Church Growth: 5 Biblical Principles
In a world flooded with common trends it is no a surprise to see the
vast amount of self help books that have hit our shelves. There are self
help books written for weight loss, self esteem, aging, computers,
stress and almost every other problem that you could possibly face in
life. It is not difficult to find a book that promises you an effective
strategy and method to help you deal with your issues. If you happen to
visit a Christian bookstore I believe you will notice the same trend.
I began looking for specific books with the purpose of understanding
the biblical process of church growth. What I found was hundreds of
books offering do-it-yourself strategies and methods to help churches
effectively grow simply by implementing the techniques outlined in the
books. Each book was different and offered tactics that have effectively
worked in some churches, but of course there is no guarantee that it
will work in yours. It seems as though we can easily get caught up in
methods and quick growth strategies that pull us away from the true
biblical process and cause us to settle for methods that often leave us
high and dry.
I believe that God wants His church to grow and He has given clear
direction as to how this will take place. Gene Mims provides an outline
from scripture in his book, “Kingdom Principles for Church Growth” that
does not focus on new methods or strategies but instead focuses on
returning to the biblical principles of church growth. It is God who is
adding to his kingdom which continues to grow. We must find our place in
this growth by looking at the biblical process by which God increases
his kingdom. Gene outlines this divinely inspired growth process in what
he calls the 1•5•4 principle.
Just the other day I asked some of my students what the purpose of
the church was and we all sat in silence. In Matthew 28:16-20 Jesus gave
his disciples the great commission commanding them to make disciples.
Mims states that, “The Great Commission has been the driving force of
missions and evangelism for believers and churches in every generation
since the New Testament times.” The Great Commission is God’s mission
and should be the churches mission in the world as we follow Him. The
fact is there are a lot of people that would never guess that the actual
purpose of the church has anything to do with the great commission.
Maybe the reason many of them do not know is because so few of them
actually participate in fulfilling that purpose.
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” The
premise behind many of these self help books is the idea that you have
the ability to accomplish these things in your own power. Simply by
implementing the strategies you can effectively conquer major issues in
your life. We tend to get enamored with the idea that we can do things
ourselves which begins to hinder our reliance upon God. When it comes to
fulfilling the great commission however we have no authority or power,
it has not been given to us. All authority has been given to Christ and
it is only in Him that we can accomplish these things by His power and
authority.
“Go, therefore.” Jesus has declared that we must go; this is not
optional, it’s a command! Our purpose in God’s process of church growth
is to go and make disciples. We are going under the authority that has
been given to Jesus which means that we are not responsible for the
reaction of those who hear the gospel; however we are responsible for
sharing the message. Our responsibility is to make disciples and in the
midst of that process God promises that he will not leave us or forsake
us. The great commission is the one driving force for church growth.
News commentator Dan Rather has a good way of keeping his professional
objective always in mind. He says he looks often at a question he's
written on three slips of paper. He keeps one in his billfold, one in
his pocket, and one on his desk. The probing reminder asks, "Is what you
are doing now helping the broadcast?" - Our Daily Bread. As Christians
we should be asking the questions “Is what I am doing now helping to
fulfill the Great Commission?”
In most self help books there is not only a goal in mind but there is a
method that is given to help you reach that goal. The goal of the church
is fulfillment of the Great Commission, but are we simply left with this
command and no guidelines on how to accomplish this? Mims has come up
with five biblical principles that the church must do in order to grow.
The Great Commission is the 1 driving force behind kingdom growth
commanded by God and there are 5 biblical principles that the church
must corporately do to be obedient to the Lord. Mims reminds us that
this is God’s way of growing churches and building His kingdom in this
world.
