The Definition of Church Growth
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We have come to the end of our paragraph here in Ephesians 4. For most of our time in this text we have been answering the question, “What causes growth?”
A healthy unified body (vv. 1-6)
The gifts of our ascended Lord Jesus (vv. 7-10)
The shepherd/teachers equipping (vv. 11-12)
All of the saints participating (v. 12)
All of these factors cause growth. This is God’s plan for church growth.
Now we turn our attention to the question, “What is growth?”
Sometimes in the life of a church there is an external growth that takes place. One can observe things like an increase in attendance, membership, financial resources, ministry programs, mission works supported, facilities, and even parking lots.
Sometimes churches experience periods of plateau or decline in some of these markers. Attendance goes down, finances go down, missionary support stays at a static level, building expansion phases remain as a drawing on a poster board…
Do these indicators mean that the church is not growing? Can a church still grow if none of these other things are evident?
How does the Bible define real church growth?
I believe we find an answer to this question in Ephesians 4.
Paul wanted the Ephesians to understand how to accurately measure church growth.
We must understand how to accurately / that is biblical / measure church growth.
How do we accurately measure church growth?
I believe Paul provides for us several goals of church growth and these ultimate goals, even though we have not fully realized any of them yet, become tangible markers for determining or measuring real growth in the church.
Growth Marker #1:
I. Growth is measured by how well the body has practically attained unity (13a)
I. Growth is measured by how well the body has practically attained unity (13a)
Unity has been a very important topic for Paul in this letter to the Ephesians.
Paul explained in detail that our unity was marvelously provided for us by Christ’s death on the cross in Ephesians 2:11-22.
If you remember back to our first sermon in this series, back to our first “one another” statement Paul commanded us to maintain the unity of the Spirit.
Significant Statement: We promise to be proactive in maintaining and restoring unity with one another (Eph. 4:2-3)
Here in our text we are told that we must not only maintain this unity by attain it as well.
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
Remember the context of this paragraph.
Back in v. 11 Paul stated that Christ gave the church certain gifts.
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
Why did Christ give these gifts to the church?
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Now beginning in v. 13 Paul states the goals of Christ giving these gifts.
We see that in the beginning phrase.
Ephesians 4:13 (ESV)
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
The conjunction, UNTIL, has the idea of time. Something will take place until, that is over a period of time.
This conjunction could depend upon the immediately preceeding phrase…
(12) To equip the saints
for the work of ministry
for the building up of the body of Christ
(13) until we all attain…
So the working of the saints, that is namely, the building up of the body of Christ will continue until we all attain certain goals.
Or perhaps better, “until we all attain” modifies the verb, “He gave” back in v. 11
(11) And he (Christ) gave ....
(13) until we all attain
So the gifts that Christ gave to the church will continue until we all attain certain goals.
I lean toward this second possibility.
The verb “we all attain” has the idea of reaching a certain condition or arriving at a certain goal.
So Christ has given gifts to the church, until the church body as a whole arrives at a certain goal or goals as it were.
What are these goals that Christ wants the church to attain?
Ephesians 4:13 (ESV)
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
In the Greek Paul uses certain prepositions to clearly indicate for us the goals that we are to attain.
First of all Paul says, we as a church body, are to attain unto the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.
And here is our word unity again!
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Unity inaugurated
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Unity maintained
And now we have unity attained.
That is the goal that Christ has set for His church. We are all of us to attain unto unity.
Notice it is the unity of the faith.
I think Paul is using this phrase to describe to objective content of the faith. This is a reference to what we all believe rather than our own individual activity of believing. The object of our faith—Jesus Christ— is what provides of us our unity.
Notice it is also the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God.
The word “knowledge” is a strong word for knowing something. It is not simply information, but knowledge towards a particular object. It is perceiving, discerning, and recognizing truth about the Son of God.
This is what we all need to practically attain. Unity that is on the basis of our shared faith in and knowledge of the Son of God.
