A Growing Church

There are books upon books promoting method upon method of ways to "grow the church". Ultimatley, the church body, like a human body needs to be nourished, exercised and cared for so that it will grow into the supernatural organism God intends. The individual growth of believers is directly correlated to the growth of the church body.

When we say the church has grown, what does that mean? Most people assume numeric growth is the measure of church growth. However anyone who has been part of a large ministry knows, that numbers alone do not necessarily mean a church body is mature or healthy. In fact, some dysfunction that would never be realized in a small church is magnified in the numercially large church if there is not a concerted effort to disciple believers and reproduce leaders to accomplish God's mission in God's power for God's glory by God's grace. When we look at the biblical mandate and mission of the church, we find numerical growth, though present is not the essence of the growth the apostle Paul was looking for. He was looking for changed lives. Paul prayed things like, "speaking truth in love, may grow up into  him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." What Paul is saying is  having a certainty of God's words and speaking them honestly and lovingly is the measure of biblical growth. Peter indicated that sincere milk of the word of God would cause one to grow (1 Peter 2:2). Peter would also charge all believers to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). 

The church is not only a supernatural body that grows, it is a building of God, constructed with organic materials called saints. Paul made it clear in his lettes that the body is edified in love (Ephesians 4:16). We are a building of God (2 Corinthians 5:1) that is built on the foundation of Christ (Ephesians 2:20).

Churches are like people, you don't always notice how much they mature or grow until you look back at a picture. In a snap shot, you mind if flooded with what used to be and contrasted with what is creating a metric for measuring growth. Today at HBF we had a couple snap shots of HBF's growth. One was in the sermon as I compared how HBF supported missions prior to moving to our current location in 2006. The second measurment of growth was a snap shot of how many bible projects Word First Bible Publishing has accomplished this year. In each instance it was shocking to see how much HBF has grown!  There was a time when numerical growth seemed to be the measure of our maturation, even though, as a disciple making church we all knew better. Like any young church, plant or person, there is always a season of remarkable growth. However, the growth we saw today was not in the stature of Jesus body numerically but the spirutual nature of the body of Christ. 

Word First Bible Publishing Minstry has assembled over 21,000 bibles, New Testaments or John and Romans in the past year. Our active missions activity has not only grown in scope and coverage but in stratigic effectiveness. It was simply amazing to see how the Lord has grown his church. It is not the result of slick marketing or programming. When it comes to those metrics, we probaly fall  short. The undeniable reality is that God is blessing in ways that are above and beyond what we ask or think. God is seeing fit to include us in partnerships that allow us to engage the mission in a substantial way that benefits the church body and the body of Christ as a whole.

What are the metrics for church growth? It is not just numeric growth (though that is desirable and good), but fruitfulness. A local church don't have to be the largest tree to produce some of the richest fruit. By God's grace God will continue to give us snap shots from time to time to remind us of how he has blessed, built and grown his church throuh the metrics of discipled men and mission activity. Today, as we took a tour of the Word First Publishing facility and reflected on all God is doing in missions, it was appearant God has grown our vision and the ability to accomplish it in ways that are astounding. It is encouraging as we trust God for the next steps of growth as we trust him to engage us in his mission in substantial ways that impact the Kingdom of God for eternity.