This tool is designed to help deepen your appreciation of church growth as an ongoing process. No single technique will assure growth, but a group of people genuinely wanting to welcome new people into the body of Christ can assure that their whole congregational "system" provides such a welcoming environment that God's will is much more easily accomplished!

People join churches one-by-one or family-by-family and this tool uses the journey of potential members as a frame to reflect on what your congregation does (and what more you could do) to help people move through these steps:

• Awareness: Discovering the existence and location of your congregation
• Initial Entry: Walking in the door for the first time -- for any reason -- an AA meeting, a food pantry, a wedding, a funeral, or to ask for directions
• Worship: Attending one of your congregation's worship services
• Coffee Hour: Participating in fellowship after worship -- getting to know parishioners
• Return visit: Coming back to worship a second time
• Involvement: Beginning to participate in the life of the community
• Commitment: Deciding to join your congregation, taking on a ministry, making a pledge, election to a parish office, etc.

How to use this tool:

1. Walk folks through the different steps to make sure everyone understands what the steps are and to help people see that the congregation can do things to help people take the journey from visitor to congregant
2. Under the heading "What We Do", have members list things the congregation currently does to facilitate each step (.e.g. how do you make people aware that your congregation exists?)
3. Under the heading "What We Could Do", have people brainstorm what new things they might do to help people make the journey
4. Implement a few of these ideas
5. Use this tool to review your Church Growth "system" once a year

>> Download the "Journey Church Growth Chart " in PDF format