The Ultimate Church Growth Hack

Lessons from a Pastor’s Journey in Member Integration

Introduction

As a young church planter, one of my main challenges was understanding my congregation. While meeting on Sundays and during mid-week gatherings was crucial for building community and nurturing church life, I realized that to truly know my members, I needed to connect with them in their own contexts—their homes and among their families.

Shepherding One by One

In the early days of my ministry, I saw it as my responsibility to guide and support every new person who entered our church. As the founding pastor, I saw myself as a personal concierge for every individual who stepped into our church, often with a mixture of hope and uncertainty. My mission was to guide them, one by one — household by household — into the heart of our new and growing community. This meant facilitating genuine connections, integrating new people into small groups, and helping them find a sense of belonging among the members of what I hoped would be their future church home.

Dedicating such a significant amount of time and energy to this process was not always easy, but I believed it was an investment worth making. On Sunday morning, I would talk with one newbie, and within the first few, I would say something like, “I would like to introduce you to someone I think you’d enjoy meeting.” Then, I would lead the new member to an older member of the church and introduce the two. “Jim, this is Bob. He is visiting today. Can you tell him a little about this church?” Then, off I’d go to the next visitor.

Sometimes, I would do the same thing when I made my house call to a new family. If they (the new family) had taken the time to go to my place on Sunday, I would return the favor. I would take the time to go to their place by the end of the week. By the time I left that home or place of business and, in the later years, the coffee shop we met in, I had enough information about them to find a group or another family I thought could connect with them.

Concierge-Level Pastoral Care

By connecting people to people, I learned what people did, where they worked, what kind of friends they had, and who they might want to know. I learned a few things, too. For example, I would not put two realtors in the same small group. They can be friends, but they won’t bond due to the inherent competition in their profession. Similarly, I would not put a young single woman in a group of young married couples, as their life stages and experiences differ significantly. Physicians don’t typically hang out with nurses due to the power dynamics and hierarchies present in their workplace.

In the first few years of the church, I made hundreds and hundreds of house-calls.

These one-on-one interactions with new faces generally proved beneficial to the new visitors and members, but they were always enriching for me as a pastor. Each conversation, shared story, and unique perspective added depth and richness to my understanding of the new church's makeup. Witnessing how God was bringing and connecting new people into our church family was a truly awe-inspiring experience.

A Ripple Effect

These interactions with new people also impacted my preaching. No longer was I simply delivering sermons to familiar faces; I was now speaking directly to the hearts of those new to our faith community. By engaging with newcomers' cultures and experiences, my sermons gained a new level of relevance. At least, I thought so.

Some will think delegating this responsibility to others would be more practical, given the demands on a pastor’s time. But I wouldn’t trade those early years for anything. I was always encouraged when I left the home after visiting a new visitor. Always. But I also grew to know our church very well in those early days.

The Call to Action

A number of young leaders have told me they don’t know how to help their churches step up off a long-standing attendance plateau. My advice and counsel are usually the same: get in your car and go make a few house calls. Do the hard and time-intensive work of pastoral ministry. And what is pastoral ministry? Isn’t it really what I am talking about here? Concierge-level personal connection and placement of families so they can thrive in their Christian faith. Do it for a few months and watch what happens.

If you try making house-calls and give personal connective ministry a chance, even only for six months, it will radically change your understanding of the church, and it will most certainly move your congregation forward off the plateau. This may require some restructuring of priorities and an investment of additional time, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the challenges. Within a few months — maybe a few more — you will see the ripple effect of investing in new members. Seeing the transformation it brings to the church is a reward in itself. As the church grows and flourishes, the need to expand the team responsible for welcoming and integrating new members will arise.

But this is a challenge that any pastor would be grateful to face.

David Roseberry writes posts and books on relevant topics, applying biblical truth and wisdom. His work can be found at LeaderWorks, where he is Executive Director.