By Pierre-Alain Giffard
In his book The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, Evangelist Dag Heward Mills, explains what made his church grow. Dag Heward Mills is the founder of the Lighthouse Chapel International which grew in a few years to become of the largest churches in Africa. He serves on the board of Directors of Church Growth International and the Pentecostal World Fellowship. Over the years he has trained more than 2000 pastors and hundreds of lay ministers worldwide and built over 400 churches worldwide. In this article, we summarize some of the core church growth principles found in his book.
Church Growth is God’s will
To grow their church, pastors need to be convinced that the growth of their church is God’s will: “Jesus wants his churches to be filled. God wants full churches! His will is more people! His will is filled rooms! His will is overflowing churches!”[1] Dag Heward Mills says pastors should dream of having large congregations. They should say “We are able to possess the land. We can do it!" They should allow God to use them to build a megachurch and learn the strategies of church growth: “It is Satan who fans the church to sleep!! He whispers to the hearts of many ministers: ‘Everything is O.K.’ ‘This is it’ ‘You have made it’ ‘This is how far you can go’. ‘This is everything you can achieve for God! ’” [2]
The Anointing
To grow their church, pastors need the anointing: “Pastors everywhere must desire the anointing. It is the anointing that makes the difference! (…) We can't do without the Holy Spirit.”[3] The anointing is an invisible cloak, a mantle over a person which allows him to succeed at what he is doing. It is a “spiritual transformation that convert that person into a minister.”[4] Education, administration and strategies are important for church growth but even more is the anointing.[5]
How to receive this vital ingredient? “Pray and ask for it!”[6]; “God is looking for people who really want the anointing and will appreciate It.”[7]“He will pass over a thousand people who don't care much for the anointing and will give it to a person who strongly desires It.”[8] “I listen to tapes all the time”[9] says Dag Heward Mills.
The anointing is not taught it is caught.[10] God can take the anointing on one man and share it with several other people. To receive it we can listen to the tapes of a particular man of God and read his books with a vision and desire of having an impartation of the anointing. This is what soaking in tapes means: to listen to the words of the tape over and over again until they become a part of us and until the anointing passes unto us![11]
Prayer and Fasting
Dag Heward Mills believes church growth happens when solid foundations of prayer and fasting are laid.[12] He organizes “massive organized prayer” on three levels: 1) he takes his senior ministers away from the city to pray for a few days, 2) he sometimes "sentences" the cell leaders to twenty hours of prayer within a three-week period (meaning small groups meet and pray for twenty hours spread over three weeks), 3) he involve the whole church in prayer: “There are times we have all-night prayer and fasting meetings every day for an entire week.”[13]
He says the principle of massive organized prayer is needed to bring about a breakthrough in ministry.[14] His church in Geneva has all-night prayer meetings every Friday, praying from midnight until 6 a.m. “Whenever there is great faith”, he says, “you can expect more power and miracles of healing”[15]: “The Church will be built by the power of the Holy Spirit - end of story!”[16]
Soul Winning
The overall vision of Lighthouse Chapel International is soul winning and church planting.[17] Lighthouse Chapel International is as a new convert or a new member oriented church. Dag Heward Mills calls it a “person x oriented church”.[18]
He says Jesus expects us to take “the business of soul winning” very seriously. “The success of the church depends on her producing souls. (…) Soul winning should be intentional and not incidental.”[19] “You must boldly enter into the houses of your city and preach Christ to the people. You must shamelessly lead people to Christ in their living rooms. Pray for them and invite them to church. Stand on the street and talk to passers-by about Jesus Christ.”[20]
All their ministries engage in at least one major outreach each month: “Everyone is taught and motivated to save the lost and to be involved in practical ministry.”[21] “If you sow seeds through invitations and witnessing, you will reap from it one day.”[22]
Church altar calls for salvation are done in every single service, even weddings and funerals. The pastor considers it an important and good habit to be maintained at all costs.[23]
Retaining Church Members
Dag Heward Mills believes that one of the secrets of church growth is retention evangelism. It is the art of winning souls and retaining them: “Our problem is not one of bringing new people to the church, but one of getting them to stay! (…) Every pastor must learn to keep what he already has - at all costs.”[24]
There are different ways to retain members:
- Making a first good impression during services.[25]
- Treating visitors well.[26]
- Making song sheets so that they can get involved during the praise and worship.[27]
- Hosting a reception after service to allow new members to feel at home. [28]
- Giving visitors gifts.[29]
- Following-up on every new convert and visitor. “Follow-up consists of three main components: prayer, visitation and teaching” [30]:
o “The church should be led in prayer for the establishment of visitors and converts in the church.”[31]
