By Murray Robertson, Leadership Development Network

Since the Second World War there have been three periods when evangelical churches in New Zealand have experienced times of rapid growth. The first was in the 1950s, when all denominations experienced their last time of overall growth. It culminated in the hugely effective visit by Billy Graham in 1959. No one could have anticipated at that time that the 60s would turn out to be a very difficult decade for most churches.

The tide began to turn again in the 1970s with the Jesus movement that morphed into the charismatic renewal, which witnessed a time of rapid growth in many churches and the emergence of a number of newer denominations. One interesting thing was that many of the churches that had experienced encouraging growth in the 50s looked with some suspicion on some of the new phenomena that were occurring in the 70s. It was certainly different to what had happened in the 1950s.

By the mid 1980s, the renewal movement was running out of steam, as renewal movements do. Another difficult decade followed, followed by the beginnings of another upswing starting in the mid 90s. This again was different to what happened two decades previously. Not all those churches that had previously experienced healthy growth were impacted by what started happening in the 90s. The primary emphasis moved to more of a church-based evangelism emphasis, encouraged by things like the Alpha course, Willow Creek's seeker services and Saddleback's model of the purpose-driven church. A decade further on the influence of these movements also began to wane, until we come to the present, which again appears to be a more difficult decade.

What can be learned from this rapid overview? In relation to why churches stop growing, all over the country there are examples of churches that had their heyday at one of these growth periods in the past. But they have essentially kept doing ministry the way they were doing it back then, although society and the emphases of the church keep changing. Sadly many of these churches come to resemble museum exhibits of the way things used to be. In many ways, it's not surprising. To use a surfing analogy, if you manage to catch one wave it is very difficult to turn around and catch the next one.

For a church to keep growing is a very challenging thing. Most people who attend church like the way it was when they started coming or initially came to faith. So a church that wants to keep growing faces an uphill struggle with many of its people. That's a significant reason why many churches stop growing. The challenge of seemingly constant change is just too much. It's far easier in church to enjoy growing old together with a group of people you know and love. Therefore churches stop growing and slowly wither and die. Our country sadly is littered with multiple examples of this happening before our eyes.

If you'd like to talk to Murray Robertson about working with your denomination or church on this topic, please email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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