In this day and age, a lot of what we hear about are foreclosing houses, increasing prices, and decreasing business locations. We all might need to take some advice from the Assemblies of God, one of the largest denominations in the country, which seems to be right on track with how to reach out to people and attract them to their churches.
According to a Christianity Today blog post from last week, the Assemblies of God planted 368 churches in 2011 alone. They now have 12,595 Assemblies of God congregations in the country, which includes the numbers of churches that closed in 2011.
“The denomination, which includes 3 million U.S. members, has a “Church Multiplication Network” that supports church planters with training and funding,” said Adelle Banks, who wrote the post. This was an interesting idea to me, because the impact of this group has made all the difference in the growth of the denomination. Having people set aside to train others and provide them with the tools for planting churches has resulted in bringing many more people to God.
The article also goes on to say that a goal was made to try and plant one church a day last year. They obviously put a lot of effort into that goal and exceeded it.
How did your church do in 2011? Did you see growth, did you see a decline, or did attendance stay about the same?