If you are even a casual college sports fan, you have most likely heard of the transfer portal. In college football, a 30-day transfer portal window recently opened, and in one day, over 1,200 student-athletes entered their name into the database, over 2,000 within the first five days.
You may be asking, what is this transfer portal, and how in the world does it relate to the church? To understand how it relates to the church, we must first understand what it is. According to ESPN, the transfer portal is essentially a “database of every player who has an interest in transferring from his or her current school to a new school.” Rather than recruiting high school players to come to their college and play on their team, coaches are now spending much of their time finding players who have experience playing college sports and recruiting those players to come to their team. The portal includes every collegiate sport, and many avid college sports fans will agree that it has changed the entire sport.
In essence, the transfer portal is a shortcut to improving the quality of a sports team. But with all shortcuts, there are pros and cons. There is the possibility of an immediate impact, but there is also the possibility of some negative consequences. The same can be true for churches that spend too much time and energy on the church transfer portal. A recent Lifeway Research study of “church switchers” found that 53% of U.S. churchgoers have changed churches at some point as an adult. Some were the result of a residential move, but 40% were within the same town. You might say they entered the church transfer portal.
Positives of the Transfer Portal
There could be some positives for a church that welcomes many new members from the church transfer portal. Here are three potential positives. I will stick with the college football comparison.
Immediate Numerical Growth
In college football, a school is allowed to have 85 scholarship players and a total of 125 active players. Not only do you need superstars on a football team, but in some instances, you just need bodies. A good team has depth in all positions. Sometimes, the depth can even be through walk-on players. If you haven’t seen the movie Rudy, you need to. It will help you understand this.
As a rule of thumb, a church loses approximately 10% of its worship service attendance annually.
As a rule of thumb, a church loses approximately 10% of its worship service attendance annually (1% to death, 3% to dropouts, and 6% to transfers). When new members transfer in, it helps to minimally maintain attendance numbers. No church or pastor should be satisfied with warm bodies in the pew, but it is nice to have a full room, and possibly, the new members will begin serving, which leads to the next positive.
Talent acquisition
In college football, teams use the transfer portal to acquire talented players from other programs. If a team needs to upgrade certain positions quickly, they can find those players in the transfer portal. Similarly, churches can benefit from new members that transfer in from other churches that understand their spiritual gifts, talents and leadership skills.
Shepherding and Development Potential
One of the many reasons a college student-athlete may enter the transfer portal is because they did not feel they were being fully developed or had coaches who truly cared for them. An unfortunate reality is there are many churches that don’t prioritize discipleship or the shepherding aspect of ministry. Churches have a great opportunity to show the love and care of Christ to Christians who have never truly been discipled or had a shepherd to care for them.
Negatives of the Transfer Portal
With the positives, there are also some negatives that could potentially accompany a large number of new members from the church transfer portal. Here are three possibilities. Again, I will stick with the college football comparison.
Fragmentation and Disunity
Excessive reliance on transfers can cause problems in the locker room. It can be difficult for a player to come onto a team that has many shared experiences together. Those shared experiences, both good and bad, bond a team together. A common concern with new church members is how to fit in and connect with others. Without an intentional effort to assimilate individuals into the church, a sense of alienation can prevail, hindering the formation of genuine relationships.
Consumerism Mindset
Many believe it has gotten too easy for a disgruntled student-athlete to pack his bags and move on. Rather than taking the “hard coaching” needed to improve, they hop into the transfer portal and look for someone else to “offer them the world.” When churches focus too much on gaining members from other congregations, it can contribute to a sense of spiritual consumerism. It can inadvertently produce church hoppers seeking the best programs or services rather than committing to a community for the sake of shared faith and mission.
When churches focus too much on gaining members from other congregations, it can contribute to a sense of spiritual consumerism.
Cultural Clash
There is a lot that goes into establishing culture. Organizational culture is difficult to articulate but is easy to identify. Culture includes mission, vision, and core values, but it is also much more than those. Culture is seen in how hard someone works. It is seen in what gets someone excited or makes them sad. Culture is established at least partially by what gets rewarded and what gets punished. A coach can spend years establishing a culture. When freshmen come into the program, the older players who have been part of the team for a while teach them culture not in words but in action.
Church culture is one of the most neglected aspects of understanding church health. Yet, culture trumps everything else. As Peter Drucker famously said many years ago, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In other words, no matter how great your church’s strategy is, its efficacy will be held back by your transfer church members if they don’t share the same culture. About the only thing worse for a pastor to hear other than “We have never done it that way before!” is “My other church did it this way.”
In an age where the transfer portal, both in college sports and the church, is common and popular, let’s prioritize reaching new people with the Gospel.
I listen to sports radio most days while driving to my office. I heard one of the hosts on ESPNU Radio make this statement, “You can’t build a team through the portal. You build your team with high school students, and you supplement the team through the portal. Just like in a professional team, you build your team through the draft and supplement it through free agency.”
In the same way, a church should prioritize growth through conversion and supplement growth through transfer. It is possible, and in many cases common, for a church to grow numerically and not bring one lost soul into a new relationship with Jesus Christ. We can’t control who shows up to our church, but we can control whether or not we do evangelism. So, in an age where the transfer portal, both in college sports and the church, is common and popular, let’s prioritize reaching new people with the Gospel.
Randy, this is excellent work, as well as a package of honest truth. I love it.