Grace, Faith & Life

Chuch Growth

by Theophilos on Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:56 am

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……

Copyright © 1996 – 2008 Theophilos and gflstudy.org web site. All rights reserved.

via GFL Study Forum • View topic – Chuch Growth.

Church Muddle

by Theophilos on Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:10 pm

We usually speak of the church as the building, or as a group of people in “the” building who are all “born again” and have a common understanding of their faith.

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The Church, which is the spiritual body of Christ in the New Testament, is not the same as our denominational “Christian” churches.

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I have heard of statements from prominent preachers that “ninety percent of the people in churches are not saved”. I am not sure I agree with this. I will agree that ninety percent of the people in churches don’t exhibit an understanding of what it means to be “in Christ”. I attribute much of the blame for this on what new Christians are taught. Being “in Christ” is spiritual, how do people learn to understand their spiritual relationship with God when they are taught organizational planning, and denominational doctrines and methods?There are many different types of believers in every local denominational congregation.

There are a few who are “born again” believers who understand grace and live according to the grace of God.

There are those who live according to law and works,

There are those who are “burned out” on denominational striving and manipulation and are now inactive.

There are those who are false believers and teachers, messengers of Satan.

There are those who don’t know who they are in Christ. All they do is attend a worship service.

There are a few who are still searching.

The first, second and fourth groups are the ones who are very active in the church. They may represent only ten percent of the church, while the third and fifth groups may represent as much as ninety percent of the church. The second and fourth groups will always want to be in control of everything. Another view of this model is shown in the “Three Types of Christians” study.

Most people “attend” church rather than develop personal relationships with other Christians.

They attend church for something other than spiritual reasons.

Most are attending for what they get out of it, as kind of a shallow hope that they won’t go to Hell, or as a place to be involved which is a little different from their secular life. They are there for a secular type of relationship (entertainment and activites), not for a closer spiritual walk with the Lord.

Many “churches” are like secular organizations, kind of like a community service club. They are running an organization the same way the “world” runs a business. They sell the church with programs and promotions. They become purpose driven rather than Spirit lead. Many churches are simply a group of people who like the charisma of the pastor.

Many people are attending church as a religious thing, and they control how involved they become. They want it that way. They don’t want to get too close to God. They don’t want a personal relationship with Christ which means He is with them all day, every day.

They believe that their secular life must be primary, or they won’t be able to keep up. Their church life is some relief from the stress in the world and an indication that they are searching for something and at the same time they are afraid to get too close to it.

Their spiritual life is void, because they don’t know how to experience it. They have been taught many “cliche” doctrines, which allows them to pretend to be as close to God as any one else. They have not been taught how to win the battle between the spirit and the flesh, and experience the Holy Spirit in their life.

These people have a special need. They are a mission field. Scripture

How do we know them? By what motivates them (their attitude) and their concern for others.

Do they have a desire to share the gospel.

Do they have a desire to minister to the spiritual needs of others, helping to assimilate visitors into their fellowship.

Do they seek to get involved with the hardships of others?

Do they tend to emphasize their spiritual gifts rather than spiritual maturity in love.

Do they promote physical things, such as organization, growth, buildings, motivational methods, entertainment, rather than how to understand their spiritual relationship with Christ.

Do trials cause them to fall apart emotionally or morally, to get mad at God and others, or does it draw them closer to God and others.

We need to teach scripture in terms of church problems which Paul addressed (we have all the same problems, but we don’t try to deal with them) and teach on how to have a spiritual relationship with Christ and others, not on church activity, motivation and ministry.

Our life in Christ and in the church with brothers and sisters in Christ, should be the best thing in our life.

When we preach, teach and learn the spiritual, everything else happens in the right way. Christianity is spiritual. If we don’t learn to walk in the spirit and talk in the spirit, what we do is nothing.

Copyright © 1996 – 2008 Theophilos and gflstudy.org web site. All rights reserved.

via GFL Study Forum • View topic – Church Muddle.