The Growing Church
6-27-04
THE GROWING CHURCH
God wants us to reach our world. The past two weeks I have told you about the principles of Purpose and Action that are necessary for us connect with our world. Today I want to talk to you about the principle of Growth. One of the ways God wants us to reach our world is by growing.
A young single woman who was a fairly new Christian attended our first Saturday night service last January. The following week she phoned me to set up a time when we could get together to talk about the church. I gladly made an appointment with her and a couple of days later we sat down in my office to talk. This young woman wanted to know what we believed as a church and she wanted to know where the church is going and what we are seeking to accomplish. She had been attending another church but some experience was motivating her to look for a new community of Christians to join. The conversation was flowing nicely and she asked how many members the church had. When I told her that last year’s average attendance was about 350 people a week, she was obviously startled. The church she had been attending is a church of a couple thousand people and 350 seemed really small to her. Of course size is a matter of a person’s perception and experience, but people who have little experience with church expect an effective church to be a large church. For them, if it’s not very big, it must not be very good.
There is something very inviting and motivating about growth. Where something is growing, it seems to say that something worthwhile is going on there. Perhaps you have noticed the motto that the city of Huber Heights has adopted. We are no longer just the largest community of all brick homes in America. The new motto is on the city signs that have been put up in the last year or so. The motto is: “Come Grow With Us.” It’s probably not the sharpest motto in the country, but no city wants to say “Come join our static community.” That sounds downright boring. Neither do we want to say “join our dwindling community.” That sounds quite depressing. How about: “You’ll love it here. Nothing ever grows.” That sounds like a desert. Growth indicates life. It’s impossible for anything dead to grow. Whatever is not growing may not be altogether dead, but it’s certainly facing that direction.
The church that reaches our world is a growing church. If there is no growth, it means no one has been reached. The Growing Church Counts on God to Grow His Church, Cooperates With Growing and even does what it can to Compel Growth.
Count On God to Grow His Church
Last week I said that we must not ask God to bless what we’re doing, but to do what He’s blessing. If you want to be close to God, you need to get involved in growing His church because that’s where He is. That’s what He’s doing. He said...
“I will build my church; and all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it.” [Matthew 16:18, Living Bible]
I want you to be clear about what God is saying with that statement. It is really a very militant statement. When I was a child and a youth and even as a young adult, I understood that statement to mean that God’s church will stand through every attack the enemy makes upon it. Maybe you’ve also thought that’s what that statement means like I did. Although that idea is true, it’s not what Jesus said. It’s not that the gates of hell can’t knock down the church. What Jesus said is that the gates of hell will fall down when the church comes knocking. That implies that the church is not standing still. God’s church is on the move. God is building His church and it is expanding. It is growing. When it expands all the way to hell, it takes over even there.
The enemy is actually powerless to stop God’s people marching on.
“God’s Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world.” [1 John 4:4, New Century Version]
It’s great to know you are part of an invincible enterprise. There’s real hope in that, but (as if that’s not enough) God’s church is not just invincible, it’s also prolific. It is productive, fruitful and full of life. Because God’s church is so completely full of life it always grows and it grows abundantly. Jesus put it this way...
“How can we show what the kingdom of God is like? To what can we compare it? It’s like a mustard seed planted in the ground. The mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds on earth. However, when planted, it comes up and becomes taller than all the garden plants. It grows such large branches that birds can nest in its shade.” [Mark 4:30-32, God’s Word]
God’s church may start out small in some places at some times, but it never stays that way. God’s church always grows. There are some other creations of God that are like His church. They are also always growing as long as they are alive. Reptiles are this way and so are trees. Every year a tree is alive it adds a ring of growth. It gets larger. It is part of the tree’s nature to continue growing. It is also part of the nature of God’s church to grow because God made it this way. A religious congregation that never grows may be some kind of church, but it’s not God’s church, because God’s church grows. God calls His church to grow. He cultivates His church for growth and He causes it to grow. Count on it.
The book of Acts in the New Testament traces the growth of the church from its beginning through it first few years. I want you to see this amazing record. On the first day of the church...
