First Connecticut Open Bible Standard Church is a small church with a big name; we average somewhere around 25 to 35 people on Sundays. Frankly, the number hasn't really changed very much since the church began about 12 years ago in its current location. (It started off as a house church.) My concern is not simply that the numbers would increase, but that they would increase both with people who are not yet connected and newly connected with Almighty God. Clearly, we've not been very successful in bringing people in, and therefore, not helping people to grow in Christ as much as we could.
Our church is located in a mixed residential and business section of the city. We're centrally located, just outside of downtown on a main thoroughfare. We have the capacity for seating around 80-85 people if we really need to. We have a nursery room for infants, a classroom, kitchen and three bathrooms. We also have our own baptismal.
Our pastor is bi-vocational and has been serving as pastor for about eight years, since he and his wife relocated here from Ohio where he held an associate pastor position. We have a praise team, led my myself, which is quite large- especially for a congregation as small as ours. In addition to myself, there are others who lead worship from time to time. We have a bassist, drummer, five singers, and myself on guitar and vocals. As I said, it's a good-sized group. In fact, it is not uncommon for there to be just as many (if not more) people on the praise team as there are in the congregation at the start of Sunday morning services! Our praise and worship songs are diverse, comprised of a blend of traditional hymns and choruses, modern classics, newer songs, obscure music from independent artists and even the occasional self-penned tune.
First Connecticut Open Bible Standard Church is part of Open Bible Churches, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. The denomination is considered to be pentecostal, though from my perspective, most of our members and attendees would probably not describe themselves as such.
In fact, I would describe Denise and myself as evangelical rather than pentecostal.
Our pastor delivers weekly bible-based, Christ-centered messages which I find to be enriching and challenging. From my perspective, he has grown considerably in his speaking skills and ability to communicate effectively during his eight years here. He and his wife are very down-to-earth, approachable, humble servants.
Our congregation is culturally diverse, drawing from a rich cultural palate. We have members and regular attendees from the West Indies, the Philippines and Puerto Rico as well as from different regions in the mainland US.
We offer a "children's church" which accommodates toddlers to preteens, a weekly combined prayer time and bible study, men's and women's ministries that meet once per month and monthly potluck fellowship dinners. There are even movie nights and praise and worships nights held on occasional Fridays. Not bad for a congregation of thirty people, right?
The problem is a new face is very seldom seen. In fact, for a variety of reasons we've seen a slight decline over the past few months.
Does any of this bear resemblance to your congregation? What's going on here? Why isn't the church growing? What can be done to stimulate and sustain new growth?
We'll analyze further in the next post.
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