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Ten Ways to Grow a Church

I was preaching at a small church recently and after the service an old lady came up to me and said, with feeling, the following heart-breaking words: 'I am tired to belonging to churches that close'. Evidently there were plans afoot to close the small church. This lady had been through that experience once before and was sad at the idea of having spent her whole life working hard in churches that eventually went to the wall.

Robert G. Lee was a Southern Baptist pastor in the USA. As pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee from 1927 to 1960, he saw 24,000 people join his church. The Southern Baptists, of course, are the largest Christian denomination (apart from the Catholic church) in the USA and are currently numbered at about16 million members - quite an achievement considering the fact that the Episcopalians (C of E), Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Methodists were the main early Christian bodies in the history of the USA. Just how the Southern Baptists achieved such predominance may be explained by the ways that men like Lee built their individual churches. Here are his ideas about how NOT to grow a Church ...

Practice open church membership - this will devalue our Baptist position
Disregard the Scriptural meaning of, and invitation to, the Lord's Supper - this will cheapen communion
Play down the importance of baptism - this will stifle our testimony
Emphasise ecumenicity - this will erase our distinctives
Be apologetic regarding the use of the name Baptist - this will weaken our prestige
Deny direct kinship with the New Testament Christians - this will cut the root of Biblical and doctrinal strength
Minimise the importance of training - this will close the churches on Sunday evenings
Take the side track of fanatical conservatism or radical liberalism - this will produce a series of splinter groups
Solicit financial support from non-Baptists - this will make beggars of the churches.

What are we to make of such a statement? It sounds more like how to make your hamburger restaurant famous all over the world and a roaring financial success rather than a statement of spiritual principles.

John Wesley said, ‘Would to God that all party names, and unscriptural phrases and forms which have divided the Christian world, were forgot and that the very name [Methodist] might never be mentioned more, but buried in eternal oblivion’. Robert Lee seems to have the exact opposite idea - the secret of success is to promote your denomination or sect with might and main. Bearing in mind that the name Baptist is essentially a negative name - it is advertising that other people are wrong in the way they baptise - it really seems a peculiarly negative and narrow-minded attitude that Lee was promoting. There is little resemblance of Paul's motto: We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. The Spirit of Christ does not seem to be speaking in these words.

Nevertheless, the man deserves to be listened to, and some of the points he makes are worth thinking about.

So, here, to be slightly more positive, are ten principles that will result in Church growth:

Preach the Word of God so that your flock are taught all the counsel of God and hear the word of the Lord that meets the needs of the moment. That way your flock will be fed and happy, healthy and satisfied. They will keep on coming back for more of it and they won't wander off in search of the husks that the world offers. Neither will your church lurch to the right (fanatical conservatism) or to the left (radical liberalism). This is the great mistake that the 'mainline' denominations have made - they have stopped believing and preaching the Bible as the Word of God.
Good leadership is vital to church growth - poor quality leadership in the church is the quickest route to ruin. Therefore, train up your next-generation leaders to preach and teach the Word - allow them opportunity to develop their gifts under the guidance of mature men and good examples. That way, the next generation of sheep will not wander off, either - they will follow good shepherds. Leadership and theological training is, by the way, one of the functions of a local Church - 2 Tim. 2:2 does not refer to theological seminaries; such things did not exist in Paul's day - all of the training was in-house. One of the reasons that the traditional denominations have gone down the drain is that the training of future leaders has been handled by denominational institutions which have, to an incredible degree, abandoned the faith themselves and destroyed the faith of the men sent to them. These men returned from seminary as theological liberals and their sterile, academic preaching emptied the churches.
Make sure you base your Church upon the Bible. Make sure your flock understand that the reason you practice the things you do is because they are the practices of authentic Christianity, not the empty traditions of men or the latest clever fads and philosophies. Don't be afraid, ashamed or apologetic about holding to Biblical distinctives - set out your stall, so that your own members will be able to speak with the enemy in the gate.
Make sure your Biblical principles actually work. Albert Einstein said, 'The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'. Some churches think that God calls them to be faithful, however this is not true: God calls us to be faithful and wise servants (Mt. 24:45) and his definition of a good and faithful servant involves making some profit, not simply burying our talent in the ground and claiming to be 'faithful until death' (usually our death, but sometimes the church dies first). John Wesley taught that any doctrine which was found untenable in practice should come under suspicion of being erroneous and should be carefully re-examined in the light of Scripture. If it would not work in real life it was not likely to be the true teaching of the Bible.
Maintain a love for all of God's true children, even if they do not follow you, and make sure that your congregation has a warmth that is based on real love for one another. Love for one another is not only a Divine Commandment, but it is the path to blessing - people will be attracted to you, both Christians and non-Christians.
Emphasise the fact that the local Church is God's only-ordained organisation upon earth. Steer clear of para-church organisations and outside Bible teaching institutions - instead of serving the church, they tend to become an end in themselves. If you want to see your church grow, then learn the lesson of the Southern Baptists and make the church itself your priority - forget about all these parallel organisations. They will siphon off your most promising next-generation leaders with promises of worldly fame, exciting careers and letters after the name. In another generation, the only leaders left will be those with no leadership abilities, and woe unto you then. G. Campbell Morgan, writing in the early 1900's lamented the impotence of Western Christianity in these words: 'Was there ever such a day of machinery as this? Was the church ever so packed full in every corner with machines, machines, wheels, wheels, organisations, organisations? Yet in spite of all this machinery and activity, the heathen world is still gaining on us by leaps and bounds'. The same is true today - the Western church is going backwards alarmingly, despite the multiplicity of missions jostling for our attention and money with their glossy advertising brochures. They have successfully convinced the ordinary Christian that they are the professionals when it comes to evangelism, charity and theological education (no doubt, they are), but the downside of their message is that the ordinary Christian is all the more convinced that they have no worthwhile contribution to make to the work of God. Contrast this situation with the church in China which is growing explosively without all this paraphernalia.
Growth requires effective evangelism. Effective evangelism requires real interaction with the non-converted, too, not preaching to the converted, nor harassing strangers. Winning hearts and minds is hardly likely to be achieved by bombarding people with missiles from a distance. If nobody is listening to our message we are not getting a hearing, however loudly or long we are preaching. Evangelism means making real contact with people, building credibility with them on a personal level and then communicating the message with them in the power of prayer.
Make Christ central in your church. Give the Lord's Supper the priority that it is given in the New Testament - the first place in the life of the church (read 1 Cor. 11:17-20). People's hearts will be softened to think of Christ's sufferings for them. Make Christ the centre of your preaching and let the Spirit glorify Christ through the Word. Then your people will put Christ first in their lives and all will be well.
Make sure you do not go soft on sin - the church is a holy Temple of God's Spirit. If you let up preaching against sin, people will join the church without true repentance and the Christians will be living lives that lack holiness. If the people of God are not pleasing God, how can God bless?
Make sure your church is joyful - don't be a church that resembles a funeral. Don't let your singing become a dirge. Ten times the Scripture says that we are to sing a new song to the Lord. Why? Because our hymns are not inspired - they are human words set to earthly tunes - and everything human and earthly eventually fades and loses its shine and impact. Our singing should reflect a freshness, an enthusiasm, a sincerity and a joy in our faith.