build? now?

Pastor Nelson Searcy of The Journey Church in NYC recently spoke with Outreach magazine about five common growth barriers churches deal with.

(Before we go any further, I would like to reiterate that these are barriers growing churches need to take care to overcome. These are not five steps to turn a ministry into a megachurch.)

The number one barrier, and easiest to overlook, Searcy argues, is space.

"As church leaders, we love full rooms, so we say, 'Pack 'em in, there's (sic) still a few seats!' But the truth is that when a room reaches 70 percent of its seating capacity, it's full. Period."

I've always heard that number closer to 80 percent, but as you grow past the 70 percent mark it's time to start considering options. A Christian Post article goes on to cite Searcy noting that most churches face growth barriers when attendance reaches 65, 125, 250, 500 and 1000.

Where is your church? Seem to be stuck at about 250 people every weekend? It might be time to start calculating what percentage of your worship space is full at each service. The reason this is the most overlooked barrier to church growth is because you're probably not even thinking about a building project when you hit 70 to 80 percent capacity, and because it may seem silly to add a service or knock down a wall with 20 percent of your seating still available.

But people need space, especially new visitors. It may not be true that "if you build it, they will come," but it certainly is true that if you don't - they won't.