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    The Myth of the 200 Barrier: How to Lead through Transitional Growth
    The Myth of the 200 Barrier: How to Lead through Transitional Growth
    The Myth of the 200 Barrier: How to Lead through Transitional Growth
    Ebook144 pages2 hours

    The Myth of the 200 Barrier: How to Lead through Transitional Growth

    By Rev. Canon Canon Canon Canon Kevin E. Martin

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "This is the best book I have ever read on congregational development! I wish I had written it." (Lyle E. Schaller, Parish Consultant)

    The common experience of large congregations getting larger and small congregations getting smaller has given rise to the belief that growing congregations tend to hit a barrier at the 150-200 attendance mark. The dividing line in American Church attendance is 150 people on an average Sunday. Churches below this seem to have a harder time growing. Above this, churches seem to have an easier time growing. Trying to grow a smaller church can feel like trying to break through what Martin calls the “200 barrier.” Martin explains that there is no barrier; there are just two different ways of being a church—the “Pastoral Size” church and the “Program” church. The “Transitional Church” is really a hybrid of these two cultures, and this dual nature produces stress and tension where the idea of a 200 barrier often becomes a self-fulfilling expectation. How does the Pastor Size church culture really work? What are the key elements of the larger American Church? How does this create a large church culture that becomes self-supporting? Martin looks at these elements and shows how the Transitional Church can avoid mistakes in their effort to grow “beyond the barrier,” and why transformation and change is so difficult. Drawing on sociological and anthropological studies about the significance of numbers in human organizations, Martin proposes practical steps that leaders of Transitional Churches will want to take.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateSep 1, 2010
    ISBN9781426723315
    The Myth of the 200 Barrier: How to Lead through Transitional Growth
    Author

    Rev. Canon Canon Canon Canon Kevin E. Martin

    The Rev. Kevin E. Martin serves as Assistant Priest for Christ Church Episcopal in Plano, TX, and is also the Executive Director of Vital Church Ministries whose mission is to encourage and equip church leaders to fulfill the Great Commission. He is a well-known preacher, teacher, author, and consultant throughout the nationwide Episcopal community.

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    • 5/5
      Really strong. It would be nice if it had more theological reflection, but it's just so strong practically and conceptually that it makes up for it.

    Book preview

    The Myth of the 200 Barrier - Rev. Canon Canon Canon Canon Kevin E. Martin

    Image1Image2

    How to Lead through

    Transitional Growth

    Kevin E. Martin

    ABINGDON PRESS

    NASHVILLE

    THE MYTH OF THE 200 BARRIER

    HOW TO LEAD THROUGH TRANSITIONAL GROWTH

    Copyright © 2005 by Abingdon Press

    All rights reserved.

    No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Abingdon Press, 201 Eighth Avenue South, P.O. Box 801, Nashville, TN 37202-0801, or emailed to permissions@abingdonpress.com.

    This book is printed on acid-free paper.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Martin, Kevin E., 1946-

    The myth of the 200 barrier : how to lead through transitional growth / Kevin E. Martin.

        p.cm.

    Includes bibliographical references.

    ISBN 0-687-34324-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

    1. Church growth. 2. Small churches. I. Title: Myth of the two hundred barrier.

    II. Title.

    BV652.25.M195 2005

    254'.5—dc22

    2005009565

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

    Healthy Church Checklist on pages 34-35 © Vital Church Ministries. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

    Contents

    Introduction

    Part 1: Understanding Congregational Culture

    Chapter 1: Large or Small?

    Chapter 2: Hitting the 200 Barrier?

    Chapter 3: The Myth of the 200 Barrier

    Chapter 4: The Rule of 150

    Part 2: Three Types of Congregations

    Chapter 5: The Pastoral Size Congregation

    Chapter 6: The Program Size Congregation

    Chapter 7: Congregations in Transition

    Part 3: Types of Leaders

    Chapter 8: Living with the Realities

    Chapter 9: Living with the Transition

    Chapter 10: Leading through the Transition

    Chapter 11: Resistance

    Part 4: Making the Transition

    Chapter 12: Transformation

    Chapter 13: Hunching Your Way to the Promised Land

    Chapter 14: What the Large Church Knows

    Chapter 15: What Is Your Next Step?

    Suggested Reading List

    Introduction

    Why is it so hard to grow a small congregation into a large one? This question is at the core of this book. The overwhelming evidence is that it is very hard to take an existing small congregation and lead it to substantial growth. This has proved to be so consistently true that the idea of a 200 Barrier has emerged as a standard belief among many church leaders. This concept of the 200 Barrier states that there is a predictable barrier when Sunday attendance nears 200 that a congregation must break through in order to grow. Books and conferences have been written on this topic for many years now.

