5-page paper synthesizing the 3-5 ideas from the readings that made the greatest impact on you, and how those ideas apply to yo

Preparation of the Project

Personal Experiences

Preparation for the project actually began when I accepted my first pastorate in 1968. During my five-year tenure, the attendance doubled and the financial income tripled. However, my lack of training in church growth strategies, along with the absence of a mentor, made the growth an exercise in shear willpower. Although my first two churches had a seven-year history of decline in common, the second church was an even greater challenge than the first.

The second church, which I began pastoring in 1975, struggled with internal discord, so for the first year, the attendance declined sharply. Although I worked as hard as I had at my first pastorate, the attendance experienced a period of non-growth for the four years following the decline. At the end of ten years, the attendance had doubled; however, I had learned very little about church growth principles. The third church I pastored was one I had started in 1985. The church grew over a period of twelve years. At this point I had some ideas of how to grow a church, but they were vague.

In 1998, I launched my inquiry into church growth when I became the first director of the Southern California Founders Fund (SCFF). The SCFF was created by the Southern California District Council Assemblies of God to assist those who attended their churches to develop an estate plan. It provided an opportunity for individuals to prepare a will, gift annuity, or charitable remainder trust. The SCFF was also responsible for making loans to member churches. It worked in partnership with the General Council Assemblies of God Financial Services Group. During my eight years with the Founders Fund, I visited more than 150 churches. In addition to helping the churches develop their planned giving, I made observations and drew conclusions about why some churches were growing and others were not.

Because the first church I pastored could not afford to pay a full-time salary, I obtained a tax preparation business. At that time, I did not know that this would prove to be a mandate from God to stay in the business world. When I moved to Springfield, Missouri to attend the Assemblies of God Seminary in 1973, I worked at Gospel Publishing House as a supervisor in the Customer Services Department. I ensured the correct handling of adjustments to customers’ orders and assisted with collections.

Once again, because of the size of my second church, I continued in the tax preparation business. I also started taking courses in business at California State University San Bernardino, receiving the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts in business.

I planted a church in 1985 while working for a large CPA firm for the next two years. In 1987, I started my own tax preparation business, which has grown to preparing more than 1,000 tax returns in addition to offering bookkeeping and payroll services as well as representing individuals before the IRS. We have four full-time employees with additional employees during tax season

In 2006, I served as executive pastor assisting my son in establishing a church plant. During the following two years, I developed a plan for turning first-time guests into second-time attendees, and ultimately to members of the church. I combined my experience with the Founders Fund, pastoral understanding, and business knowledge to develop the plan. One of my pastor friends asked me to put some of my plan in writing so he could try it, which I did. In less than a year, he enjoyed a fifty percent increase in attendance. This was one of my incentives to focus on church growth for my project. Simply applying biblically-based business strategies to a local church that was plateaued or declining in attendance produced positive results.

Finding Churches to Participate in the Project

In December 2011, I began my search for churches willing to participate in this project. In order for a church to qualify as a participant, it had to (1) have an average attendance of less than 200 people, (2) demonstrate a three-year period of non-growth or decline in church attendance, and (3) provide historical attendance records in order to perform growth comparisons.

Throughout the search for participants, eighty churches in Southern California received a letter of inquiry.⁰ When anyone affirmed interest in participating in the project, I personally visited the pastor and his or her church. Each pastor completed a Personal Information Sheet.⁰ During the initial interview, which lasted about three hours, the pastor received a summary of the project.⁰ Initially, the program appeared simple, while in reality, gathering records and recording them required detailed explanations. In order to oversee the progress, I visited each church in the program one Sunday a month, both to help explain the program to people involved in the process and to make my own observations.

Initially, three churches in Southern California and one in Northern California opted to participate in the project. However, due to the distance from the church in Northern California, the church did not become part of the project, and another church in Southern California was added. In the end, all four churches were located in Southern California.

Execution of the Project

After identifying four churches to participate in the project, execution of the plan could commence. Three of the churches implemented the program from February through October 2012. The church in Northern California was replaced by another church that implemented the program from July through October 2012. Due to privacy issues, each church will be referred to as Church A, B, C, or D.

To commence the project, I met with each pastor to outline the entire project by reviewing a four-page document I created entitled, “Church Growth Business Concepts: Church Growth Proposal for Churches under 200.”⁰ The two to three-hour session explained the process for implementing biblically based business strategies for church growth both in attendance and finances.