These five principles are found in Acts 2:38-47. As you are turning in
your bibles to Acts chapter 2 listen to what the Word of the Lord says
in verses 38-41, “’Repent,’ Peter said to them, ‘and be baptized’ each
of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your
sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise
is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the
Lord our God will call.’ And with many other words he testified and
strongly urged them, saying, ‘Be saved from this corrupt generation!’ So
those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three
thousand people were added to them”
I believe it is safe to say that a church will not experience kingdom
growth if it is not active in evangelism. According to Mims New
Testament evangelism is defined as “the process of sharing the gospel
with lost persons and winning people to Christ enabling them to enter
the kingdom of God.” If the greatest thing that has ever happened to us
is the day we experienced salvation, then the greatest thing we could do
for someone else is share the gospel with them! It is evident in the
early church that the believers evangelized. Acts says “they urged
others to be saved from this corrupt generation” and the result was
church growth, “three thousand people were added to them.” We know that
God is in the business of saving people and we must join in Him in that
process as we share the gospel. God has chosen to redeem lost sinners
and we are the method for evangelizing the world. God has called us to
go and our obedience to Him will guarantee growth in His kingdom!
The second principle is discipleship. Acts 2:42-43 says, “And they
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the
breaking of bread, and to prayers. Then fear came over everyone, and
many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.”
Discipleship is defined as a “lifelong journey of obedience to Christ
that transforms a person’s values and behavior and results in ministry
in one’s home, church, and the world” (Mims). The Great Commissions says
we are to “teach them to obey all that I have commanded” and Acts says
that the people “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…” Once
again we are commanded to teach them, discipleship is not an option.
Three preachers got together for coffee one day and found all their
churches had bat-infestation problems. "I got so mad," said one, "I took
a shotgun and fired at them. It made holes in the ceiling, but did
nothing to the bats." "I tried trapping them alive," said the second.
"Then I drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to
the church." "I haven't had any more problems," said the third. "What
did you do?" asked the others, amazed. "I simply baptized them," he
replied. "I haven't seen them since." This is a funny story and yet it
sadly resembles our churches. We baptize a large number of people who
don’t come back. It is very easy to forget what it was like when we were
first saved, especially if we did not have a background in the church.
When a friend was baptized at 17 years old he knew nothing about church or how to
be a Christian. It took a lot of teaching and guidance from others to
get him to where he is today. This is the same thing we must do in the
lives of others who have come to Christ. We must teach them to love,
trust, and obey God instead of leaving them to figure it out on their
own as baby Christians. I do not believe that it is in God’s plan for
Christians to mature on their own, instead Christians mature as they
experience discipleship and practice discipleship with others.
The third principle for kingdom growth is fellowship. Acts 2:42,
46-47 says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to
fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. And every day they
devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke
bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and
simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.
And every day the Lord added those being saved to them.” The believers
evangelized, practiced discipleship, and devoted themselves to
fellowship and God continued to add to their number daily.
It is by God’s design that we have fellowship with one another. I
constantly hear the excuse that you don’t have to be at church in order
to worship God. I would not necessarily disagree with that statement,
but I would add that you do have to meet with the fellowship of
believers to be obedient to God. I know that in our church many of the
believers would define fellowship as having a big meal. We are Baptists
and we love our food! However, fellowship is far more than simply eating
or spending time together. Mims describes it as, “an essential function
of the church. Fellowship is the way members of a church express the
“oneness” they share in Christ.” Fellowship with God and each other is a
key to kingdom growth as seen in Acts as the people devote themselves to
it. “The desire for fellowship is the mark of a mature believer and a
mature congregation” (Mims).
Ministry is the fourth kingdom principle. Acts 2:44-45 says, “Now all
the believers were together and had everything in common. So they sold
their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as
anyone had a need.” Ministry is defined as “meeting another person’s
need in the name of Jesus, expressed as service to persons inside the
church family and expressed as missions to persons outside the church.”
(Mims) I believe that as we evangelize and disciple others and as we
devote our time to the fellowship we will begin to have compassion and
concern for others that allows ministry to flow naturally in our lives.
