Church Growth

March 1, 2008 |

Author Theophilos

How do churches grow? For many people, growth in numbers is “the” measure of success.

There are many ways churches grow and sometimes it may even be due to the working of the Holy Spirit.

A charismatic motivational leader can motivate high achievers in the congregation to be part of making a “successful” enterprise. It doesn’t matter how.

Most of the “Mega” churches in America have written books and have leadership programs for how they did it.

There is a broad spectrum of believers in a congregation, from the truly born-again and mature Christians; to those who are immature, others who havn’t really gotten it yet, and those who are just committed to religious doctrine. This spectrum is not only in the level of their understanding of scripture and life in Christ, but also in the interpretation and meanng of various passages of scripture. Where each individual is in this spectrum, largely depends on the particular “path” of discipleship, or whether there ever was any real discipleship.

So, do highly motivational evangelistic outreach programs work for church growth? Yes, they can, given the time to develop that as the leadership model for the church.

Because of the diversity in thinking, there is always conflict between the leadership and certain segments of congregants. Just like the members of a union don’t all agree with the politics of there leadership. In the Gospels this conflict is seen between the jewish followers of Jesus and the Jewish leadership who wanted to get rid of Him.

This diversity conflict will be minimized over time as a church builds a consensus on the “core-values” of the church and the people either agree with that or leave.

The “core-values” of each member will not only be different from the leadership but also from each other. Everyone will have a slightly different view on how “it” should be done.

The goal for success is to have a congregation where the “core-members” are of “one accord” on what their “core-values” are. This takes time and consistency, discernment and fortitude. There will always be people with their own agenda who will want to change things. This can easily divert the energy away from the main thing. In some cases, it might be strong enough to cause a “fire-storm” of controversy.

Trying to move a church according to the “success” model of another church is a form of legalism. In order to develop as part of the Body of Christ, a church needs to identify spiritually gifted leaders rather than using just any one who wants to volunteer for key leadership positions. With this model, maybe the church will develop Holy Spirit inspired “core-values” rather than just charismatic motivational effort.

To have Spirit led motivation, the members come to understand that what they believe is really real for every area of their life. They are excited about what they believe, therefore it is “good news” for everyone else. This is the Gospel.

The “core-values” of a church can be Holy Spirit led or they can be motivated by the “flesh” just like an individual can walk in the Spirit or the “flesh”. The imaginations of the “flesh” for motivating are limitless.

But can’t we just get along with everyone, can’t we have something for everyone? No, we can’t. “core-values” means some are going to need to change.

The real measure is…… what do you think?

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