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The Biggest Challenges in Churches

By New Churches Team

Every church faces challenges. Some of those are common to every church in America; some are unique based on your church’s location, culture, and congregation. No matter what your challenges are, you can overcome them by continuing to run the ball and create a culture that engages your members.

Growing Small Groups and Reaching Families

Common to most every church in America are the challenges of growing small groups and reaching families through children’s ministry.

At the beginning of a church plant, you need to focus on small groups. You should be spending time raising up leaders and coaching them. There will come a point, however, when you can no longer lead all the small group leaders. This is often the breaking point because it seems easy to lead them, but take a step back and find someone who can help you coach and lead. Keep a ratio of one coach to every three to four small group leaders.

Kids ministry is also an area that constantly needs attention. You will always need more volunteers. Don’t grow weary of that process. This is a common struggle, but be encouraged to just keep pushing forward. Providing excellence in your kids ministry will keep families in your church. This is worth the effort.

Facilities as a Growth Barrier

The goal for all of our churches is to bring more people to Christ. That goal, for most of us, will also increase the number of people attending the church. This often leads to space issues within the church’s physical location. If your church is smaller and has less than 100 seats, adding a service may not help. Instead, you need to focus on finding a new space. If you have a slightly larger space, your next step is likely adding more services. If you are stuck in your space, no matter the size, be creative about ways to overcome the growth barrier. Always be on the lookout for a better space.

What’s most important in facing growth barriers head on is your leadership pipeline. Always be developing leaders who develop leaders so that as you add services you already have leaders in place for a new service. Double your volunteer numbers. Add a teacher to every kids class, so that when you add a second service you can then split those teachers between the services. Once you do that, add another volunteer to each class so that they are again multiplying for future growth. Do this throughout all volunteer areas in your church.

Adapted from the New Churches Q&A Podcast Episode 413: Growing Small Groups and Overcoming Barriers. Click here to listen to more to church planting, multisite, and multiplication tips.