Grow the Church Or Be the Church?

Acts 1:7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

I have an issue with the church growth model that we try to follow in our churches. The term "church growth" has, in some ways, become the foundation for building the church, and it is one step away from where it should be. We must lead God's people first to "be the church," and then the church's growth will come, and it will be long and lasting. In the early church, they shared the gospel, discipled the new converts, and the church added people every day who were being saved. They did it right! If we use the modern-day model of "church growth," we usually end up just trading members, and the church with the biggest budget gets the church members from other churches to flock to their campus. But those people usually become casual members and do not get invested in being the church at that church. When this practice continues, the result is that an organized church has to use every gimmick possible to get people to come and sit in a Sunday School class and worship service. At that point, we also have to beg them for their money or guilt them into giving. There is not a lot of heart in doing either of those.

No sour grapes here. I believe there are many things we, as churches, do that are good. Just maybe not the best! There probably needs to be a mass discipleship effort given to all present church members to teach them how to live the born-again life and then have tools to send them out to win lost souls. Then, disciple those new converts and just keep sending. We don't need to go to Honduras or Africa to do this ministry. We can do it right here in America. There are plenty of lost people just waiting to hear the gospel and become disciples. Staff members should equip the membership to do the work of the Lord, and everything else will fall into place. If there is no vision, the people will fall away, and we have had too many visionless churches just go through the motions. Time for the church to come alive through born-again believers who have learned to "be the church."

The model the Apostle Paul used was awesome, and it is found in Ephesians 4:11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. It is time to be smart and do what God's Word says to do, and the church will rise and "be the church" instead of "just a church organization" like Lion's Club or the Jaycees. Those groups do good things, but they are not "the church."

If given the choice, which would you choose? Will you "grow a church" or "be the church?" They are different, by the way.

Today's Message,

David Warren