o All new converts and visitors should be visited. “In this area many of the church members can get involved to 1) accompany new converts to their home, 2) visit and encourage new converts, minister the word, pray for them. 3) physically bring them to church. One person cannot effectively visit many people. However, one hundred trained workers can do a great deal more. I involve many people in following-up new converts.”[32]
o “When every church member is taught that the church is a family, they will be less willing to leave. Every family has its problems! In every family, you have conflicts and misunderstandings. But there is simply no way you can leave your family. You are simply a part of that family whether you like it or not.”[33]
- Appointing the most senior associates to handle all new converts.[34]
- Keeping the waters still: Sheep drink from still waters. If the water is murky and rough, they will stay away because “they are not quite sure whether a crocodile is in the water or not!”[35]
- Helping to create interaction between church members.[36]
- Showing true concern for the flock, being interested in every single member, having fatherly or motherly attributes, being everything to the sheep… a friend…a brother…a father.[37]
- Saying good things about church members (even though some may disappoint us).[38]
- Encouraging church members to have their friends from within the church.[39]
Small Groups
Dag Heward Mills believes that churches should be divided into smaller divisions so that people receive adequate pastoral care.[40] His church has a system of small groups involving fellowships, ministries and chapels.[41] Small groups help meet the needs of members at a personal level.[42] Church members can feel important, necessary, part of a family and loved[43]: “Questions that cannot be asked in a large Sunday service can be addressed in the small groups. The small groups become the family units to which church members belong.”[44]
Numbering
Dag Heward Mills considers it biblical to care about the number of souls added to the church daily, weekly or monthly.[45] Counting members helps a church know whether things are getting better over the months.[46] If numbers are not growing it should motivate us to have more visitations, more prayer, more fasting and more witnessing: “We must invite more people, do more follow-up, have more crusades and release more power.”[47]
Numbering is a way of knowing the state of the flocks. “When you are fed with information that things are decaying, you will sit up! When you are stimulated by the veritable facts, it generates a greater vision within you to do God's work. It makes you rise up to build the Kingdom of God.”[48] “When you know where you are, you can more readily plan your future. It helps you to see the reality of what you are doing. It is easy to deceive yourself. Checking the true numbers will help you to move forward with God.”[49]
But the pastor also warns that when numbering is done for the wrong reason it displeases God: “For instance, if you put your faith and trust in your numbers, you are making a grave mistake.”[50]
Recruitment of Lay People
Dag Heward Mills does ninety percent of the preaching and teaching. He identifies potential leaders, pillars who have what he calls “the spirit of the ministry” to whom he delegates his other duties[51]: “Make use of unpaid people”[52] he says, “this simple principle is a secret of church growth.”[53] “People must be trusted with responsibilities under supervision. They must be allowed to do important things.”[54]
In fact, finding laypeople to do the ministry should be in the pastor’s daily prayers: “Pray for labourers. Ask God to give you helpers (…) Pray for people who will support you.”[55] Once he has found them, he follows the 80/20 rule: “it is important for every pastor to spend more time with the twenty percent who will bring church growth.”[56]
But Dag Heward Mills also warns about people who can be are disloyal, double-faced, double-tongued and discontented. Pastors should not recruit and appoint to leadership positions unknown elements, people who do not really “fit in as sons” into the pastor’s ministry. These have the potential to create confusion within the ranks: “Very early in my ministry I realized that the devil is an expert at destroying the church from within.”[57] It is better to work alone than with a team of disloyal, disgruntled, disunited and disaffected people.”[58]
Commitment
Pastors, associates and assistants should be committed and devoted to church members because “no one wants to follow someone who will abandon him midstream.”[59] “On the other hand pastors want church members who are committed because they will pour out their lives and soul into them and don’t want people to despise and destroy them.”[60] So pastors should work hard and press for the highest level of commitment possible from every one of their members: “Committed members are the building blocks of a large church. The key to increasing in size is to have more and more very committed people (…) Aim to get all of your members to be committed irrespective of their circumstances.”[61]
Other Principles for Church Growth
The principle of multiple services: Lighthouse Chapel International conducts multiple services to make different kind of services available to it’s members. For instance, it has services for the youth and for the children as well as services in different languages: “Each of these services is different and there are people to fit into all of these services. God will bless your church as you provide variety for more people.”[62]
The principle of the scholarly pastor: Dag Heward Mills believes in reading, studying and acquiring knowledge. He always reads several books at a time. He’s also convinced that the study of administration and management will do the church of God a lot of good.[63]
