It has been said that the same law which God has instituted in nature which declares that healthy living things will grow naturally, applies to the growth of the local church. Since the church is an organism, rather than an organization, if it can maintain its spiritual health and vitality, it will grow supernaturally!
Since it should be our desire for our church to grow to the glory of God, we need to pay attention today to what Paul tells us here about growing the church.
As we consider his description of healthy church growth, we can learn some things that will help our church grow to God’s glory.
1. The essentials of church growth - vs. 7-12
Two things are essential if a church is to grow -
A. Gifted leadership - v. 11
1) Apostles - Start churches. Missionaries today carry out an apostolic ministry.
2) Prophets & Evangelists - Stir up churches. The prophet’s ministry is directed toward believers, while the evangelist’s ministry is directed toward unbelievers.
3) Pastors & Teachers - Stabilize churches. It is right for pastors and teachers to be mentioned together, because one cannot be an effective pastor without teaching and one cannot be an effective teacher without pastoring.
All these individuals are gifts given by God to lead the church. This implies two things:
A) Their’s is a great privilege.
B) Their’s is a great responsibility.
“Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.” - Hebrews 13:17 (NLT)
“If called upon to name the key to church growth, it would be
leadership.” - Dewayne Davenport, The Bible Says Grow
With such pressure, church leaders are in need of affirmation,
encouragement and, of course, prayer.
“Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.” - Ephesians 6:19 (NIV)
“70% of pastors in America say they have lower self-esteem than when they started in ministry.” - Dr. Jerry Oliver
One young preacher was having trouble with a critical member. This fellow had as his favorite expression, “Great Day!” In business meeting or wherever, he would express himself by saying, “Great Day!”
One Sunday morning the young pastor said “I’m preaching on the text, ‘And Jesus fed five men with five thousand loaves of bread and two thousand fishes.’”
The critical brother jumped up and said, “Great day, that’s no miracle, I could do that!”
The young preacher was so shaken that he couldn’t even preach his sermon. The next Sunday, out of spite, he announced correctly, “And Jesus fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes.” He looked right down at the out spoken member and said, “And I guess you could do that too?”
“I certainly could,” he said. “How?” the preacher questioned.
“With what was left over from last Sunday,” the man in sisted.
Seriously, the Bible is quite clear as how a church is to go about
rewarding or disciplining a pastor if necessary.
“The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and "The worker deserves his wages.’ Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three
witnesses. Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that
the others may take warning.” - 1 Timothy 5:17-20 (NIV)
But leaders owe it to their people to seek to improve themselves. A leader must always be growing, seeking to be as effective as possible, realizing that leadership consists of more than filling a position.
Dr. John Maxwell says that there are five areas where a leader must continually seek to develop:
1) Attitude - Without this he will hurt himself.
2) Relationships - Without this others will hurt him.
3) Persistence - Without this problems will defeat him.
4) Priorities - Without this the insignificant will hamper him.
5) Credibility - Without this no one will follow him.
Successful leaders . . .
1) Influence others - he must be a motivator.
Manipulation - getting others to do something to benefit the leader.
Motivation - getting others to do something to benefit everyone.
2) Set priorities - he discerns between the urgent and the important.
“There are three kinds of people in the world - Those who don’t know what’s happening; those who watch what is happening; and those who make things happen.” - Nicholas Murray Butler, Former President of Columbia University
3) Cast vision - he is a possibility thinker.
“Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.” - Proverbs 29:18 (NASB)
“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.” - Proverbs 29:18 (The Message)
4) Make decisions - he must be able to face problems and challenges head-on and make decisions that will take people forward.
5) Build people - a true leader is not someone who can do the work of 10 people, but someone who can get 10 people to do the work.
Dr. Maxwell shares an illustration that has been very helpful to me through the years, called the five levels of leadership. Level one is the Position level. This is the lowest level of leadership, where a person is the leader only because they fill the position. Level two is the Permission level. This is the level just above the Position level, where people say, “Well, let’s see what he can do.” Level three is the Performance level. This is where a person needs to focus on
fulfilling their job description. Level four is the people Development level. One only reaches this level with people when they can say, “I am better off because of him.” And the highest level of leadership is level five, the Personhood level. Every pastors should aspire to at least reach the fourth level of leadership.
B. Committed membership - v. 12
One survey revealed that 91% of church members today believe the primary role of the pastor is to take care of their needs. But this flies in the face of the clear teaching of Scripture.
The pastor’s role is not to do the work for the church, but to lead the church to do its work!
“The pastor’s job is to fill the pulpit. The people’s job is to fill the pews.” - Vance Havner
The degree to which a church grows depends not only on the leadership but on the membership.
Conclusion: In Peter Wagner’s book, leading Your Church to Growth, he points out what price the pastor and the people both must be willing to pay if their church is to grow. He points out that if a church is going to grow, then the number one price the pastor must be willing to pay is to assume responsibility for growth; and the number one price the people must be willing to pay is to agree to follow growth leadership.
Folks, I can be responsible to you, but I cannot be responsible for you. I will work hard to do all I can to encourage, equip and empower you.
But it takes both the pastor and people to grow a church, if you want your church to grow, it will be determined by the level of your
involvement and the level of your commitment.
Question: “If every other member of our church were as involved and committed to the growth of our church as I am, would we
double in size or would we have to close our doors?”
