Growing Churches Have Growing Crowds

I was reading a book called “Simply Strategic Growth”, by Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan.  In this book, these guys talk about the difference between “Outside-In Churches” & “Inside-Out Churches“. Their take on the different strategies of these churches is very interesting to me.

Outside-In Strategy -

1) How can we include more people? 2) What is the church doing for others? 3) What could we do differently to reach people far from God? 4) How do we get new people to attend our services? 5) How do we make the Bible easier to understand and apply to people’s lives?

Inside-Out Strategy -

1) What if it gets too big? 2) What is the church doing for me? 3) How can we avoid change so people don’t feel uncomfortable? 4) How do we get the people who left our church to come back? 5) When are we going to get the meat? Why aren’t we digging deeper?

What are your thoughts?

2 Comments »

1. Danny Bixby says:

   February 4th, 2010

   You can read the title of this post and see something snarky. Along the lines of “In related news, water is wet” kind of snark. Obviously growing churches have growing crowds, that’s how they grow.

   But I read that title different.

   Seems there are two main ways to look at the term ‘growing’ those being either numerically or spiritually.

   Those two perspectives also coincide with the different strategies listed. The first one appears, on the surface level, to be focused on the numbers, and 2nd one appears to be focused on the spiritual.

   But I think the exact opposite is actually true when they’re further examined. The first one is truly spiritual, and the 2nd is truly numeric.

   Outside-in is a strategy that is concerned with the growing spirituality of the members. I see #4 as even being a part of it, especially if your demographic is people who are not going to a church. How would getting them involved in a faith community NOT be an expansion of their spirituality?

   Inside-out is concerned with the opposite of growth. Each question is a defensive posturing; to be honest, I dislike every one of those questions. Each one is coupled with a presumption that is probably false.

   This comment is long enough already without going into each of the 10 questions.

   Pshaw.

2. Ron Wood says:

   February 5th, 2010

   It all starts with leadership and relevant churches have great leadership that works diligently to explore all of the components of the church DNA to create the appropriate environments for spiritual growth. Our collective goal should be to expand the Kingdom by any means.

   BTW, we consulted successfully at Granger CC with Tim and Mark.

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