Builds or Impedes Church Growth
by David J. Claassen
You wait at the railroad crossing for the train to pass. It’s going to be a while, that much you know, because the train is at a dead stop. Finally, you hear the train creak and see the wheels begin to turn ever so slowly. It seems to take forever for the train to gain any speed. That’s the problem with a train: it takes so long to get going. The locomotives seem to barely be able to handle the load. But once the train gets moving down the tracks at 70 miles per hour, those same engines have no trouble maintaining the speed. It’s the principle of inertia at work: things at rest tend to want to stay at rest and things in motion tend to want to stay in motion.
Sometimes the greatest risk is in doing nothing.
The inertia that a moving object builds up is called momentum. It takes lots of energy to build up momentum but it takes far less energy to maintain it. Momentum is more than a principle of physics. It’s a principle we can apply to our personal lives and to the life of our church as well.
Two teams have a game together. The team the experts consider to be the underdog has previously played teams not as good as they are, so they’ve won all of their games; they’re undefeated. The better team has played teams ranked as better than themselves, so they’ve lost all their games. Who’s going to win? No one can know for certain, but a betting person would be smart to put money on the underdog team that’s undefeated. Momentum can be a big advantage!
John Maxwell, a nationally-known church leadership expert, has written a book called The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.(Thomas Nelson Publisher, Nashville, Tenn. © 1998, Maxwell Motivation, Inc.) One of the 21 laws is the law of momentum. Maxwell argues that a leader must create and sustain momentum among those he leads if he or she is to succeed.
A minister doesn’t become truly effective as a leader until after seven years at a church.
Churches can experience a lack of momentum where there is little measurable growth, either spiritually or numerically. We often refer to this as being on a plateau. This inertia of going nowhere doesn’t last long, however. Negative momentum (going backward faster and faster) begins.
Momentum played a role in one of the stories Jesus told. The story is about a wealthy man who had to be away on business for an extended period of time. He called together his three associates and gave them his wealth to invest while he was gone. One was given five talents, another was given two, and the third was given one talent to oversee.
A talent was about what an ordinary worker could earn in 20 years. For comparison, let’s use $30,000 for a worker’s annual salary today. That means one worker was given $3 million, another $1.2 million, and the third $600,000.
After a long period of time the wealthy man returned and found that the first associate had invested the $3 million and doubled it to $6 million. The second associate had invested his as well, and also doubled it—to $2.4 million. The third, however, had simply hid his $600,000 in a mattress, a tin can in the backyard, or some place like that, and had the same $600,000 to give back to his boss.
The boss was very pleased with the first two men for doubling his money, but he was angry with the third man. He took the $600,000 he had given to that man and gave it to the one with $6 million. Jesus wants His followers to see the importance of using whatever God gives us in life. We’re to invest wisely what He’s given us in opportunities, finances, abilities, and time. Jesus indicates that when we attempt to do something with what we’ve been given, we’re going to end up with more, and this increase will increase even more. In Jesus’ story, the man who had acquired the ten talents was given an eleventh (the one taken from the man who did nothing) presumably to continue to multiply his boss’s wealth.
Jesus summarized the story by saying, “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him” (Matthew 25:29). That’s the principle of momentum at work. The one who works and takes risks to multiply what he has been given by God has even more, and the one who doesn’t do anything to gain more will lose what he has. Sometimes the greatest risk is in doing nothing.
There are many things that cause us to lose our momentum. Discouragement, failure, a lack of focus, ungratefulness, and inattention are some of the factors that can cause resistance to our forward momentum.
“Wow! That hill was steeper than I thought,” he breathlessly told his wife.
“I know,” she replied. “It was so steep I thought we might roll backward and I’d run you over, so I kept the brakes on.” You can add fear to the list of things that keep us from building momentum!
There are several steps we can take to build momentum:
1. Realize it takes time and patience.
Jesus said God’s kingdom grows in influence like yeast does in bread dough. Who wants to sit and watch bread rise? Get a life! Bread rises really slowly, but it does happen! Reversing negative momentum, or getting positive momentum going from a dead stop, takes time and patience.
I’ve observed as a pastor how losing a mate is a life-wrenching event. The first year is often one in which the widow or widower makes little progress at rebuilding a life. Some remain immobilized for the remainder of their lives. There are those, however, who begin to join life again by little steps: starting back to church, visiting a friend in the hospital, or joining in the celebrations of the holidays and special family events once again.
Churches gain momentum slowly too. I recall how our church’s attendance remained on a plateau, or even declined, the first ten or so years of our ministry together. Our small group ministry, missions, lay leadership development, and other key areas of church life also seemed to take years before there was significant growth. Research has shown that a minister doesn’t become truly effective as a leader until after seven years at a church. Churches are not served well when there is a change of pastoral leadership every three or four years. Momentum in a church takes time to build.
2. Just do something—almost anything.
Doing nothing won’t change anything; in fact, it usually makes things worse. In Jesus’ story of the three men given the talents, the criticism of the man with one talent was that he did nothing. We can begin by just doing a little something, being obedient to God in little ways. After all, most of life is made up of small things.
Building a better relationship with a person can begin by a simple compliment, a word of praise, or a written note of thanks. Such efforts generate momentum for a relationship to improve, while criticism, or even inattention, slows it. The long-held dream of going to college begins by ordering the college’s catalogue or making a brief visit to the campus.
Building positive momentum in our churches involves identifying small and manageable goals that, with prayer and some effort, can be achieved. It requires moving beyond the momentum-killing idea that “We’ve never done it that way before.”
Our church currently has about ten small groups; we call them Friendship Groups. When we began our life together as a pastor and people 24 years ago, we didn’t start our small group ministry by setting up ten groups. There was already a Sunday night prayer group that met. My wife and I started another group: a study/discussion group in our home. That was twenty-four years ago, and slowly we’ve seen the small group ministry expand. It only takes five or six people interested in small groups to start such a ministry in their church, with those five or six people forming the first group.
3. Build on success.
Focus on recent forward progress. Many of the Psalms in our Bible were written by people in trouble who reviewed in their psalms the ways God had helped them in the past. This gave them the confidence to move forward and seize the future, and their psalms usually end on that confident note.
Be warned, however, that the positive experiences and memories of the past can either impede or build momentum. A nostalgic wishing for the “good ol’ days” can hinder forward movement. “I remember when I was younger. I used to be able to do that, too.” “If only my mate were still alive.” “Remember how we used to fill our sanctuary?”
Instead, a person or church should see the good in the past as a reminder of just how wonderfully God is able to work; He gave good gifts in the past and He can still do so today and tomorrow. We should build on the past, not be buried by it!
4. Remember the power of momentum.
It’s easier to be positive toward your mate or friend when you’ve recently had a positive experience together. The next time it’s even easier to create a positive experience, because you’re motivated by the good feelings from the growing list of recent positive experiences.
For years I felt our church was on a plateau in major ways. Now in many of those areas we see clear evidence that we’re moving ahead. We’re finding it easier to move further ahead because we’re already moving forward. Momentum helps you create more momentum. A “we’re on a roll now” attitude helps build even more momentum.
It takes a great deal of energy to get a train moving 70 miles per hour down the track, but once it gets going it’s nearly unstoppable. That’s the power of momentum. Understanding the principle of momentum and putting it to use can help us become God’s great people and grow His great churches.
The Rev. David J. Claassen, Senior Minister, Mayfair Congregational
Church, Toledo, Ohio, contributes another thoughtful article on church
development.