{"id":719380,"date":"2020-08-26T02:00:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T06:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=719380"},"modified":"2020-08-25T22:13:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T02:13:47","slug":"10-reasons-churches-stop-growing-at-the-200-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/10-reasons-churches-stop-growing-at-the-200-barrier\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Reasons Churches Stop Growing at the 200 Barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s common for churches to hover around 200 in attendance, bouncing slightly below and slightly above that number recurrently, but not moving beyond that level. Here are some reasons that plateau happens:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pastoral leadership style<\/b> \u2013 Pastors who must be involved in every member\u2019s life and who don\u2019t delegate ministry usually cannot shepherd a congregation larger than 200. Many pastors simply don\u2019t know how to change this leadership style.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Building space<\/b> \u2013 Many churches build first or second buildings that will hold about 200 worshippers. If space is unavailable for future growth, that growth won\u2019t happen.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Church expectations<\/b> \u2013 Some congregations simply don\u2019t want to be larger than about 200. They don\u2019t want so many members they can\u2019t know everybody, so outreach slows as the church approaches the 200 barrier.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Church history<\/b> \u2013 In many cases, a church has a history of hitting 200, bouncing backward for a while, and then growing again up to 200. That\u2019s been their history, so 200 has become the height of \u201cthe good old days.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Man-sized vision<\/b> \u2013 That is, the church leaders have no vision beyond the 200 barrier. They know they can get to this point, and that becomes their target. Nobody\u2019s thinking about God\u2019s doing something larger than that point.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Poor preparation<\/b> \u2013 Some leaders don\u2019t think about addressing the 200 barrier until the church is at that level \u2013 which means they\u2019ve made no preparation to push through the barrier. Their reactive leadership halts the church\u2019s growth.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Ecclesiological choice<\/b> \u2013 For those pastors who believe they must know every member of their congregation well, maxing attendance at about 200 is intentional. Others are church planting pastors who\u2019ve determined that anything beyond 200 is a call to send out laborers to start another congregation. In the latter case, growth is still occurring\u2014it just looks different.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Burdening bureaucracy<\/b> \u2013 Churches that have numerous meetings, multiple committees, and slow processes often get stuck around 200. They\u2019re not prepared structurally to cross that barrier.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Pastoral tenure<\/b> \u2013 If pastors don\u2019t stay at their church beyond 3-4 years, it\u2019s hard for the church to move past 200. Pastoral transitions tend to slow down church growth for a while.<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. Poor discipleship<\/b> \u2013 Moving beyond 200 requires a church to have trained lay leaders to carry on the work of ministry. Churches that don\u2019t intentionally make disciples don\u2019t often have these workers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/span>What obstacles have you seen? Let us hear your thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s common for churches to hover around 200 in attendance, bouncing slightly below and slightly above that number recurrently, but not moving beyond that level. Here are some reasons that plateau happens:","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":719381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[175,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grow","category-outreach-and-evangelism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n10 Reasons Churches Stop Growing at the 200 Barrier | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s common for churches to hover around 200 in attendance but not move beyond that level. 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