CHURCH: A God-Given Growth

I sat and listened to a preacher share his insights into church, church systems and church growth.  His expertise was his own congregation experiencing tremendous growth during his tenure as the preacher.  Someone finally verbalized what I was thinking, “Why don’t you write a book about church growth?”  While he was willing to share his own experience and church story, he was reluctant to say his church’s growth can be simply duplicated for another church in another community.  I guess looking back on it, too variables were present to give someone a simple key to church growth. 

For the past forty years volumes have been written about church growth.  Like anything, it’s been a mixed bag of worth-while material versus throw-away junk, and sound biblical advice versus flawed man-driven opinion.  While the Bible says a lot about what kind of people the church must become, it doesn’t give three, five or ten principles to grow a church. 

In a context where the church was dividing over their favorite preacher, Paul tried to paint the larger picture for congregants.  A year earlier, Paul planted the seed of the gospel in Corinth and growth began sprouting.  A church was established.  But sometime after he left the city, Apollos came through the city and his preaching captivated a segment of the church.  Captivated may be an understatement for a group of people gravitating toward charisma; they became hard core loyalists and questioned the leadership of Paul (1 Cor. 3:4). 

I don’t believe any animosity existed between Paul and Apollos, and the conflict was generated by a church with a propensity to divide.  However, Paul’s approach was certainly not to undermine Apollos’ preaching, but to accentuate the bigger picture.  Sure Paul planted the seed of the Gospel in Corinth, and Apollos came in after him to water the seed, but God was responsible for the growth (1 Cor. 3:6).  To make sure his point was clear, he reiterated what he said, “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (1 Cor. 3:7).  Drawing from the agricultural imagery, the amazing and almost magical process of growth is less about who the farmer is or what he does, and more about the God who created a world for growth.  One might argue that the farmer could ruin his crop, but he can’t grow his crop. 

While church growth is always God-given, the growth may very well be predicated on numerous factors.  One is the willingness for the church to embrace growth.  Most people talk about wanting the church to grow, but the steps it takes to implement a culture of growth can be challenging at best.  Growth means change, and the difficulty for a church to change is even more challenging.  How a church relates to each other when they are less than a hundred is quite different from a church that is 400 members.  The decision-making made in smaller churches is a different process than the one in larger churches. 

Another factor is whether or not the church will embrace the community they are planted in, even more so if the community has experienced a demographic shift.  The issue was huge when I lived in Memphis (1990-93), and no doubt is still prevalent today.  Many communities were in the process of a racial demographic shift.  Some churches refused to make the shift, while others graciously explored the opportunity for growth.  Even still, some members of these churches sought other churches to avoid a racially mixed worship. 

A church that is growing is doing a lot to prep the soil and to plant the seed.  They nurture the seedling with water, sunlight and nutrients.  Ultimately, the results are up to God, because he’s the one who causes the growth.  Since he’s the one who causes the growth, maybe he should get the glory too. 

Soli Deo Gloria!
(i.e. only God is glorified!)