Please notice, I said God’s Method For Church Growth.
Before we get into God’s Method of Church growth let me talk to you about two MAN MADE METHODS FOR CHURCH GROWTH that is being used by liberal churches all over this nation.
There are many ideas today about church growth, but some of these ideas cannot be found in the scriptures.
I looked the other day for some books on church growth and immediately I found 25 books. I have not read all twenty five of these books but I have read some of them and I can almost guaranteed you that each book is filled with man made Ideas for church growth.
Not all of these ideas are sinful but the problem is you cannot find God’s Method For Church Growth in them.
Before I show you GOD’S METHOD FOR CHURCH GROWTH let me share with you TWO DANGEROUS METHODS FOR CHURCH GROWTH that is prevalent today.
There is:
(1)The Easy Believism Method
This method of church growth is widespread and dangerous. This is man’s made method for salvation. All you have to do is believe there is a Christ that died for your sins.
This is a method that goes soft on sin and leave out repentance for salvation.
There are two dangerous things in this approach to salvation.
(1)Easy believism teaches one needs only to believe in Jesus in order to be saved.
It is true that a person must believe in Christ to be saved. But the book of James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”
When it comes to believing Christ for salvation we need to look at the word BELIEVE!
Illus: Let me illustrate it this way. As you set here in this beautiful sanctuary suppose someone come through the back door and they began to holler “Fire! Fire! Fire!
Now when you hear the word “Fire” you have got to decide two things:
(1) Do you really believe what you hear!
(2) You do not believe in what you hear!
If you believe someone is playing a joke on the congregation you would set there, but if you believe that someone was trying to warn you it would cause you to ACT on what you heard.
True faith in Christ will always lead to a changed life. It is a belief that I am a sinner on my way to hell and the Lord Jesus is the Savior. And if I truly REPENT OF MY SINS the Lord will save me and I will become a born again creature.
Just saying that you believe in Christ will not save you.
We read in Ephesians 2:8–9: “For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”
So we see that faith, given as a gift by God, is what saves us.
But the next verse (Ephesians 2:10) tells us of the results truly believing. We read “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
This verse teaches us we are saved by the hand of God Almighty, by His will and for His use.
Another common usage of the term easy believism is…
(2) In regards to those who believe they’re saved because they prayed a prayer-
• With no real conviction of sin
• No real faith in Christ.
There is more to salvation than mouthing off some words.
We are His servants, and from the moment of salvation by faith, we embark on a journey of pre-ordained good works that are the evidence of that salvation.
If there is no evidence of growth and good works, we have every reason to doubt that salvation ever truly took place.
• “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20), and a dead faith is not a saving faith.
• With true salvation comes genuine repentance and real life change.
• Second Corinthians 5:17 says that those who are in Christ are a “new creation.”
Is it possible that the new person Christ creates is one who continues to walk in the flesh of sin? No.
Salvation is certainly free, but, at the same time, it costs us everything. We are to die to ourselves as we change into the likeness of Christ.
Where easy believism fails is its lack of recognition that a person with faith in Jesus will lead a progressively changed life.
Our churches are filled with people who believe in EASY BELIEVISM.
How do I know?
Because many of those who claim to be saved they are the same old sinful creature they have always been.
But many churches use this method for church growth leaving out the fact the Lord says, “Except ye repent ye shall likewise perish.”
Another method of church growth is the method of---
(2) COME AS YOU ARE METHOD
This method of growth is prevalent today!!!
When they say COME AS YOU ARE they mean you can come to church in your shorts, T-shirts, and even in your pajamas if you want to.
Illus: I saw one of these churches on television and the preacher was wearing a football jersey.
Illus: When you go to a restaurant to eat after the Sunday morning service it is astounding how some folks are dress that just came from their COME AS YOU ARE CHURCH.
This statement COME AS YOU ARE is a statement that leaves so much unsaid that it could easily create a false impression so much more than just clothing.
The statement is a welcoming statement. “You don’t need to change in order to come to this church. Please, come just as you are and you can stay as you are!”
In these COME AS YOU ARE CHURCHES you can hear:
• That God loves you, and that is true.
• That Jesus died to take us to heaven, and that is true.
• We hear that Jesus died so that God could justify us, to count us righteous. That also is true.
But for some reason these COME AS YOU ARE CHURCHES fail to mention Jesus died to make us holy.
The Bible teaches in Hebrews 12:14 “…without holiness no man shall see the Lord”
I do not know how God’s Word can make it any clearer. WITHOUT HOLINESS NO MAN SHALL SEE THE LORD. (There is not going to be any blind people in heaven.)
Because repentance is not being preach from God’s Word YOU CAN COME AS YOU ARE AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MAKE ANY CHANGES IN YOUR SINFUL LIFE.
