Growing as a Church

Introduction

We all know that Harvest hills is not a mega-church. We have seen times in our history when we were much bigger than we currently are. Having been here during one of those times when the church was larger than it is now, I remember what it was like. With a bigger church there are more things that can be done; there are more resources to do things, but on top of all that it seems like there is energy in the church. You could be tempted coming into a church that doesn’t have any other families in it to think you don’t belong at a certain church or if you were a single adult, wondering if you could have any friends in the church if there are no other singles. Size matters. Size can impact how people feel received and find belonging in a Church.

A Healthy church is a reproducing church. A healthy church is a growing church. Imagine a child being born and they never grown an inch, so now you have a 25 year old man and he is the size of a baby. We would all agree that something is wrong medically with him. We don’t need an expert doctor to come in and inform us that there is a problem. It is obvious to everyone.

However, there are churches that are so big that they cannot be effectively pastored. Generally people go to those churches because they want to disappear in the crowd. People can feel just as disconnected in the crowd as they do at a tiny church. So Size is not all that matters. Some churches are all about numbers and others will never mention it at all. I think it is important that Luke does mention numbers as he relates the growth of the Church in the book of Acts. That means they cannot be unimportant, but what is really interesting is to look at what caused the growth of the church in each of these passages.

Church Growth Models-

1. Empathize with seekers- became commercialism “Seeker sensitive churches sought to give the people something that they wanted. Worship became contemporary but in turn morphed into entertainment. Preaching on sin became less because visitors don’t want to be told they are living in sin. Churches did whatever they needed to do to get people in and never asked whether this was right and consistent with the character of God. The ends justified the means.

2. Challenge the controllers who want to sidetrack the ministry- pastors become the new controllers The solution to people trying to get the preeminence in the church is not to make the pastor into a dictator. A pastor leads by example not by edict.

3. eliminate committees because they slow you down- centralizes power in only the leadership- Wisdom is found in a multitude of counselors and so a ministry who shuts down all other voices again can become dictatorial and one sided.

4. Transform clergy from professionals into approachable, likable role models- Being a celebrity became more important than credibility- There is a sense in which a pastor should be likable and approachable. He should shepherd and feed his people like a shepherd feeds his lambs. But in todays church growth models, the pastor has become a marketer and a celebrity. Pastors are wearing 3000 shoes just to maintain an image.

There are a lot of things we could do and they probably would be successful at drawing in a crowd, but we must always be faithful to God’s word. Often times numerical growth comes at the cost of spiritual growth. Growth must be measured in more than just numbers. Optimal growth is growth where the church grows spiritually as well as numerically. This ought to be out goals

Truett Cathy- Must get better before we get bigger

This ultimately is the truth behind all of the passages in the bible that talk about Church growth. When God did something in the life of the church spiritually, then they grew numerically. I don’t think this is a promise especially in light of the fact that we are approaching the end of time and there will be a great falling away, but I have to believe that God wants people to be saved and if we are doing what we should be doing for the Lord, He will give us fruit. You will not hear me preach a ton of sermons on church growth in my ministry because it is not mentioned in the scriptures a whole lot, but now that I am preaching on it, I want us to make sure our understanding of church growth is grounded in the word of God. So we are going to look at all the passage where growth is mentioned in the book of acts and ask ourselves what caused the church to grow.

I. A Growing Church will be a Spirit Filled Church

We have already covered the first two texts of the message today, but I want to focus in on a concept we may have been tempted to overlook in our reading. As we worked through the story of Pentecost there may have been on detail we didn’t put enough emphasis on in the story and that is the result. Prior to Pentecost, there were 120 Christians. Easily a small enough group for the government and the Jews to ignore, but these 120 People were committed to prayer and unity and in Acts 2 in fulfillment of the promise made by Jesus, the Spirit came down and filled them.

We saw that the evidence of the filling of the Spirit on Pentecost was wind, fire and tongues but that was not the only evidence nor is it the normal evidence of the filling of the Spirit. They were compelled to praise God Acts 2:11 “Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” and to preach the word of God Acts 2:14 “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:” Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

The result of the events of Pentecost are found in Acts 2:41 “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” God added to the church 3000 souls. This is phenomenal growth from 120 to 3120 approximately. But what caused such growth?

A Spirit Filled Church that was praising God and preaching His word. This is a good place to start our message because if we are going to see church growth we must be filled with the Spirit. It is the Spirit that saves people not us and not our eloquence.

1 Cor 3:6-8 “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.”

John 16:8 “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:”

John 6:44 “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

We cannot grow the church on our own. The second thing we see here which is a product of being filled with the Spirit is preaching. The church will not grow if we do not preach the gospel and see others get saved. Sometimes churches grow because people change churches. That is great and I love the fact that we have people who come here because they find a home at our church. But we must also and more importantly see growth through the salvation of lost people and that does not happen without preaching the gospel. And as we saw in Acts 1, one of the evidences of being filled with the spirit is the bold proclamation of the gospel.

