Navigating Growth Transitions
Churches face growth barriers when attendance crosses a range of benchmark thresholds. These barriers come around 100, 200, 400, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 attenders as the scale, leadership structure, ministry strategy, budget and programs adjust to a new reality.
Some aspects of growth transitions are specific to the context and size barrier being crossed, while others are common themes running through almost all of them. Reference these growth barrier articles for a quick summary:
“7 Internal Barriers to Growth in a Church” by Thom Rainer
Lifeway Research (July 25, 2017)
Growth Barriers Reading List
George, Carl F., and Warren Bird, How to Break Growth Barriers: Revise Your Role, Release Your People, and Capture Overlooked Opportunities for Your Church, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2017).
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