The goal is for this kind of unity in our church to be not just a positional unity! Do you know what I mean?
When someone trusts Christ they are justified. That is they are declared righteous. They have a positional righteousness before God. They can now stand in the very presence of God blameless and with boldness, not because of their own righteousness, but because positionally they have been robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But practically speaking they are still really rough around the edges. That’s where sanctification comes in. Sanctification is the process where the Spirit enables us to not only have a positional righteousness but a practical righteousness. That is, our lives change and become more like Jesus.
The same is true of our unity with one another. We have a positional unity because Christ made us all one through the cross. We are commanded to do everything we can to maintain that unity as a church. But, we must also attain that unity as well. That is the positional unity that we have in Christ must become a practical unity within the church as well.
And how is that possible? By growing our oneness in our commonly held faith and by growing our oneness in our deep and personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As we grow in our understanding of these things together we will become more and more unified in a very real and tangible way.
And that is one of the key growth markers of a church. Is our church growing? Well how much unity do we really have?
Well, we all like the Brewers or the Packers. Well, we all vote the same way. Well, we all like the same dishes at the potluck. Those things are all well and good, but do we all believe the same way about Jesus? Do we all know Jesus on a deep and personal level.
Don’t think individually here. We are so tempted to do that in our Western mindset. Think corporately. We must ALL attain unto the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. That is why Christ gave us gifts. That is why we work so hard at doing ministry. This is the goal we are striving for.
Here is another good illustration:
1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
That is where real practical unity comes from. Did you catch it?
He goes before them, and the sheep do what? Follow HIM!
Functional / Practical Unity!
We cannot create unity, Jesus did that for us.
We can only maintain the unity we currently have, and we can attain a deeper level of practical unity that is already ours because of Christ.
One day, in glory, we will all of us have that perfect unity. But, until then we can attain unto the unity of the faith and the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God.
When we all follow after Jesus together, and we practically grow in our faith and our knowledge of Him, we attain a deeper unity on a very practical level.
Do we have this kind of unity in our church?
Why or why not? Well, the work that we have been gifted to do with each other is to build up the body of Christ. To cause each other to grow in our faith and in our knowledge of Christ.
How are you helping the person sitting next to you, or in front of you, or on the opposite side of the room as you accomplish that goal?
And if in 5 years we still don’t have an expanded auditorium but we have increased in practical unity then we have still grown as a church!
How do we accurately measure church growth?
Growth marker #1: Practical unity
Growth Marker #2:
II. Growth is measured by how well the body has practically attained maturity (13b-14)
II. Growth is measured by how well the body has practically attained maturity (13b-14)
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
Christ has given the church gifts. And those gifts will remain until we all, that is the entire body, attain something- until the entire body of Christ arrives at a certain goal.
Not only do we seek to arrive at the goal of the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God,
But we also seek to arrive at the goal of mature manhood, we seek to arrive at the goal of reaching the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Firstly Paul describes this marker of church growth as mature manhood.
Mature manhood- is the idea of becoming a mature person. It is someone who has reaching their full nature growth or development.
The contrast in I Corinthians 14:20 is helpful to understand this word:
20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
Be full-grown, be adult-like in your thinking. Don’t be like children.
12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
This area of maturing was one of the most important matters on the mind of Paul and his ministry team. Epaphras always struggled in his prayers for the church in Colosse that they would stand mature!
28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Presenting church saints mature in Christ involves teaching and requires wisdom.
And this mature manhood is one of the goals of the church.
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
Again, restrain your western individualistic brain here. This goal is applied to the church as a whole. The goal is for the whole body to grow to be come a mature person. From the youngest to the oldest and everyone in between, the goal for the body is adult-like maturity.
Paul uses this term in a theological or a spiritual sense. He is not talking about physical maturity, but spiritual maturity as evidenced by the next prepositional phrase.
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Here is another descriptive phrase describing the goal of the church. The goal, again for the whole church, is that every member attain unto the measure of a stature.
The word stature can be used for physical stature or height.
3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.