II. A Growing Church will be a Church that experiences real community

Within the same chapter we have another church growth statement.

Acts 2:47 “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

This is a summary and the result of vs 42-47 which we preached on last week. A church that experiences true community will see souls saved. People don’t just want to hear what you have to say; they want to know that you believe what you say. When they look at our lives and see something different in confirms the reality of our faith. Think of this illustration:

Imagine a lost person walks into church and sees a bunch of people who are fighting with each other or every conversation is gossiping, bickering, and fighting. There is tenseness in the air. Will that person be drawn to or repelled from Christ? Repelled. So a growing church must also be a place of authentic community where we are all seeking to love and grow each other in Christ.

III. A Growing Church will be a Holy Church

You know what else grows a Church? Church Discipline. You might take a double take here. you mean kicking people out of the church can cause the church to grow. People who are living in sin can have an effect on the church making to not be what God intended it to be. Gal 5:9 “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” The context here is that false teachers had joined the church and Paul says they had hinder them from obeying the truth. In Gal 5:12 “I would they were even cut off which trouble you.” Paul wishes that they would be cut off from the church. Condoning evil in the church allows it to spread and forfeit the blessing of God on the Church.

Also logically, the world knows when there is sin in the church and it becomes a blight on the reputation of the church. 1 Cor 5:1 “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.” 1 Cor 5:13 “But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”

This principle is perfectly illustrated in the story of Ananias and Sapphira. We know the story. Barnabas had sold all of his possessions so he could serve God and given them to the church. Ananias and Sapphira seeing the honor that he seemed to get desired to do the same thing. So they sold a piece of land and promised the money to the church, but when the time came to give it to the church they kept some of the money.

Peter confronts Ananias first who falls over and dies. Then his wife comes in and Peter questions her to make sure she was in on it and she lies too. Then she falls over dead as well.

Acts 5:11-14 “And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)” Tell us the results of these events.

Great fear came on all the church and the lost

The apostles were magnified- better reputation

people got saved- multitudes of both men and women- this is explosive growth. Whereas in the first two accounts it says the Lord added to the church, now he is adding by a lot.

Why did this cause growth? because people knew God was real and not someone to be trifled with. If we preach that the wages of sin is death and the second death is an eternity in the lake of fire, people should fear God. but when they see God via the church deal with sin; it becomes personal.

IV. A Growing Church will have Servant Leaders

Our final point tonight because I have divided this message into two is that the church will grow when it has goldy servant leaders. The point here is that the pastor cannot do everything. Having other men who can minister to the physical and spiritual needs of the people will amplify growth in the church. The text we are going to look at for this point is found in:

Acts 6:1-7 “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the prie…”

This is the story of the calling of the first deacons. Deacon’s in the early church were not primarily administrators although the did some of that. We would also say they weren’t primarily preachers although we see Philip and Stephen both doing that. They were servants. Godly men, spirit filled men, honest men who served God and the people.

Notice in the text, Luke uses a different word than he has used in the texts so far. Instead of saying God added to the church, it says the number of the disciples multiplied. Numerical growth is slow when it is just one on one, but when I begin to multiply then growth happens a lot faster.

Here were qualified men who could minister to the people and join alongside the elders of the church to preach the gospel and disciple the believers and it says the result was that the number of the disciples multiplied. Key word here was disciples. A disciple is one who is saved, follows Christ and is being trained or taught everything that Christ has commanded. Matthew 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Literally says go therefore and make disciples of every nation. Ordaining deacons resulted in more disciples. But it also resulted in Multiplication. To illustrate how this works I am going to call some of you up here to help me:

Use illustration of multiplication growth

Conclusion:

Growth in the church follows two different tracks: spiritual growth and numerical growth. Often times people will get the cart before the horse and promote numerical growth instead of spiritual growth, but ultimately numerical growth results from true spiritual growth in our lives. In all of these passages and the one’s we will be looking at next week, we see a healthy, vibrant church that is growing and producing labourers to send into the field.

The argument that some will give against talking about growth is that Jeremiah preached for many years and saw no results. We face a similar situation today where we are preaching to a stubborn and rebellious generation. They may be correct. I don’t think our goal should be numbers but neither should it be a lack of numbers. A sign of true spiritual growth is that we are seeking to grow the Kingdom of God and see souls saved. So the attitude that says its not that big a deal is wrong and what we must avoid is the extremes on both sides of the spectrum. As I said, I will not be preaching on numbers that often because it is not mentioned that much in scripture, but I want to lay this foundation in these two messages because the book of Acts is all about the spread of the Church throughout the world. Numbers are not all important but they are not unimportant either.