Why Aren't We Growing: Part 2 of 4

6) You Have all the Wrong People Making Decisions

You’re the student ministry pastor/leader. You’re dedicating your life to reaching students. If you’re doing your job right, then you should know teenagers better than anyone in the church.

So why should tradition, the last guy in charge, a paranoid parent, majority vote, or a group of elders with no connection to student ministry make decisions regarding your ministry? I’m not talking about disobeying your church leadership, but if they’ve put you in charge, they need to let you make decisions.

7) You Can’t Spot Talent

Growing ministries require strong, innovative leaders. If you can’t spot leaders, you won’t know who to pursue and develop.

8) You’re Addicted to Really Bad Ideas

Some ideas have always sucked

Some ideas become outdated and therefore start to suck

Some ideas are so over-done that they start to suck

So many churches are addicted to doing what they’ve always done. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t getting the desired results. It doesn’t matter if it’s lost its’ purpose entirely.

I don’t care how successful it was in the past or who do it elsewhere or how excited some people get about it…a bad idea is a bad idea.

9) You Aren’t Doing Anything to Reach Anyone Outside of the Building

Growth requires new people. If you aren’t doing anything to build bridges to new people, you’re not going to grow. If you’re lucky and someone does stumble through the door, you’re only adding someone who would have ended up at the church down the street.

10) No One Can Find You in the Real or Cyber World

Obviously if no one can figure out where you meet, they’re never going to show up at your meeting space.

If you don’t have a website, then you’re stuck in 20th century. People use the internet to find a new church. With so many resources out there, there’s simply no excuse for not putting up a website.

In less than an hour you can plaster your name all over the internet. There are literally dozens of websites where you can list your church or student ministry. Likewise, there are hundreds of articles and blog entries on how to increase your results on search engines.