manupthebook

Years ago, I heard a talk by Dr. Brant Pitre. In the talk, he shared that the early church grew by about 40 percent per decade. In spite of war, persecution, plague and no modern medicine, the early church grew by 40% per decade. Given compounding, this is about 3% per year. If this were an investment, most of us would not be overly thrilled.

Putting it into perspective, while the early church was growing by 3% per year, the Church in the United States has actually been shrinking for the last couple of decades. And it doesn’t matter which Church, they all seem to be following the same pattern.

There are those that will argue, “my church is growing.” But is it really? Is your church growing because of a demographic shift? That’s not growth, that is movement. Is your church growing because people leave one denomination and go to another? That’s not growth either, that is just a difference of opinion. Real growth experienced by the early church was drawing new people to Christ. Conversions, Baptisms and Confirmations that outpaced funerals.

In perspective, a 1500 family church would be adding about 90 people a year. A 50,000 person Diocese about 1,500 per year. A 500,000 person diocese about 15,000 per year … net of those leaving or being buried.

There is something dramatically different between Christianity today and Christianity 2,000 years ago. So pose the question, is my ministry, my parish, my church growing by 3 percent per year? If not, maybe it is time to ask, why not?

This is how STEPUP came about, by asking myself those same questions and looking to the early church for the answer!