It can also be used for physical age.
11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
Or it can be used for the age which is sufficient or requisite for certain things, and thus maturity.
21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”
So in our text
Ephesians 4:13 (ESV)
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
The measure of the stature is a play on the idea of physical height.
Illustration: Growth chart
Yet the idea of growing to reach the full height of Jesus is speaking of not physical height, but spiritual height or spiritual maturity—thus the last part of the verse.
To the measure of the stature of the FULLNESS of Christ.
Remember, we have run into this word fullness before.
10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
“The church is Jesus’ active presence on the earth.” — Dean Tylor
How does the church become the fullness of Jesus on the earth?
How does the church become the active presence of Jesus on the earth?
By attaining unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
That is, every single member in the body of our church, must attain unto Christ’s full stature. We must all reach full height, that is spiritual maturity, which is represented by Christ’s completeness or fullness.
And when that happens that we actually practically become the fullness of him who fills all things. When that happens we are used by God so that Christ might fill all things. And that is the goal of the church. We must all attain unto full grown spiritual maturity.
When this actually happens notice one of the results in v. 14
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Notice the contrast- when we reach mature manhood, when we attain unto the measure which is Christ’s full stature— then the result is we are no longer like children.
And why don’t we want to be like children in our level of spiritual maturity?
Because children demonstrate a level of instability in their faith.
They are like one who is tossed back and forth by the waves of the sea. They are like one who is blown around by every wind of doctrine (false doctrine), the kind of false doctrine that originates from human cunning and from craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Mature believers do not allow this to happen to them. Why? Because they have been grounded in truth. They have attained to the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God. They have grown up. They are mature people who have attained unto the measure of the fulness of the maturity of Christ.
And this is one of God’s markers of church growth. Are we a growing church? Well what is growth? Growth happens when the whole body attains practical spiritual maturity.
So again, even if our attendance does not go up from one year to another, if the body as a whole attains practical spiritual maturity then growth has occured.
By the way, usually when a church body become mature spiritually, when they grow spiritually then inevitable numerical growth is sure to follow. Why? Because there is no better witness for the gospel than a mature believer in Jesus Christ. Mature believers become like Christ in every way, and that includes how they share their faith. If become like Jesus you will be greatest possible evangelist for the gospel. But we can’t flip the horse with the cart.
Spiritual maturity is the goal of the church, and a natural result of that maturity will be things like an increase in attendance, membership, financial resources, ministry programs, mission works supported, facilities, and even parking lots.
Do we have this kind of church? Have we created a culture where helping everyone in the body attain practical spiritual maturity is the norm?
What kind of culture might best facilitate this kind of growth? What if we provided tools and resources for everyone in the church to sit down together and study the Scriptures so that they can attain spiritual maturity? What if we encouraged the more mature saints to disciple the less mature saints in the church with the goal of spiritual maturity? Does that sound like a Scriptural idea? Does that sound like it would significantly help us accomplish Ephesians 4:13?
Am I helping or hindering growth in my church?
How can I help my church be a growing body according to this text?
How do we accurately measure church growth?
Growth marker #1: Practical unity
Growth marker #2: Practical maturity
Growth Marker #3:
III. Growth is measured by how well the body has practically attained connectivity (15-16)
III. Growth is measured by how well the body has practically attained connectivity (15-16)
There is a stark contrast as we continue in our text.
Instead of being children, instead of being tossed around by waves, and blown about by the wind of the cunning, crafty, deceitful schemes of men— rather than that…
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
The main verbal idea in this text is that we might grow up in every way!
What is the direction of that growth? Into him who is the head—into Christ.
And what is the primary nutrient for a growing body? Speaking the truth in love.
This all connects back to the previous growth markers of our passage.
We are all meant to attain to the unity of the faith (the content of the faith), and the knowledge of the Son of God- what does that involve? Speaking the truth in love.
We are meant to attain mature manhood- to reach the full stature of Christlike maturity- what does that involve? Speaking the truth in love.
