Congregational growth is always a concern of lay leaders (which makes it a concern of your religious professionals), and it usually shows up on any list of strategic goals.
Often it’s connected to other goals, like outreach, religious education, and staffing. “If only we could grow, we could…” I hear lay leaders wistfully declare. Strategies to build programs often come with a focus on congregational growth – literally increasing membership numbers – in order to achieve goals. Sometimes growth is seen as a way to increase the budget, or take over leadership, or simply make us look and feel better.
Which are exactly not the reasons to grow.
Because no one comes to your congregation to take on committee work or head the never-really-got-started campus ministry or restart the faith development program. No one (well, except for one couple I knew in the mid-2000s) comes through your doors and declares not only that they’re moving to your town but that they have been in leadership in the congregation they’re leaving and are ready to take on these roles.
Why do you think people in 2023 are coming to your congregation? What do you think they’re seeking?
Heck, why did you come to your congregation? What were you seeking?
As you take a second to remember, consider these words from Rev. Lura Groen:
I fear that as long as the reason we invite people to our religious institutions is so they can fill our pews, take over our volunteer projects, and give us money, we're going to end up hurting the people who come to us looking for a connection to the Divine and authentic spiritual community.
Because it's deeply painful to want to be in relationship with someone, and to find out they really only want us to keep their institution going.
People do not come to your congregation because they want to do things.
People do not come to your congregation because they want to take over.
And people DEFINITELY DO NOT COME TO GIVE YOU MONEY.
I am so tired of growth strategies that look like money-grubbing.
People come to your congregation because they are hurting, or in crisis, or because they are seeking connection to their own spirits, or to other people.
I once heard a minister talk about the congregation as a mobius strip: people come in through our doors tired, hurting, needing us. As they enter, we provide rest, comfort, and care. And as they heal, we prepare them to go back out into the world, to do the work we are called to do. And when that gets to be too much, or something happens, they come back in.
That is what we do.
That is why we grow.
We grow when people see we are a place to lay down burdens, to hold their grief and their pains, to save our lives, and to turn this life-saving message outward into our communities and our world.
It’s about our mission, not our institution.
I should add: the congregation is not your building. And if you need new members so badly because you need the money to sustain the building, then maybe it’s time to recalibrate your understanding of what’s most important to your mission. Because it’s not the building.
Make MISSION your growth strategy – and you’ll be surprised to see what happens.