» 3. Plateau

I keep bumping into church leaders of different persuasions whose goal it is to see their church plants grow to 500+.

If you want a case study of how it’s done, try the Southern Baptists. I’ve just finished a 1994 article by Roger Finke that shows between 1920 and 1990 the average size of a Southern [...]

I’ve just spent a day trekking through the Tongariro National Park, New Zealand. Here’s a shot I took from Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings) looking out across to Mt Tongariro.

Lost the trail and wandered through the snow for an hour or so in gale force winds. Terribly irresponsible of me. But [...]

According Adele Ferguson in the Business Review Weekly:

Religion is big business in Australia. If it were a corporation, it would be one of the biggest and fastest-growing in the country, accounting for more than $23 billion in revenue in 2005, employing hundreds of thousands of staff (salaried and volunteers) and wielding unsurpassed political and social [...]

The drift from growth to plateau, from vitality to decline is a subtle but significant one. At its heart is “the failure of success“—a desire to protect what we have achieved rather than to pursue mission.

Here are the consequences for each of the characteristics of dynamic movements.

1. White hot faith
Members of plateaued movements prefer security, [...]

Following my post on drifting into Plateau and Decline Dave has come up with a great image to explain why we let it happen:

If you surf a wave all the way to the shore line it eventually dies, you get a long ride but it gradually gets less and less exhilirating, by that time you [...]

Death and taxes are inevitable in this life.

Here’s the third sure thing. . .

Given enough time, every dynamic Christian movement will plateau and decline. No exceptions.

Why?

Pentecostals, Charismatics and associated movements have grown from a handful at the turn of the 20th century to at least several hundred million at the turn of the 21st century. According to Philip Jenkins, if current trends continue their numbers could reach one billion by 2050.

“It has shown itself both flexible and resilient enough to [...]

Unfortunately, the amazing rise of the early Church ended with the “failure of success”. A common pattern in church history.

By one estimate, Christianity grew from around 1,000 followers in AD 40 to over six million by AD 300. What began as an obscure Jewish sect, became within three centuries, the strongest and most widely spread [...]