Two Essential Elements for Growing Churches

 Church growth has been a repeated emphasis, in some form or another, throughout my ministry as a pastor. I first heard the concept while I was in seminary — over fifty years ago! A required course in “missions” boldly proclaimed the secret to church growth. At the same time, a required course in “evangelism” taught a significantly different secret to church growth. Once I was out of seminary, denominational leaders and agencies carried the banner of church growth. In the last half of my ministry, large churches across the country offered annual “how to” conferences. These conferences provided training in the methods these churches used to produce numerical growth. The implied message of the conferences was “do what we do and you’ll become like us,” that is, a large church. (What these conferences failed to address was the issue of the context in which a church was located or the culture of the church — both of which have significant impact upon the church’s growth.)  Interestingly, the identified “keys” to church growth varied, depending on which leader or conference or agency was promoting church growth.

For more than half a century, the institutional church has repeatedly focused on and promoted church growth. Ironically, throughout that same half century, the institutional church has been in obvious decline. (The factors contributing to that decline are the topic of another blog — which I may or may not write.)

The church is the primary focus of the New Testament book of Ephesians (specifically, the role of the church in God’s eternal, redemptive purpose — Ephesians 1:3-14). The author identifies the church as the body of Christ (Ephesian 1:23), created by God’s grace in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:1-10). The church is composed of Gentile and Jew — what the author calls “a new humanity” (Ephesians 2:15). The church is the temple, the dwelling place of God (Ephesians 2:21-22). Unity that embraces and values diversity is a central characteristic in the life of the church (Ephesians 4:1-16).

In the description of the church’s life, the writer spoke of that which “promotes the body’s growth” (Ephesians 4:16), i.e., church growth. The body promotes is own growth “as each part is working properly” (Ephesians 4:16). Diversity — recognized, valued, embraced, and empowered — promotes growth. A church grows as each part of the body does what it does best. In other words, empowered laity is an essential element in the growth of any church.

Empowered laity point to the second essential element in the growth of a church — leadership that empowers the laity. In describing the life of the church, the biblical author identified four different leadership roles — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (in the original, pastors and teachers are linked together as one — Ephesians 4:11). These leaders are “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12). Leaders who equip others produces growth in the church — “for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).

Equipping the laity has two different components.

The first is helping the laity grow spiritually into Christ-like maturity — “until all of us come . . . to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Church leaders are responsible for helping others make progress in their spiritual journeys. “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15a).

The second component is helping the laity to develop their natural abilities to be used in ministry to others. These abilities — what Paul called spiritual gifts — are Spirit-given tools to be used in ministry. The equipping leader helps the people identify their unique gifts, develop those unique gifts, and deploy those unique gifts in the name of Jesus. The ministries that grow out of these abilities go beyond plugging into an organizational role in an institution in an effort to keep the institution functioning and alive. (So many of the church growth strategies identified over the past fifty years are nothing more than strategies for organizational and institutional survival. They ignore the foundational principles that shape a culture within the congregation that are conducive to growth.) Spirit-empowered and Spirit-guided ministries are life-giving expressions of grace that enrich and bless the lives of others.

These two components — spiritual growth and Spirit-empowered ministry — are interrelated. As the laity grow spiritually, a servant spirit — the servant Spirit of Christ — grows within them. That servant spirit is expressed in how they use their Spirit-given abilities to minister to others in Jesus’s name. As they give themselves in ministry to others, they continue to grow spiritually until they reach “the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:14).

The biblical writer spelled out his strategy for church growth in clear, unmistakable terms. Church growth is the result of two essential elements — spiritually-maturing laity who are empowered to do ministry and leaders who equip and empower them for their ministries by nurturing their spiritual growth.

So why have we not adopted the biblical writer’s strategy for church growth? Why have we missed it? Could it be that we have focused on the church as an organization rather than as a spiritual community, as a program-based institution rather than as a ministry-oriented community committed to addressing the needs of its community with the grace of God?

In growing churches, leaders equip the laity to do the work of ministry. As a result, “the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:16).