CNLP 243: Rich Birch on the Nuts and Bolts of Church Growth – What the 6% of Growing Churches Do That Others Don’t
Here’s a question. When 94% of churches aren’t growing, what do the 6% do that the others don’t?
Rich Birch has worked at three growing megachurches, and distills the things they do that others don’t in a way that can apply to a church of 50 as easily as a church of 5000. Rich talks to Carey about the nuts and bolts of growing weekend attendance.
Welcome to Episode 243 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
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Rich’s Church Growth Flywheel Masterclass is available now! Podcast listeners – receive 2 free training videos plus other great bonuses (now through February 12th, 2019) by checking out your options below:
If you’re in the US, text CHURCHGROWTH to 44222.
Outside the US? Visit churchgrowthflywheel.com/carey and sign up today.
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CCLP Bonus 005: Rich Birch, Jeff Brodie And Carey Nieuwhof On Caring For The Leader’s Soul
CNLP 113: UnSeminary’s Rich Birch On Why Some Churches Beat The Odds And Grow
CNLP 003: Leadership Trends with Rich Birch
Building a Story Brand (Episode 121): 11 Surefire Ways to Delight Your Customers
I Love Marketing (Episode 130): Email Mastery with Dean Jackson and Joe Polish
3 Insights from Rich
1. Healthy Churches focus on evangelism AND discipleship
There is a modern fallacy that churches can either focus on discipleship or evangelism. Healthy churches both today and in biblical times focus on both. Healthy church growth is based on both bringing our people deeper into their relationship with Jesus and reaching more and more people with the gospel.
2. Overnight success is almost never overnight
We all want to be the overnight success. The problem with that is that overnight success is almost never overnight. Often-times, it takes years of repetitive processes to produce the massive results you see in successful churches and organizations.
The Church Growth Flywheel Masterclass is a guide for leaders who want to begin and sustain processes that produce more and more growth over time. Rich argues that repetitive processes are the best way to scale your church or organization, not trying to become an overnight success.
3. 3 major growth opportunities that most churches aren’t leveraging
If handled well, invite cards can be one of the best ways to get your people to invite their friends. Rich recommends producing a new invite card for every series and placing those invite cards on every seat during every Sunday service of the year. If you do this, make sure to encourage your people to invite their friends every single week from the stage.
The fact about email is however many emails your church is sending out today, you should be sending more. The fact of the matter is that people open and read their email. Email allows you to engage with your people throughout the week. It keeps you relevant within their lives. The key is keeping the emails short, personal, and not image heavy. People will love reading your emails if they are quick and easy to read and include helpful information.
The final opportunity that most churches overlook is a handwritten letter or card. In our over-digitized world, the meaning behind a handwritten card or letter has grown significantly. The open rate of a physical letter is almost 100%. That is an opportunity that the church should be leveraging for good.
Quotes from Episode 243
Read or Download the Transcript for Episode 243
Looking for a key quote? More of a reader?
Read or download a free PDF transcript of this episode here.
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Over the years, one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about being a public speaker is having opportunities to hang out with Carey…It’s not a matter of if you’ll run into these challenges; it’s a matter of when. Be prepared by spending a little time with a leader who has already been there.” Jon Acuff, NYT best-selling author
“Nieuwhof’s book provides expert guidance…with an accuracy that pierces the heart.” Nancy Duarte, CEO Duarte Inc.
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Next Episode: Scott Sauls
Why do people outside the church show so much hostility toward or indifference to people inside the church? Scott Sauls has some intriguing answers, plus we talk about the most effective and least effective evangelism and how to stay resilient in a troubled world.
Subscribe for free now and you won’t miss Episode 244.
Is there a template / plan we can “steal” from Rich on the exact steps that are taken to promote each upcoming series?
Invite cards – I love the idea of pushing the invite cards into the seats every Sunday. Can you give us an example of one that either Rich or you, Carey, create for your church? How “involved” should it be, size, an example of wording, etc. It would help me and others to know exactly what one looks like and we can tailor it to fit our churches. Thank you!
Can a church in existence for over two decades, grow healthy if leadership only encourage close friends and family?
Can spiritual bullying/control spirits,(unwanted, negative aggressive behavior, perceived or real power imbalance, repetition over time)., 1 Timothy 3. Should the congregation feel manipulated or intimidated to run to the prayer line ever week,(ie: you don’t need the Lord, if you are not up here for prayer, so you are being disobedient?). 1 Cor. 5:11. I have been discerning this for quite some time, and I need some assurance and confirmation that myself and others are incorrect.