Three Characteristics

Of A Growing Church
Bro. Gary Sones

The key to sustained growth in an

area, is sustained growth in the local
churches.
Although most of our
churches do well in some areas, there
are
certain
characteristics
that
growing churches all display.

1. Training
A. On a National level, we try to train our
pastors. We have found that a better trained
pastor will be more productive than the
untrained pastor. This is also true on a local
church level.
B. On a local level, there is very little training
that takes place beyond singing and Sunday
School.

1. A church will reach its limit, if training

in all areas of ministry does not take
place.
2. Jethro told Moses that The thing that
thou doest is not good. The rest of
chapter 18 is about training leaders of
10, of 50, of 100, and of 1,000.

3. Altar workers need to be trained. Ushers,

receptionists, sound, projection, they all need to
be trained. Bible study teachers, cell group
leaders, every aspect of your church must
been trained continually.
4. If training is done on a continually basis,
when someone moves on for whatever reason,
there is no hole left.

5. The scripture is full of training

examples:
a. The five-fold ministrys
responsibility is to equip (train) members
so that they can do the work of the
ministry. (Eph. 4)
b. Paul instructed Timothy to teach
others also. (2 Tim. 2:2)

1. If a saint cannot responsibly run a

department in a church, they certainly will
struggle pastoring.
c. Many want to work; They just do not
know what to do and how to do it. Teach
them!

d. Train your leaders and they will give your

church growth.
e. Some ask me if I could start over
knowing what I know now, what would I do
differently. The one thing would be to train
intensively from the beginning.

2. Effective Evangelism
A. There is a difference between
evangelism and effective evangelism.
1. You can have crusades and
revivals, but there must be many others
things in place to be able to retain a certain
percentage or you have wasted your time.

2. The great commission was not go out on

Saturday morning and invite people to
church. The command was to go and teach,
or as it says in Spanish, make disciples. A
disciple is a follower of a teaching or a person.
Discipleship takes time.
a. I have a saying: Just a Disciple or a
disciple maker.

3. The easiest way to make a disciple is to

teach them a Bible Study.
4. The other method that has been so
productive for us is cell groups. While still in
Spain, we had been doing cell groups for the
last six years in the church, attendance has
gone from 430 to 836. We have 3.5 times the
numbers of visitors to cell groups that we do
to services.

5. Bible Studies and cell groups have their

bases in the Word. Jesus said to go into
every town and village and find a house that
will receive you (will let you in). Teach and
preach the Kingdom of God, heal the sick.
And then he said dont go to another
house. It is the Masters method.
6. The difference of a growing church and a
stagnate church are Effective soul winners.

3. Retention
A. Retention is the most important element
of constant growth. You can win thousands,
but if you dont retainwhat a pain! The
objective must always be to make disciples!
B. There are systems that can help greatly
with retention:

1. The bible study teacher forms your first

line of defense - They form the first real
relationship.
2. A new converts course given during
your main service on Sunday. That way,
you assure yourselves of the greatest
attendance possible.

3. Mentors assigned to each new convert

for at least six months.
4. Attendance lists.
5. Visitation teams that will follow up on
your attendance lists.

6. A pastoral staff member that can be

informed and follow up on problems.