Do You Want Your Church To Grow? Series

A few weeks ago, some of us attended a workshop on churches breaking the 125 barrier. It was one of the best workshops any of us had ever attended.

My message today is based on the thoughts and notes from that day. I have had some time to chew up what we learned and digest it and figure it out so it would totally clear to me so I could bring it to you. I believe that this is very important.

Our church is on the move. We are moving closer to God. We are moving closer to each other. We are moving closer to being the church that we are supposed to be.

If we are going to continue to be a church on the move, we need to be “a whatever it takes” church.

Whatever it takes to reach people.

Whatever it takes to bring Jesus to people.

Whatever it takes to see people grow in God.

Whatever it takes to see our church grow in numbers.

Whatever it takes to bring the manifestation of the power of God into our lives.

In other words we are going to do whatever it takes to bring the kingdom of God into our area. As long as whatever it takes lines up with the Word of God we are going to do it. No ifs ands or buts about it.

Whatever it takes to reach the generations for God we are going to do it and it doesn’t matter the cost; money, reputations, time; it doesn’t matter what others think, it doesn’t matter how much work it is going to take, whatever it takes we are going to move forward.

We all need to ask ourselves a fairly serious question. The question being, do we want the church to grow?

Most of us would agree that we would like to see the church as a whole grow and we are committed to helping that happen, but what about Winfield Open Bible? Do we want WOBC to grow?

Research tells us that over half of the churches in the United States are below 100 people. The average church in America has an average attendance in Sunday School of 66 people. We are slightly below that average.

The average church in America has an average of 87 people who attend their primary worship service.

We are right around that mark. In December we averaged about 95 and last week we had 120 people in our service.

We are already moving in the right direction. We are moving forward. We are growing. And we need to make sure that we continue to grow.

Statistics show us that some churches will never become larger than 100 people. I think that this is a sad commentary on the church. What that tells me is that the church is not doing what the church needs to be doing to grow. It tells me that Christians are not doing what they need to be doing. It tells me that pastors are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.

We need to have a desire to grow.

And when we have the desire to grow two things must happen. Each person must change and the church must change.

You may not like change but in order to grow we have to be open to change.

I am not suggesting that we change the message. That is something that will never change. But our methods, they are going to have to change and they have been changing.

In order for churches to grow some things must die. It is the principle of pruning. Change has to take place. People have to grow up. People have to mature in Christ.

The neat thing about this is the older you get the more desperate you become. The older we become in God brings us to a point in our lives that we are more desperate for God’s touch than we are for anything else.

That is the way we need to be. We need a greater desperation for God in our lives, in our homes, in our work places, in our schools, and in our churches.

Church growth expert and author Rick Warren states, “The wrong question to ask is what will cause my church to grow. The right question to ask is this, what is keeping my church from growing.”

This is the question I want to answer today. Is it God’s promise for our church to grow? If so, what would keep our church from growing?

The truth is, God is on our side and He does want our church to grow and He has even promised us that if we keep our eyes on Him and we are obedient to His will, the church will grow.