When we speak the truth to one another in love we cause the whole body to grow into Christ in every way.
But in order for this to happen there is one critical component that Paul mentions in v. 16.
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Christ is the head of the church, and we are His body. So the goal is that we grow up into him who is the head— that is Christ.
And from Christ the whole body is joined and held together. We are fitted and knit together.
The word joined together is the idea of fitting something together so as to form a coherent whole.
21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Illustration: Mr. Plumb making a new retaining wall out of stone at the parsonage. Each stone had to be joined or fitted together. Each stone had to be properly placed so that each flat surface of one stone would become closely connected to another stone. The stones need to become so well joined together that you cannot even fit a sheet of paper between them. And even though I have six energetic boys who put everything to the test, the wall still stands today. Those stones were skillfully joined together to form a coherent whole.
In our text in Ephesians 4 Paul does not use the illustration of a building, but of a body.
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
16ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα
From Him the whole body
συναρμολογούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον
(joined and held together) fitted and knit together
διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας
(by every joint with which it is equipped) by every ligament that servers for support
It is like Paul had one of those anatomical muscular charts that you see in doctor’s offices.
Example:
It is like Paul had one of these charts in front of him while he is writing this letter to the Ephesians.
Can you see how closely the the ball and socket of your shoulder fit together? And can you see all of the ligaments and joints that connect everything together so closely and cause your arm and your shoulder to function together in perfect harmony?
That is what the church ought to be like. That is one of the key markers of church growth. The church body must be closely fitted together, the body needs to be connected together like ligaments in the body that serve for support.
Why does the church need these close connections? Why does the church need to be fitted together?
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Our close connectedness as a church is critical to allow each part of our body to work or to function properly.
What good is your arm if it is disconnected from your shoulder? What good is it if it is dislocated out of the socket? Or the ligaments or tendons are torn? It becomes pretty useless doesn’t it? We have to put it in a sling or in a cast and it becomes unusable.
Every one of us in this church are like different parts of the body of Christ. Some of us are the hands, some the feet, some the eyes, some the ears, some the mouth. And every part is vital and important to allow the whole body to function properly. Our body is only effective when each part of the body is working properly. And in order for each part of the body to be working properly there needs to be a close connectedness. We all need to become fitted and knit together.
What is it exactly that causes each of us to be joined together? What connects us?
First of all our connectedness is made possible because of Christ. He has made us all one- positionally. But practically we need to actually become connected together. And I think that connectedness happens primarily through relationships. Relationships are the glue that connects us together as a church.
In order for the church to grow as it should people need to be closely connected to each other.
How connected? We must be close enough that we can speak the truth in love to each other. We must be close enough that we can open up to each other about our real struggles and pains. We must be close enough that we can pray genuinely for each other.
This doesn’t mean that you have to be best-friends with everyone in the church.
It does mean that we have to work hard at destroying barriers with each other. Forgiveness is essential. Branching out and getting to know everyone in your church is important. Refusing to form cliches or exclusive groups.
How do you form relationships with people? I know this is going to sound extreme… you have to spend time with each other. Sitting in church chairs facing the same direction, singing songs together does not form close knit relationships.
Example: 2025- fifth Sundays- small group fellowship opportunities.
How else can you form connectedness within our church?
Invite each other over for meals.
Have a bonfire in your backyard.
Meet for coffee.
Study the Bible together.
Pray together.
When we do this, when we become practically connected with each other, then we allow each part of the body to function as intended, then we all speaking the truth in love to each other seeking to grow up in every way into Christ who is our head. When the church functions this way what happens? This kind of practical connectivity makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Am I helping or hindering growth in my church?
How can I help my church be a growing body according to this text?
How do we accurately measure church growth?
Growth marker #1: Practical unity
Growth marker #2: Practical maturity
Growth marker #3: Practical connectivity
May the Lord help us to become, more and more, and growing church. May we each rightly understand what real biblical growth looks like. And may we all actively help our church be a growing body.