    Although I agree that it is difficult to grow a small church into a large one, I do not believe that the idea of a barrier helps pastors and lay leaders develop their congregations. The barrier idea causes us to use the wrong model for congregational development and to take on shortsighted strategies detached from a more systematic approach. We are now living in a whole new generation of congregational development thinking that gives us better tools in understanding how congregations work. We need to apply this information to the task of growing a small church into a larger one.

    As my mentor and teacher over the years, Lyle Schaller, contends, there is a difference between small churches and large churches. This difference is more than style or numbers. It is a difference in what church is like around here! So, to grow a small church into a large one is to transform the very culture of the congregation.

    There are some congregations that are caught between the typical size of a small church and the necessary size of larger churches. This is what I call the transitional size congregation. Although not a true church size, transitional congregations share many things in common. They are high-stressed congregations that need to either get smaller or larger to be able to function more effectively.

    When I first became the congregational development officer for a large Episcopal diocese, I already knew something about transitional churches. I learned over the next few years that with help these congregations could not only make the transition to a larger size but could continue to build on this transition to become very large congregations.

    During my ten years in the Diocese of Texas, we were the fastest growing judicatory in our denomination. The centerpiece of our strategy was to invest heavily in two types of congregations. One was the new church plant. The other type was the church averaging between 140 and 225 in attendance, our transitional congregations. What I learned from working with these congregations is the content of this book.

    I am deeply indebted to the Right Reverend Claude Payne, bishop of Texas, now retired, for his support. In my time there, the staff of the diocese was an extraordinary team. I also owe much to the clergy and lay leaders of Texas who taught me so much. I have been privileged to share information with a group of denominational champions called together by Dave Travis of Leadership Network.

    I have tried to base this book on good congregational theory that has been proved in the soil of real congregations. I believe that pastors of small congregations will find this information helpful in creating realistic expectations for their work. I especially hope that pastors of transitional size congregations will be able to capitalize on this information and plan a hopeful and growing future for their congregations.

    Kevin E. Martin

    Part One

    myth

    Understanding

    Congregational Culture

    Chapter 1

    Large or Small?

    Since the mid-1960s, one trend has dominated congregational life in America. This trend affects every congregation, and all leaders—lay and ordained—should be aware of it. Simply stated it is this: Large congregations are getting larger and small congregations tend to remain the same or get smaller!

    This is, of course, the general trend and there are notable exceptions. Some extraordinary leaders in smaller congregations have offset this trend. Some large congregations have suffered reversals and become smaller. However, this trend still dominates the approximately 325,000 Protestant congregations in North America.

    When I share this information with congregational leaders, they are quick to ask why. I tell them that this is actually the second question to ask. The more essential question for any congregational leader is, What is large? What measurement would we use to determine if a congregation is a large church or a small one? Put another way, are you helping lead a small congregation against the odds or are you trying to lead a large congregation that is trying to figure out how to ride this trend toward growth? What is large and what is small? And what is the dividing point?

    Many leaders are surprised to discover that the dividing line is 150 in average attendance on Sunday mornings. In his recent book Small Congregation Big Potential, Lyle Schaller presents a strong argument why the dividing line should be set at 150. He points out that there is strong statistical evidence to support this number.

    Why would we use average Sunday attendance to determine this? Those who study congregations know that the Average Sunday Attendance (or ASA) is a much better measurement of congregational size than membership. Membership numbers are often deceptive. Many congregations carry members on their rolls long after these people have withdrawn from the congregation. In addition, many denominations define membership in very different ways. The ASA is the total of all people, adults and children, present on Sunday mornings for the year, divided by 52. This gives a very stable number, and tracking this number over several years shows a congregation's trend.

    There is one additional part of this trend that we should note. While, generally speaking, small congregations get smaller, the opposite holds true for larger congregations. For them, the more their ASA is above 150, the greater the chance that they will grow. In today's world, size is an advantage. Contrary to popular belief, today it is easier to pastor a congregation with an ASA of 500 than to pastor a congregation with an ASA of 140. This is so counterintuitive that many clergy, denominational leaders, and lay boards cannot grasp this trend and its consequences. For example, this trend accounts for much of the decline of the once called mainline churches of America. Most of these denominational churches have an ASA below 150. For example, in my denomination, the Episcopal Church, the average Sunday attendance is 125, but the median attendance is around 80.

    I want to make it clear that by pointing out this trend I am not making a comment on the quality of a congregation's life based on its size. There is nothing particularly virtuous in having a congregation with an ASA of 500 versus one with 145. There are wonderful examples of faithful, disciple-making, deeply committed congregations in smaller sizes. There can be little doubt, however,

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