There have been so many articles written by so many different pastors, evangelists, seminary professors, and church growth strategists on the issue of church growth.\u00a0 I think it is safe to say that we are obsessed with church growth in America.\u00a0 Many evangelists, revival speakers, and church conferences often talk about “the number of people who accepted the Lord” during their event.\u00a0 Please understand that I am not against these types of people or the reporting of numbers.\u00a0 I am simply concerned about the church of America having the wrong focus and the wrong goal in mind.<\/p>\n
Many times we in the evangelical world equate large numbers, many salvation professions, large baptism numbers, or growing churches with God’s favor and blessing.\u00a0 The sad thing is, many people will verbally agree that just because there are a lot of people coming to the church doesn’t mean that God is blessing the church.\u00a0 But in the next breath begin to tout how many people came to this past Sunday’s services or how many people have been baptized in their church. Then if an outsider says the same thing they person said previously, the pastor or church member says “yeah well that’s not happening at our church”, or “our church is different.”\u00a0 We agree that there are many false teachers, false conversions, and over inflated church rolls, but we always think it is at the “other person’s” church and never ours.\u00a0 There is a danger in that mentality, yet we often overlook it.\u00a0 Large numbers of attenders, baptisms, building programs, etc. does not always equate to God is blessing us.\u00a0 That is not to say that churches that are growing are false churches or getting false conversions.\u00a0 The bottom line is healthy things grow.\u00a0 Just like when you plant flowers in a flower bed, if you water them, fertilize them, keep the weeds out, those flowers will grow.\u00a0 In the same way, when a church focuses on making disciples of all nations, the natural byproduct is the church will grow.\u00a0 Ed Stetzer made a great point in his book, “Transformational Church.”\u00a0 Stezer said, “we need to change the scorecard.”\u00a0 He did a good job explaining what he meant, but I want to explain what I feel that means.<\/p>\n
To “change the scorecard” obviously means that we need to change the numbers we track.\u00a0 One of the biggest numbers we need to change is we need to swap out “numerical growth” for “spiritual growth.”\u00a0 Why don’t we talk about the spiritual growth that takes place in our churches?\u00a0 I will give you two reasons that are simply my personal opinion. First of all, talking about spiritual growth isn’t sexy or hip.\u00a0 Speaking as a pastor, no pastor wants to go to a conference and speak about how in his time at the church, he has preached the doctrinal truths of God’s Word and called for a deeper commitment from the members, and the result is 25-50% of his church has left the church.\u00a0 That is not a fun conversation to have, and it is a sure fire way to make sure you don’t get invited to speak at another conference.\u00a0 If you don’t believe me, go to your local Christian bookstore and look at the majority of books written by pastors and others.\u00a0 The overwhelming majority deal with “how to grow your church, small groups, etc.”\u00a0 The church in America is okay with being a mile wide and only an inch deep.\u00a0 The second reason we don’t talk about spiritual growth is it is hard to see.\u00a0 Why is it that they have to bring in sand by the dump truck loads to the beach from time to time, or in the case of Cape Hatteras, move an entire lighthouse?\u00a0 It is because over time, the constant crashing and pulling of the waves has caused erosion of the beach.\u00a0 When you go to the beach on Monday and then go back on Tuesday, do you readily recognize that the beach is getting smaller?\u00a0 Probably not, but the beach is getting smaller.\u00a0 Our spiritual growth is like the waves crashing onto the shore and eroding the sand.\u00a0 Many times in my life, my wife has noticed changes in me before I have (probably several reasons behind that).\u00a0 So how do we define and measure spiritual growth?<\/p>\n
I wish this was an exhaustive list, but I’m sure I am going to miss many things.\u00a0 I believe the first place to start is to define, what is a disciple of Jesus Christ?\u00a0 Certainly a disciples of Jesus will confess (1 John 1:9), repent (Luke 13:3), be converted (John 3:3), and be baptized (Mt. 28:19).\u00a0 However, those things are just the beginning of the journey.\u00a0 Is the person beginning to have more success over past sins?\u00a0 Are they able to with the Spirit’s help, depend on Christ and not give into their sin nature?\u00a0 Is there a hunger for daily devotion time and daily prayer time?\u00a0 Are they regularly sharing the Gospel?\u00a0 Have the discovered, developed, and deployed their spiritual gift to help the church and build up the kingdom of God?\u00a0 Are they part of a small group or Sunday school class regularly?\u00a0 Do they attend corporate worship regularly?\u00a0 Are they actively making disciples?\u00a0 These are just a few questions that we should be asking ourselves first and foremost.\u00a0 But we, as pastors and leaders, should be asking these questions of our people as well.\u00a0 Jesus did not save us just to leave us where we were when we surrendered to Him.\u00a0 He saved us to sanctify us (set us apart) for His glory and His service.\u00a0 Is there progression in the person’s life?\u00a0 Here is the great part about measuring a disciple’s growth, if I am growing as a disciple of Jesus, and we as a church are growing as disciples, the natural result will be numerical growth with one exception.\u00a0 The exception is the numerical growth will be by multiplication rather than addition.\u00a0 If I am growing as a disciple and make a disciple, then we both continue to grow as disciples and each make a disciple, now we have four, and so on and so on.\u00a0 Healthy things grow!\u00a0 Therefore, if we are not growing numerically, we need to ask ourselves, are we growing spiritually?\u00a0 Are we healthy?\u00a0 I know this isn’t ground breaking research or even probably not even new information.\u00a0 But I do pray it will call all of us to ask ourselves, am I growing spiritually?<\/p>\n
By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There have been so many articles written by so many different pastors, evangelists, seminary professors, and church growth strategists on the issue of church growth.\u00a0 I think it is safe to say that we are obsessed with church growth in … Read More