Illus: Dr. Billy Graham invitation hymn is always the song JUST AS I AM. That is exactly how we come to the Lord but that song give us the message that once you come to Christ for salvation we do not STAY AS WE ARE!!!
But our churches today like this man made method for church growth you can stay the way you are.
Thus, people can continue with:
• Adulterous marriages,
• Co-habiting together,
• Social drinking,
• Dishonest business practices,
• Lying
• Gambling
• And foul language.
• Keep drinking.
• Keep watching porn on your television.
Paul told the Corinthians that the unrighteous would not be able to inherit the kingdom of God.
He said in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Some have the idea if we compromise the Word of God and get them in church and perhaps they will become a Christian later.
Illus: That is like a young lady marrying a drunk and saying I know I should not marry him but after I marry him I will lead him to the Lord.
God loves us, and He wants salvation for everyone.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
However, we must repent which involves an attitude that will cause us to turn away from our sins. We cannot continue in our sins and still be pleasing to God.
WE COME TO CHRIST AS WE ARE BUT ONCE WE ACCEPT HIM WE DO NOT STAY THE WAY WE ARE!!!
WE BECOME BORN AGAIN!!!
The “come as you are” method of growth, practiced by so many churches, is not pleasing to God and is not a Biblical method for church growth.
• It is a METHOD OF PLAYING CHURCH.
• It is a METHOD OF INSINCERITY.
I have showed you two wrong methods for church growth.
(1) Easy Believism
(2) Come as you are
But let me show you…
(3) GOD’S METHOD FOR CHURCH GROWTH.
God’s Method For Church Growth is Holiness.
We see a case of this in Acts 5 where a couple (Ananias and Saphirra) came to church that was insincere pretending to be sincere and the Lord had to purge the early church of hypocrisy by killing Ananias and Saphira.
We can be thankful today that God is not still killing all the hpocrites in the church because if He did it would be a lot of empty churches.
But, notice what happened once He purged the church. The Bible tells us that the church multiplied.
All across this nation we have churches that are not growing, but those same churches if they rid their churches of all the hypocrisy they also would see some amazing growth.
In other words, God can not bless a church until the hypocrisy has been removed.
Illus: A little boy asked his dad, "What is a hypocrite?”
The dad thought for a few seconds, and said, "Son, a hypocrite is like the man who smiles when he gives his wife his paycheck! "
Illus: Someone said, "A hypocrite is someone who writes a book on atheism, and prays it will sell."
What is a hypocrite?
In essence, “hypocrisy” refers to the act of claiming to believe in something but acting in a different manner.
The word is derived from the Greek term for “actor”—literally, “one who wears a mask,
In other words, someone who pretends to be what he is not.
We make the mistake to think that all the actors are in Hollywood, but our churches are filled with OSCAR WINNERS!!!
Once the Lord purged the church, they had another problem, they began to multiply.
God’s Method of church growth today still works if we do it God’s way.
This was a good problem. Due to GOD’S METHOD OF CHURCH GROWTH the New Testament church became too large for the disciples to take care of, and it was brought to their attention that some of the widows were being neglected.
This New Testament church did CHURCH GROWTH God’s way and it created some good growth problems.
Let us look at this problem and see how they handled it…
I. THE PROBLEM
Look at Acts 6: 1, We read, “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.”
When a church begins to grow, they will have GROWING PAINS.
One of the problems was that the Grecian widows felt like they were being neglected. Nobody likes the feeling they are neglected.
• It makes us feel unloved
• It makes us feel we are not important
The Grecians felt perhaps both of these.
WHEN DID THEY FEEL LIKE THIS?
Look at verse 1,“And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied... "
Notice, the Bible says, "And in those days... " It was when “...the number of the disciples was multiplied... "
But, as a church grows, so do the number of problems.
• Need more space for growth
• Need more finance for growth
• Need more Leaders for growth
But all of these problems are good problems to have for a church.
Many churches have the mistaken idea that when they grow they will not have any more problems.
Illus: That is as ridiculous as it would be for a child to believe that once they grow up, they will never have any more problems.
Church growth can solve some problems, but it creates a whole set of new problems.
We have looked at THE PROBLEM, but let us look at-
II. THE MINISTRY
There have always been groups of people here and there, who will start churches or ministries for the wrong reasons.
For example, here at this church we started a SPANISH MINISTRY.
What was the purpose of starting this ministry?
There are many wrong reasons for doing this…
(1) It is wrong to start any ministry just to jack up our attendance.
(2) The right reason is for the love and the burden we have for the Hispanic people.
(3) The right reason is to reach the Hispanic people with the gospel of Christ.
Illus: Have you noticed that churches in America at great expense send missionaries to reach the Hispanic for Christ in their countries but when they legally come to America there are churches that will not even speak to them.
