Holding Hands In The Church

When it comes to the church, church growth is naturally related to church health. Healthy churches, like healthy people, must grow.

In his book, The Purpose Driven Church, Pastor Rick Warren says that if our church is healthy, attendance will be the least of our problems. He writes that "Healthy, lasting church growth is multidimensional. His definition of church growth has five facets.

Every church needs to grow:

* larger through evangelism

* deeper through discipleship

* warmer through fellowship

* broader through ministry

* stronger through worship

Last time we looked at the dimension of church growth that says: Churches grow larger through evangelism.

In the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, there was always this large group of people that were following Jesus around. This group of people was what the Bible refers to as the crowd. The KJV Bible uses the word multitudes.

One objective of the church is to find the crowd and minister to the people who form the crowd. Jesus had no problem finding the crowd because it was always finding Him. The crowd followed him around because He had the good news and He was delivering the goods.

Let me interject here. God didn’t call us to make everybody Christians. He called us to make disciples. He didn’t call us to have everyone pray the “sinner’s prayer.” He called us to sow seeds and water His garden and he would cause the seeds to germinate. So it is only our responsibility to present the Gospel, He causes the growth.

One problem with many churches is that if God is gracious and causes a crowd to form at their church the church, they don't have a plan for moving people from the crowd into their congregation. The people that make up the crowd never leave it. One of the goals of the church should be to move people from the crowd to the congregation. This is accomplished by discipleship.

Not everyone who goes to church is a Christian. I used to think that this is a bad thing but I have since learned that it depends on how you look at it. Did you know that Jesus had disciples who didn’t believe? He put a lot of time into these men’s lives but some of them didn’t believe until they saw Him after His resurrection. Thomas was like that:

(John 20:25 NIV) So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

(John 20:26 NIV) A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"

(John 20:27 NIV) Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

(John 20:28 NIV) Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Jesus taught His disciples for three years and some of them didn’t believe until His resurrection. After his resurrection he spent another forty days with them until He ascended back to heaven.

So discipleship isn’t just for Christians, it’s for seekers. Seekers are people who aren’t Christians yet but are interested enough in Christ and His church to pursue learning more. Seekers are what form this crowd that I was speaking about last week. One of the goals of the church should be to move people from the crowd to the congregation. This is accomplished by discipleship.

Education and Discipleship

Everyone is concerned about education for one reason or the other. Education is one of the primary issues debated among the politicians who are running for the office of Mayor in Baltimore City.

Michael Olesker, a Sunpapers commentator, wrote in his column, “the kids come out of schools and can't compute any numbers that don't involve kilos -- and the mayor never shows any anger.”

Well, more people are flunking and dropping out of church in our nation than ever before and many of our pastors and teachers never show any anger. Just as long as the collection plates are full, Christian education or discipleship is not a concern in the local church.

It is very possible for a person to join a particular church and after twenty years of membership to be in the same place

, spiritually speaking, as they were when they became a member.

In other words,

They never read their Bible and years later the only time it’s pages see light is in the church.

They had a problem with the tongue before becoming a member, years later they still have a dirty mouth.