How to Break Growth Barriers

In this newly revised edition, church growth experts explain how effective leadership and growth go hand-in-hand, offering a proven approach to increasing church membership.

Some churches grow rapidly, only to hit a ceiling. Other churches have experienced declining or static attendance--many of them for decades. Frustrated pastors and church leaders want growth methods that work, but without adding to pastoral fatigue.

How to Break Growth Barriers argues that growth comes when effective leadership and lay-empowerment skills work hand in hand. This requires a shift of focus from the shepherd as the primary caregiver to shepherd as developer and coach of many caregivers. The authors show pastors how to communicate a vision for the future and then how to lead the congregation into the paradigms necessary for potentially limitless growth.

The strategies found in this book are not only tried and true, and taken from a biblical perspective of a "harvest" vision. They're also newly updated to reflect our changing culture, including helpful charts and checklists for self-evaluation.

Carl F. George, one of North America's premier church growth consultants, has trained pastors, staff, and top executives from more than one hundred denominations. He is former director of the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth and former president of the American Society for Church Growth. His other books include Nine Keys to Effective Small Group Leadership. He and his wife, Grace, live near Greenville, South Carolina.

Warren Bird (PhD, Fordham University) is vice president of research for the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA.org). An ordained minister and former seminary professor, he is also author or coauthor of thirty-one books including How to Break Growth Barriers. He and his wife, Michelle, live in a suburb of New York City.