Most of our Fellowship churches follow a similar trajectory. An initial burst of growth followed in time by a long period of plateaued maintenance. Prescott grew to 300 very fast, then to 600 at a much slower pace, and has not grown significantly in many years. It doesn't seem to matter if a church is 90 or 900 members, every church levels off and experiences no more explosive new convert growth. Why is this?
I recently read that most innovation comes from people with the least experience. They do not know what works or does not work yet. They have ideas that more experienced people can find dozens of reasons why it can't work and not one reason to try it.
When I was sent out, pastor Mitchell told me to find out what God is doing, and do that. We interpret that to mean, go out and copy what you have seen us do. Do what we do and you will see what we see. Except, only in a very few instances does that work. What if God is doing something different where you are than what the mother church does?
A pastor, to get started, must take chances and do some unorthodox things to make it happen. Experienced pastors have too much to lose to risk it all on one throw of the spiritual dice. The experienced leader has too many responsibilities to try anything new. His responsibilities are to maintain what he has at all costs. God help the pastor who tries to change what the church is accustomed to!
Pastor Mitchell set the example of leaving his church to pastor someplace else. But while he was in Australia the first time the man he selected to pastor the Prescott church got into serious trouble for trying new things or doing things different. The man he chose was trying to hide spending so that it would not show up on the church's accounts. Not for illegal activities, but to do something different.
We need to return to the days that, when we send couples out, we give them the freedom to do what God is doing where we send them. Otherwise, we are just a Bible college teaching men to toe the company line.
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