The principle of power ministry: “If you cut out all the Scriptures on healing and miracles from your Bible, you will discover that your Bible is totally destroyed!”[64] God's children need the teaching and preaching but they also want to receive a touch of His power: “It is important to add on the power dimension of miracles, healings and deliverance.”[65]
The principle of fulfilling your call: Pastor should fulfil their personal call, follow the plan that God has given them and not compare themselves with others or allow anyone to drown their convictions.[66]
Conclusion
This article summarized many of the church growth principles that can be found in Dag Heward Mills’ book The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow. Most of these principles are used in other churches and in other parts of the world. What specially emerges from this book is the importance of the anointing, of prayer and the necessity to deliberately organize the church to evangelize (soul winning) and retain church members.
Finally, Dag Heward Mills wishes to encourage and motivate Christians to start churches even if beginnings are small and growth is slow: “You do not need more than one person to start a church (…) The basics are praying, witnessing and following up converts”. “Don't be surprised if you only have twenty people after two years. The mustard seed will surely grow into a megachurch!”[67]
[1] Dag HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow (Accra, Ghana, Parchment House, 2005), p. 8.
[2] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 9.
[3] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, pp. 88-89.
[4] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 87.
[5] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 42.
[6] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 75.
[7] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 55.
[8] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 57.
[9] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 103.
[10] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 43.
[11] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 86.
[12] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 123.
[13] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 203.
[14] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 203.
[15] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 12.
[16] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 41.
[17] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 113.
[18] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 191.
[19] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 174.
[20] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 127.
[21] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 113.
[22] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 172.
[23] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 196.
[24] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 151.
[25] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 195.
[26] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 191.
[27] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 191.
[28] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 191.
[29] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 191.
[30] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 155.
[31] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 156.
[32] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 156.
[33] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 163.
[34] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 191.
[35] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 183.
[36] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 145.
[37] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 148.
[38] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 144.
[39] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 147.
[40] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 191.
[41] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 116.
[42] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 36.
[43] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 191.
[44] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 190.
[45] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 175
[46] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 33.
[47] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 37.
[48] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 34.
[49] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 34.
[50] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 30.
[51] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 107.
[52] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 205.
[53] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 198.
[54] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 188.
[55] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, pp. 122-123.
[56] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, pp. 198.
[57] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 178.
[58] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 183.
[59] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 141.
[60] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 136.
[61] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, pp. 130-131.
[62] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, pp. 193-194.
[63] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, pp. 199-200.
[64] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 201.
[65] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 11.
[66] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, p. 202.
[67] HEWARD-MILLS, The Megachurch: How to Make Your Church Grow, pp. 120-122.