Anytime we do something for the Lord we need to do it for the right reason if we want the Lord to bless it.
For example, some churches exist today because of a:
1. COMMUNITY REASON.
We all agree that every new community should have a church.
This idea of a community church comes from the time in this nation we did not have the transportation we have today. So churches were built so that many in the community could walk to church.
But today there is very few community churches, we have people who are able to get in their cars and drive miles to a place of worship.
But what people should be asking is, "Why does God want every community to have a Church?”
God would have a church in every community, BECAUSE many of the people in that community are lost and need to be saved, and need the spiritual guidance of God's Word.
Starting a church just because every new community needs a church, is starting a church for the wrong reason.
2. CONFLICT REASON
Another reason some folks start a new church is because of the conflict in the old church.
In some churches, it seems that every new conflict they start a new church.
I know of churches that have split so many times, there is not much left to split.
HOW DID THEY GET THIS WAY?
Every time a new conflict arose, several families split away, and begin having meetings in someone's living room.
Soon these folks get mad with each other and that group split.
Illus: A church in Newberry, South Carolina, had such a group. One rather large family became angry about something, and felt they had the numbers to have enough leverage to get things their way. When they found out they couldn’t, they pulled out and found a middle-aged preacher, and started a church in a house. They set out to prove to everyone that they could build a church. They all sacrificed and gave enough money to build a lovely church building on top of a hill.
After some time went by, the members of this group got mad at each other. Soon, there were only a handful of people attending that church.
If you visit that church today, you will find two cars in the parking lot, because there are only two families left. Neither family will leave, because they are afraid the other family will sell the building and keep all the money.
Seldom do we find things that bad, but there are groups of people, meeting all over this nation, who built churches and the Lord did not have anything to do with it.
Illus: Some even go so far as to say of these churches they should be sued for impersonating a church!
The first church that we read about in the book of Acts, existed for the right purpose.
Those Christians ministered by taking care of the PHYSICAL and SPIRITUAL needs of God's people.
The early church did that, but as the congregation multiplied, it soon became such an awesome task, that the disciples could not properly provide for the needs of all of the widows.
We have looked at:
• The Community church
• The Conflict church
But now let us look at…
C. THE MURMURING
Look at Acts 6:1. We read, “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.”
The disciples recognized this was a legitimate complaint.
There are folks who are known to be CHRONIC COMPLAINERS!!!
Illus: There was a lady that was a habitual grumbler and was constantly complaining about everything.
• One day her preacher thought he had discovered something that she could be happy about, because her farm crop was the best one for miles around. When he met her, he said with a big smile,”You must be very happy! Everyone is saying how healthy your potatoes look this year!”
• She replied grimly, “True they’re pretty good, but what am I going to do when I need some bad ones to feed the pigs?”
Illus: A young Catholic priest decided to enter a monastery. He joined one particularly strict sect. The head monk told him, at his indoctrination, that they were sworn to TOTAL silence. They could not speak one word at all. However, every ten years, they would be permitted to speak two words. After 10 years of total silence, the head monk indicated it was now time for him to speak his two words.
• The monk said, “Bed hard!” And then he resumed his silent study and work.
• Another 10 years passed and the head monk again indicated it was time for him to speak his two words. The monk said, “Food bad!”
• And then he resumed his silent study and work. Another 10 years passed and the head monk again indicated it was time for him to speak his two words.
• The monk said, “I quit!”
• The head monk shook his head and said, “I knew this was coming. You’ve done nothing but complain for the past 30 years!”
Listen, one of the worst thing that can happen to a church is have someone that joins and they are always complaining.
• But there are times in a church when folks have a legitimate complaints.
• These Grecian widows had a legitimate complaint.
Notice, when they came to the apostles with their complaint they did not refute what these widows were saying. It was a problem that could not be avoided as the believers multiplied.
Illus: We hear people complain about so many things in the church, that we have a tendency to put all complainers in one group, and ignore the complaint. To do this is a mistake.
We humans have limitations, and we are going to make mistakes! Peter and the other disciples were great men of God, but they could only do so much, and only had so much time in which to do it.
We looked at THE PROBLEM
But let us look at-
III. THE SOLUTION
Some churches do not know how to solve their problem. They go year after year and never have a solution to their problems.
THEY BELIEVE TO SOLVE A PROBLEM IS LEARNING TO LIVE WITH THEM!!!
Illus: I commend this church that we worship in because it was once located in town and we had a parking problem. But this church recognize they did not have to live with the problem…they had a solutions.
You sold your church that was inadequate and bought sixteen acres in a good location and built a new church that is adequate. It is one of the best thing this church could have done!!!
The New Testament church had a GROWTH PROBLEM and they dealt with it.