I was talking to a fellow believer today about the church and he
mentioned that he did not have anything that he could call his own type
of "ministry". As I thought about what he
said I realized that this is a man who spends the greater part of his
life devoted to the fellowship of believers. He gives of himself
sacrificially to anyone who has a need and is sensitive to others who
need help. He not only spends time meeting needs of those inside the
church but he also takes time to meet needs outside of the church as he
participates in missions. I believe that this person has a "ministry" or
"talent that he can use to the Lord's good" that
God has entrusted him with in the church, but he simply didn’t recognize
it. God provides the means by which we can minister and every single
believer is encouraged to "minister" both inside and outside of the church. If
believers are not participating in this then they fail to obey the
Lords command and stunt the growth of the church. Kingdom growth occurs
as people follow God’s divine process of evangelism, discipleship,
fellowship, and worship.
The fifth principle that a church must do in order to experience kingdom
growth and fulfill the great commission is worship. This is found in
Acts 2:46-47 as the early church “devoted themselves to meeting together
in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate
their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and
having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added those
being saved to them.” Worship is one of the most vital functions of the
church. It is “the response of believers to the presence, holiness, and
revelation of Almighty God.” (Mims) Often true worship is sacrificed for
schedules, traditions, and misleading focuses in our church services.
Though different styles of worship can help lead us in worship true
worship is less of a form and more of an experience. We worship God when
we experience Him in a meaningful, spiritually transforming way. (Mims)
When a church member can walk out of a service and simply say “well that
was nice” untransformed then worship probably did not occur. On the
other hand, when people leave a worship service with no doubt that they
have been in the presence of the Lord and they are spiritually
transformed leaving the building different than when they came in you
can rest assured worship took place in their lives. This encounter with
God is essential in the church, worship must take place in order for
kingdom growth to occur. I believe we spend an inordinate amount of time
attempting to create worship when in fact it is God who begins and
controls worship. True worship isn’t how we like it, it is how God likes
it. God is in control of worship and we should seek His leadership in
worship instead of seeking new methods and strategies that are supposed
to bring about worship. Worship is not an option in the believer’s life,
it is obedience! It is always an experience with God that creates a
response in His children.
If we fulfill the 1 driving force behind church growth by doing the 5
functions of church growth we will experience 4 results. If we actively
fulfill the divine process that God has given to his church these four
results will take place. God has written the ultimate self help book
since His plans, methods, and results do not fail.
The first result is numerical growth. In the book of Acts the early
church evangelized, devoted themselves to teaching (discipleship),
devoted themselves to fellowship, ministered to one another, and
worshiped God and the bible says that God added to their number daily!
We can be assured that numerical growth will happen when we peruse God’s
process of church growth. Numerical growth is a sign of God’s work being
accomplished in His church.
The second result is spiritual transformation. Mims recognizes that if
numerical growth is all a church strives for, the outcome will be the
creation of something “a mile wide and a half-inch deep.” I don’t
believe that God ever intended his people to be shallow. God is in the
process of making his children more like Christ. As we evangelize,
disciple, fellowship, minister, and worship I do not believer there is
anyway we can remain unchanged ourselves. Spiritual transformation will
take place as we are obedient to God.
A third result is ministry expansion. When the church begins to grow in
number and those people begin to be transformed they become more
spiritually mature. As this maturity increases new doors are opened for
new teaching and serving that was impossible beforehand. New
opportunities will form
continually as God’s process for church growth is carried out within a
body of believers.
The fourth result is kingdom advance. If a church is growing, its
members are becoming more spiritually mature, it is obvious that more and more people will be reached with
the gospel. As the growing fellowship of believers evangelizes they have
the ability to reach more and more people.
This is a principle which is
taken directly from the word of God. It isn’t some man made strategy to
get more people in church it is a God designed process to advance His
kingdom. As we return to the biblical principles for church growth the
results are guaranteed. A church that is fulfilling the commission of
Christ by actively pursuing evangelism, discipleship, fellowship,
ministry, and worship will experience numerical growth, spiritual
transformation, service opportunity expansion, and kingdom advance. These things
permeated the early church and these are the things you will essentially
find in a church that is being obedient to God by following His divine
process.
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