“about three thousand were added to their number that day.” [Acts 2:41]
“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” [Acts 2:47]
“... the number of men grew to about five thousand.” [Acts 4:4]
“more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.” [Acts 5:14]
“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing...” [Acts 6:1]
“The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” [Acts 6:6]
“Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.” [Acts 9:31]
“The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.” [Acts 11:21] (Antioch)
“for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.” [Acts 11:26]
“the word of God continued to increase and spread.” [Acts 12:24] (Jerusalem)
“There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.” [Acts 14:1] (Iconium)
“They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples.” [Acts 14:21] (Lystra)
“So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.” [Acts 16:5] (Asia Minor)
“Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.” [Acts 17:4] (Thessalonica)
“Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” [Acts 17:12] (Berea)
“many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.” [Acts 18:8]
“all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.” [Acts 19:10]
“And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia.” [Acts 19:26]
The history of the church is a picture of it growing. Growth is the rule for God’s church. All through the New Testament God is depicted as the farmer, the investor, the one giving talents for people to use while He continues other business opportunities. God grows His church.
“All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.” [Colossians 1:6]
The growing church Counts on God to Grow His Church, but we also have to...
Cooperate With Growing God’s Church
God is very concerned about it. One small incident in the last week of Jesus’ life reveals what He thinks about failure to grow and produce.
“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’” [Mark 11:12-14]
The Bible says that in a matter of hours--in less than a day--this tree withered and died. You might think that Jesus was being unreasonable and harsh to curse the tree for not having figs when it was not the season for figs. It’s true that it wasn’t fig season, but you need to understand that the leaves of this kind of tree always came on after the new crop of figs had already started growing. Since the leaves were there, the immature, unripe fruit should have been there already but there wasn’t any.
Jesus demonstrated that there is no reason to keep a fruit tree that fails to fulfill it’s created purpose of growing fruit. God expects fruitfulness from what He has created. He created all living things to grow and to be productive. The church is part of the creation He expects to grow and be productive.
“I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” [John 15:16]
“When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” [John 15:5, the Message]
“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” [John 15:8]
It seems pretty clear that God wants us His church to grow and to grow bountifully. All the church has to do is stay connected to Him. Connected to God the church produces. If a church is not producing, it is not connected to Him.
Jesus communicated this naturally productive growth idea a number of ways and times. Another time Jesus said...
“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain...” [Mark 4:26-28]
Growth is normal for vegetation. It doesn’t have to try to grow. The fact that it is alive means that it grows. It happens all by itself because it was created by God to do that. You can see the truth of this in your own lawn. You may do things to cause it to grow more because you like a lot of green in your lawn, but it’s going to grow even if you don’t do a thing. That’s the way God made it. And that’s the same way God made the church. He made it to grow.
“The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit.” [Isaiah 55:10-11]
If there is no growth, there is something wrong. If my tomato plants don’t grow, I check the water they are getting, I put fertilizer in the soil and I attempt to eliminate any bugs that may be eating away at them. I expect my tomato plants to grow and eventually produce some delicious tomatoes, because that’s what they’re planted in my garden for. I rightfully get concerned if my tomato plants don’t grow.
Parents take their infant child to the doctor for regular check ups to maintain the child’s health. If there is something wrong, the parents want to know as soon as possible so the child can be treated. At every one of those early visits to the doctor--at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months--the doctor weighs the baby, measures the child’s head and measures its length. If the baby is not growing in size at each successive examination, the doctor performs further tests to determine what’s wrong because failing to grow is not normal. Parents can almost go berserk over the a child’s failure to grow and then they do go beserk when they grow into teenagers.
We should have as much concern for the church as we do for our children. We should care as much about the church as we care about our flowers and tomatoes? God does.
We need to correct whatever gets in the way of the church’s growth, and one of the things that can hinder growth is our expectation or lack of expectation of growth. God will do in us what we believe He can do.
“According to your faith will it be done to you” [Matthew 9:29]
The expectations of the people in Jesus’ hometown resulted in Him not doing miracles there.
“Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked. ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.’ And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.’” [Matthew 13:54-58]
What do we expect God to do here? What God does or does not do is effected by our expectations as a church. Too many people don’t expect God to do anything exceptional. Too many people expect things to always be relatively the same. God calls us to have expectations of Him.
“We must believe that God is real and that he rewards everyone who searches for him.” [Hebrews 11:6, Contemporary English Version]
We must eliminate all that hinders growth and we must cooperate with all that enhances it. When we are doing what’s right, the church grows.
“So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love.” [Ephesians 4:16, Good News Bible]
The growing church cooperates with God growing it, and the growing church will...
Compel God’s Church to Grow
I know that in ourselves we can’t make anything grow--especially God’s church. God makes things grow. God created life that grows.
“God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow.” [1 Corinthians 3:6-7, The Message]
I know that I can’t absolutely make my children, or my wife, or my friends, or anybody do anything. I don’t even have a pet that I can make do what I want. Even an animal, though well trained, will only do what it determines itself to do. We can only control ourselves. We do not control any other living thing. But we do have persuasion, influence, example and many other tools to use to attempt to effect outcomes. Whatever we have, God does expect us to use in the process of growing His church--even the strong kind of persuasion He says is compelling.
Jesus told a story about a great banquet a man gave. Jesus’ story was an explanation of what God’s Kingdom is like. When people refused the host’s invitation to come to His banquet like the religious people of Jesus’ day refused God’s invitation to come into His Kingdom, the host still wanted to fill his banquet hall.
“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.” [Luke 14:23]
God wants us to fill His house and His house is not this building. His house is His Kingdom which is not limited by walls or anything else. There’s plenty of room for every person who ever has or ever will draw a breath. He wants us to compel the church to grow. We’re still learning and we’re experimenting and we have a long way to go, but we must do everything we can to grow and not settle for what we have. When Dr. Elmer Towns first listed the 100 largest churches in America in 1967, only 98 of the 100 largest churches in the US had an average attendance of more than one thousand a week. Today there are 8,000 churches that have over 1,000 people attending each week. There has been an explosion of growth in many churches in the United States. I believe we can be part of this spiritual explosion.
Now, when we talk like this, some people complain that “all you care about is numbers.” What I want to ask is: ‘What is the alternative?’ Should we not care about numbers? Every number represents a person. God wants His house to be as full of people as is possible. God wants His church to be more than full. He wants it to be overflowing with people that will be with Him for all eternity. Luke chapter 15 is all about people who are away from God--people who do not know Him. Jesus said a woman who had 10 extremely valuable coins lost one of them. If we shouldn’t care about numbers, why does Jesus tells us how many coins she had? If we don’t care about numbers it wouldn’t matter how many we do or don’t have. That woman was not content with 9 of her 10 extremely valuable coins, and God is not content with the number of souls in His Kingdom either. So neither should we be content.
We must compel God’s church to grow. Jesus also told about the Shepherd who was not content with 99 of 100 of his sheep. He told about the father who was not content with only having 1 of his 2 sons. Every responsible parent feels exactly the same way. It’s happened to every family at some time. My wife grew up in a family of 9 children. Once on a trip they stopped at a gas station and like “Home Alone” failed to count noses correctly and drove off without one of the younger ones. When my in-laws discovered the mistake, they didn’t say, “Oh, well. We’ve got 8 out of 9 kids. That’s plenty. We don’t have a lot of room here and it’s awfully expensive to raise 9 kids anyway.” Of course not. They immediately turned the car around, drove extra miles in their trip to backtrack to where they had left their child and ended up later to their destination than they otherwise would have been. They did whatever it took because that one child like every one of their children mattered to them. And every single one of God’s lost children matter to Him. He has given us the responsibility to do everything we can to bring them back to Him. Like the apostle Paul we must truthfully say...
“I do everything I can to win everyone I possibly can.” [1 Corinthians 9:22, Contemporary English Version]
Some one did something that put you in a position to know Jesus. You are worth it. Your family members are worth it. Your friends are worth it. Your neighbors are worth it. Your co-workers are worth it.