Some of the widows were being neglected and the ministers could not take care of everything so they elected deacons to take care of the widows.
In Acts 6:2, we read, “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.”
The ministers of the church were neglecting the needs of some of the widows. But their neglect was due to the fact that you can only do so much before something is not going to be done.
They were almost having to neglect the ministry God had called them to do.
WHAT HAD GOD CALLED THEM TO DO?
They were to pray for the people of God, and to study God’s Word, so they could feed the flock of God spiritually.
This is an awesome responsibility of a pastor if they take their calling seriously.
As a pastor like many more good pastor we take our responsibility serious.
For example:
• I do my job as a pastor at my church office the same way you men do your job at your place of employment.
• I spend as many hours on my job as you men who work on your job.
• I choose not to work out of my home. Why? Because when I am at my office at the church it is a constant reminder of my responsibilities as a pastor.
• I am on call twenty four hours a day and I also spend time visiting and homes and hospitals.
Being a pastor is an awesome responsibility dealing with people where they are going to spend eternity.
That is why 1 Corinthians 9:14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
Illus: In most homes the women are the ones who cook and provide the meals for her family.
But suppose she:
• Does the job of the children
• Does the job of the husband
And when the family come for dinner, the only time she has to prepare for her family is slap together some peanut butter sandwiches.
If this continues the family is going to go lacking in neutrition!!!
These Grecians widows had a legitimate complaints they were being neglected because the apostles were doing things they had no business doing!!!
They came to the realization not only was the Grecians being mis-treated, having the responsibility of the congregation dumped on them they were not being treated right also.
They said, “It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.”
Illus: This reminds me of the story of the pastor who went to sleep one night, and dreamed his congregation had hooked him up to a wagon like a mule. They had him in harness, and they were all on top of the wagon hollering, “Go faster! Faster! Faster!”
He dreamed he was pulling as hard as he could pull, but still he could hear some who were complaining because he was not pulling fast enough to suit them.
He turned his head and looked at them, and saw that some were actually dragging their feet behind the wagon, making his job even harder.
God's Word makes it clear, that His primary job description is to spend most of his time studying His word so he could preach the Word, and praying.
Show me a church where sufficient time has not been given to these two things, and I will show you a church that is spiritually under-fed spiritually.
The apostles wanted to “nip this problem in the bud."
Look what they said in verse 3, “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”
Notice, the Bible specify men, not women.
A lot of times the help that a deacon has to do require a job for men. A deacon’s wife can be a lot of help to him but if a church is going to be Biblical a deacon should be a man.
Some pastors think that God has called them to be dictators. They want to make all the decisions, and they will tell you, without batting an eye, that is the way it is going to be in their church.
Illus: There use to be a pastor in Columbia, S.C. he had a small church but he felt as pastor he was to make all the decisions.
• He opened the services in prayer.
• He selected all the songs that would be sung.
• He preached
• He closed all the services.
• It was a one man show!
After a few years of this, this church dwindle down and they had to close the doors.
The reason the New Testament church was having problems at that time, was because the pastors of the church were doing everything, and some more folks needed to get involved.
Listen, anytime the pastor is doing his job and the congregation is doing their job a church will experience NUMERICAL GROWTH. This part of God’s Church Plan for a church to grow.
Notice verse 5 says, "And the saying pleased the whole multitude ...”
III. THE SELECTION
In Verses 3-6, we read, “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.”
But notice, the early church, in SELECTING deacons, made sure that the men who should serve in this capacity were the right kind of men.
They made sure they met certain requirements, three in particular.
(1)Requirement with man. “…of honest report…”
(2) Requirement with themselves. “…full of…wisdom…”
(3) Requirement with God. “…full of the Holy Ghost…”
God honors those who will do things according to His will.
Look at the results those early Christians saw as they obeyed God.
Look at verse 7. We read, “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
I. THE SADNESS
II. THE SOLUTION
III. THE SELECTION
God’s Method of Church Growth is for us to go out into highway and hedges and compel the lost to come in.
1) God’s Method For Church is for His church to get rid of all the hypocrisy out of the church
2) For church members to get involve in the reaching the lost for Christ.
I can not tell you the time when I have talked to Christians and they would say, "Preacher, I would love to witness for the Lord but I do not know anyone!”
• Do you realize how ridiculous that is as an excuse when you stand before the Lord Jesus on the Judgment day and he reminds YOU THERE ARE LITERALLY MILLIONS IN THIS WORLD THAT NEED THE LORD! And you say you do not know anyone to witness to or invite to church.
• Do you realize how ridiculous that is going to be when the Lord reminds you that you talk to people everyday about all kinds of things but never about the Lord Jesus.
God’s church need to quit listening to the lies of satan and GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL.
This is God’s Method For Church Growth!!!
