By Mxolisi Henry Vilakazi, Columnist
The rise of an organization is dependent on its current leadership and membership’s ability to recruit and retain new members. A church that does not exhibit numerical increases is a church facing extinction and existential challenge. A church is primarily established to make Christ’s liberating gospel spread and reach as many as possible. The numerical evidence is demonstrated through accession, conversions, and, to some extent, Baptismal.
The Church explicitly demonstrates its ability to grow by prescribing that a Presiding Elder establish at least one charge per quadrennium. But apart from this assignment, how does the church plan and act for growth? For some time now, the church has bemoaned membership decline, and youth leaving the church have been leaving in large numbers. The Church, in various strategic planning sessions, seems to have developed measures to mitigate this challenge, including dedicating an entire quadrennium to youth. However, apart from the announcement, there was little evidence that the 2012 – 2016 Quadrennial was dedicated to the young people of the Church.
For a moment, we must refocus on the local church. Who is responsible for growth, and what actions are focused on salvaging growth for the church? There is the prescription that the class system, through class leaders, shall sustain the existing membership through home visits and home cells, just to borrow a concept from the charismatic church. Yes, the class leadership system has an enormous potential to retain membership. But who has the responsibility to draw new members to the church?
The church is not strong on evangelizing beyond street revival, which is not coordinated but conducted in a “tick the box” mentality. Who has the responsibility to go out and draw new people to join the church? Who is tasked with this responsibility?
Take, for instance, the monthly meetings that must be convened, whether a steward board meeting or an official board meeting in the local church. How many times does the item on membership growth feature in the church’s agenda? How often do the Conferences of the Church, be it Church Conference, Quarterly Conference, and Presiding Elder District Conference, discuss, plan, and act for growth? When last has a church conference identified an area for growth and have put the necessary actions to either establish a preaching point, station, or a charge within the circuit.
There are local church planning meetings, District Planning Meetings, Episcopal Planning Meetings, and the Auxiliaries’ planning meetings at all levels. When last did those planning meetings discuss church growth sufficiently? When have those meetings been planned and actions developed and implemented, targeting church growth? This is despite the COVID-19 pandemic and its after-effects, such as lockdowns and limited worship, which have whittled away our membership; we still have not convened to discuss, plan, and take action to safeguard our survival and existentiality through targeted membership growth and sustainability.
The Church, at a connectional level, has a director and department responsible for church growth and development, with a mantra “let’s grow together from the ground up. But the question remains, how does the work of the directorate of Church Growth and Development find expression in the local church, especially outside the USA? How accessible is the material and training provided by the Director of Church Growth and Development? How has the purpose of the directorate, as it relates to “we aim to assist AME clergy and laity in leading all people to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as one personal Savior through the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” find expression in the local church?
How has the work of the directorate or department of Church growth and development helped the local churches with “cultivating programming which leads to the enrichment of the worship experience in the life of the local church …” How does the connectional department link with the local for effective planning and actions for church growth and development?
Unless, at the local level, there are champions of church growth and development, our existential problem and threat of extinction remain real. Unless there is an absolute commitment to church growth and development at the PE District level, our future remains gloomy and despondent. There are, however, a few measures that are contained in our discipline that should be optimized by the Church:
- Revitalize and strengthen the work of Licensed missionary workers and Allen Christian Fellowship
- Make the Commission on Membership, Evangelism, and Discipleship, and the Commission on Mission and Welfare, part of the local church organization, not optional but a core commission.
- Dedicate sufficient time during church conferences to church growth, expansion, and development with clearly crafted SMART targets which are specific, measurable, reliable and time-bound.
- Position all church departments and auxiliaries to play a role in church growth and development by aligning their plans with the local church’s growth and development plans.
- Emplore all Presiding Elders and Bishops to provide structural advice on church growth and development during the reporting of pastors in the PE District and Annual Conferences. There is a need to help all church ministries, through training and workshops, to maximize accessions, conversions, and baptisms.
- Strengthen the local Board of Christian Education and the Commission of Christian Education to ensure proper indoctrination of members: old and new. Emphasizing teachings on the history of the church and its ministries–connectionally and locally.
Church growth and development cannot be left to chance; it must be planned and executed with clear intention and focus. The membership roll expected to be developed at the third quarterly conference should be used effectively as a launching pad for membership retention. The church must equally develop plans to sustain existing membership under the mantra “We are losing no more members.” The class leadership system would need to work, not be reduced to a revenue-generating mechanism, but rather be a spiritual instrument for membership retention.
Let the plan be known and actions be guided for membership growth and development. Let the Director of the Department of Church Growth and Development touch the nerve centre of the local church, and let their footprint be imprinted in every local church. Failure to plan for church growth and development is acceding to church extinction and perpetuation of the existential challenge.
