The Ministerial Secretary of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division, David Ripley, traveled to Moldova in Eastern Europe to join the Biblical Research Institute team for a Bible Conference for the Moldovan Union August 16-21, 2013. The BRI team gave powerful messages on the topics of the Sanctuary, Theology of Prayer, and the Godhead. Dr. Ripley was asked to come in response to the request from the field for practical ministry training in addition to the Theology and Biblical knowledge presentations.
Pastor Ripley’s topic was “Growing Plateaued Churches through Attendance Barriers.” Through several presentations the 75 pastors in attendance were shown that attendance barriers come at predictable levels and the structure of the church must be redesigned if the church expects to grow its attendance. Simply adding more names to the books or doing more evangelism will not grow the church. Referring to changing the church structure is not justtalking about the size or style of the building, but really changing how the church operates in many areas. It is really changing the culture of the local church.
Here are several design components that must be considered for change so the structure of the church will allow the church to grow in attendance.
1. Local Church Culture – Membership or Discipleship?
2. Governance Organization
3. Communication Process/Network
4. Decision Making Process
5. Relationship Connections
6. Cell/Small Group Structure
7. Leadership Style
8. Conflict Management Style
9. Mission/Vision Process and Follow Through
10. Staffing/Training Ministry Leaders
11. Worship Culture
12. Evangelism Style
These are items that the PastorsDavid & Lynn Ripley havesuccessfully applied to the churches they pastored and saw how God blessed with attendance growth, doubling the size of some churches. The churches have changed to discipleship based mission focused organizations with a multitude of ministries.
The desire for the future of the churches in Moldova is that they will seek to move their churches forward in growing attendance and growing the Kingdom of God!