will build His Church?
Do you believe God can grow your church?
“For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.” Ephesians 6:12

14. 2. Have Great Faith Three Faith Factors…
1. A renewed belief in Jesus Christ and the mission of the church
2. A renewed attitude for servanthood
3. A more strategic prayer effort

15. 3. Get Beyond Us
Your church to one extent or another is in a cocoon, especially if you are struggling to get beyond growth barriers.
Your people are going to have to let go of some things and pick up some other things.

16. Congregational Shifts Necessary
3. Get Beyond Us
Congregational Shifts Necessary
to Break the 200 Barrier
Shift #1: You are no longer a smaller church
You go from smaller to mid-sized

17. Congregational Shifts Necessary
3. Get Beyond Us
Congregational Shifts Necessary
to Break the 200 Barrier
Shift #2: Connected to the pastor to
connected to others

18. Congregational Shifts Necessary
3. Get Beyond Us
Congregational Shifts Necessary
to Break the 200 Barrier
Shift #3 : Pastoral caring to pastoral care
You’re going to have to create networks
of relational care.

19. Congregational Shifts Necessary
3. Get Beyond Us
Congregational Shifts Necessary
to Break the 200 Barrier
Shift #4: From Unidirectional Care to Multidirectional Care
You can’t do both. Make space and
room for new people.

20. Congregational Shifts Necessary
3. Get Beyond Us
Congregational Shifts Necessary
to Break the 200 Barrier
Shift #5 : From being a chaplain to being
a leader
Your primary role: Create systems and
structures that enable every person
to be cared for well.

21. 4. Shift Your Mindset
Mentality Shift #1 : Shift to Pro-Growth Mentality
You must end this idea in your church: Faithfulness and fruitfulness are mutually exclusive categories. They are not mutually exclusive.

22. 4. Shift Your Mindset Mentality Shift #2 : Staff Shift
Spend more time with leaders and the lost.

23. 4. Shift Your Mindset Mentality Shift #3 : Ownership Shift
For your church to break the 200 barrier, more people need to see this as their church and less your church, as the pastor.
Smaller churches often think of their pastor this way. Start saying ‘OUR.’

24. 4. Shift Your Mindset Mentality Shift #3 : Ownership Shift
To break 200 the body begins to act more like differentiated parts. The church past the 200 barrier is a complex organism. As the body grows, somebody else owns the systems. The ownership shift is two-sided…
● One has to give it away
● Someone else has to take it up

25. 4. Shift Your Mindset Mentality Shift #3 : Ownership Shift
To break 200 the body begins to act more like differentiated parts. The church past the 200 barrier is a complex organism. As the body grows, somebody else owns the systems. The ownership shift is two-sided…
● One has to give it away
● Someone else has to take it up

26. 4. Shift Your Mindset Mentality Shift #4 : Relational Shift
Proximity does not equal community.
35 - Friendship is natural
75 - Friendship is normal
125 - Friendship is extended
200 - Friendships are created

27. 4. Shift Your Mindset Mentality Shift #4 : Relational Shift
Why does this happen? You are at the anonymity barrier at 200, where people can show up at church and be anonymous. So community needs to be built. It must be intentional. Intentionally move people from proximity to community.
People will stay not because you are friendly church, but because they made friends.

28. 4. Shift Your Mindset Mentality Shift #4 : Relational Shift
Intentionally move people from sitting in rows to sitting in circles

29. 5. Lead Better Leading better starts with you as the leader…
1. Put On Your Oxygen Mask First - Get yourself spiritually healthy so you can work on your church.
>Deal With Sin - Don’t just be a leader. Be a
godly leader. Be a leader of character.
>Work on Work Ethic - Refuse to make excuses
and do the hard work of leadership.

30. 5. Lead Better 2. Commit to Growing as a Leader >Read/Study
>Get a mentor
>Sharpen each other. Grow as a team.

31. 5. Lead Better
3. Develop Leaders of Leaders, Leaders, and Volunteers to Share the Ministry Work

32. 5. Lead Better

33. 5. Lead Better
Who are leaders of leaders? - People who are overseeing other leaders
Who are the leaders? - People who have ongoing responsibility that takes preparation beforehand and engagement and involvement during the week
Who are the volunteers? - People who can be counted on to regularly give of their time

34. 5. Lead Better
You can’t lead better, unless you stop doing a whole lot of other stuff.
Leaders know how to say “no” to what they shouldn’t do and then do the things only they can do.

35. You Can Lead Your Church Through Growth Barriers
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36. Go to EdStetzer.com/Moody for free resources & deep discounts
on everything at Mission Group,
including Breaking the 200 Barrier.