Maurilio Amorim - Latest Comments in 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Maurilio Amorim — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:29:28 -0000

Unfortunately, I think you're right. I have seen that sentiment growing more and more lately.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

toni birdsong — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:22:36 -0000

A) Personally, I've learned that growing churches are are Sprit-led. They don't have their heads absorbed in church leadership culture. I think the Holy Spirt has "branded" His "season of growth" into many of the growing churches you see today. He's tapped specific people (a patchwork of personalities) that have been praying for decades and also been "prayed up" for years preceeding their success.
B) Prayer is their top ministry. They first fall on their faces and seek God's leading and God blesses that.
C) They hire professionals internally. Meaning, I've seen CEOs from IBM as executive pastors who've been called to church leadership. Growing churches have a level of excellence and expectation.

Another great post Maurilio! Love that you are a leading educator in this area; it's a critical juncture for communications. Churches are blessed to have you.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Terry Hurt — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:33:00 -0000

Josh, I think just the opposite! Obviously, there are more than 1 or 2 factors to why any church is either growing or not growing (nice way of saying dying or dead). I think strong Bible teaching and preaching is present in a growing church. It has been my experience that people want to be challenged and led to go deeper in their relationship with Christ...to experience and live life with passion and meaning, not just religion. A church that passionately preaches Jesus, makes disciples and leads people to invest their life in making the world a better place can't help but grow.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Maroniene — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:51:02 -0000

I think that people no longer believe church attendance is essential to their faith, so their loyalty to a particular denomination is so mature than their option to choose a mall to go shopping at the weekend! Church leaders shall work on messages to emphasize the importance of being gathered to overcome life´s problems with faith and unity.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

dan bush — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:03:38 -0000

growth involves change - not change just for change sake, but change directed toward a goal.

thanks for helping us as we re-direct ourselves in small and big ways to be more effective in reaching our sphere of influence.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Maurilio Amorim — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:29:50 -0000

I'm proud of all the work the COTES team has been doing the last few months.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

estesc — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:27:09 -0000

Great post Maurilio, thanks for helping our church launch the new and not settle for just tweaking the old. Love your vision and your heart my friend!

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Maurilio Amorim — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:27:17 -0000

Mike, I'm glad you stopped by and commented.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Maurilio Amorim — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:26:36 -0000

Some churches try to copy the "actions" of another church without the "passion" behind them. It never works.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Mike Wagner — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:31:57 -0000

Maurilio - thanks for stirring things up with this post!

I work with a lot of small to medium size businesses. Many of them are manufacturers.

The marketplace equivalent to "we can't grow because we teach the Bible" IS "we can't grow because we do quality work (or make quality widgets)".

You might think that a business has a natural heart for customers. Not so.

Thanks again for sharing what you're learning.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Kyle Reed — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:00:28 -0000

They do not pay attention to others.
Meaning, they do not pay attention to what other churches are doing around them in the sense that they copy everything they are doing. Maybe a better way of saying it is that they have an identity, they know who they are and they know who they are not. Instead of being pushed around by the trends and waves of others, they have a firm grasp of who they are.

Not saying that they do not pay attention to other churches and what they are doing, but that they know who they are and they hold to their identity.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Maurilio Amorim — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:32:49 -0000

Me neither.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Maurilio Amorim — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:32:30 -0000

Josh, you shouldn't buy it. Every church I work with is a Bible teaching church. You can teach the Bible and grow. I think they are both critical as well as biblical.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Landon Bradley — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:28:52 -0000

Great thoughts. I have never seen a church that's not outwardly focus grow.

Re: 5 Characteristics of a Growing Church

Josh — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:01:53 -0000

The church I attend hasn't grown in decades. As a matter of fact, I think we have lost people even though no one will admit it. We say that the reason we're not growing is because we teach the Bible and most of growing churches don't. I'm not buying that argument. Thanks for the post.