Attrition to Accretion

Attrition  to  Accretion

1. Research shows that emerging churches suffer high attrition (loss) rate due to poor post harvest operation.  Event oriented ministries, such as crusades, film, radio/TV and literature distribution, also have dismal track record due to poor mentoring. Unvarnished inflated figures are not accretion (growth) but pure dishonesty.

2. Church planting movements are led by Type 1& II grassroots level local and trans-local leaders. Type III are Master trainers. Type IV are regional  leaders and Type V are national & international leaders.

3. Church planting movement depends mainly on the qualities of the Type I leaders who lead a house church and Type II who leads a cluster of churches. (Acts 4:13)

4. Poor communication linkage between the top leaders who acquire ‘book culture’ in the comfort of classrooms while non/semi-literate belong to the oral tradition who get practical experience in the harvest field. Arrogant leadership at the top causes severe attrition. (1Tim. 3:6)

5. Violence to local culture by asking new believers to discard cultural symbols of marriage, clothes, food, and even names. Failure to utilize all that is noble in their religion is a major cause of attrition.(Acts 21:25; Phil. 4:8)

6. Communicate in heart language: Jews heard the Pentecost message in their heart language. Communicating even i9n market language is a big handicap. They need to be converted into ‘Oral Bibles’ in their dialect. (Acts 2:11)

7. Yeshua taught through parables. Telling stories from the Bible and powerful testimonies from the field, touches the heart and opens their spiritual eyes and whets their appetite for the gospel. (Matt. 13:34,35)

8. Process orientation: Abundant gospel seed sowing, then the blade, next the ear and finally the full corn is ready for the sickle. Discipling, baptizing, equipping, sending, continued monitoring and mentoring have better accretion (growth) of churches than event oriented ministries. (Mark 6:24-29; 1Cor. 9:24; Acts 15:36)

9. Go under the radar: While the modern church is busy fleecing their old goats, the NT church is busy feeding their new lambs, maturing them to multiply. Conversions result in persecution, unless churches go below the radar screen to mature and multiply. (1Cor. 14:23-25)

10. Empower: Since women, youth and children constitute 70/90% of the congregation, dominant male leadership, hinders from maturing of sheep to reproduce. Flocking new sheep into old wineskins causes attrition. (Matt. 9:17)

11. Attrition is a self- inflicted disease: Lack of research leads to ignorance of attrition rate. Course correction requires information based capacity building of key players in Church Planting Movements. (Acts 20:20)

12. Oxygen: With the church in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the church leadership in coma, attrition is inevitable.

13. Recipe for transiting from Attrition to Acceleration: When believers, including newcomers gather together and participate in apostolic teaching, fellowship (koinonia) and pray together in unity, then signs and wonders take place. Believers give joyfully to the needy and support their apostles. They break bread from house to house. Then the Lord adds to their numbers daily, resulting in the church transiting from attrition into rapid acceleration. (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35; 16:5)