THIS MATERIAL BELOW
is a borrowed material
for DISCUSSION PURPOSES at
HIS LIFE DIVINITY SCHOOL
3rd SEMESTER 2018
oct nov dec NIGHT EDITION
PART 1 of 10
borrowed from B.M.
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INTRODUCTION
With a proliferation of books and conferences on church growth, why another book?
While we who pastor churches are deeply indebted to those church growth scientists who have shown us how to measure growth, predict growth, plan for growth, and organize for growth, I think it needs to be remembered that church growth is a consequence, not a means to an end. It is the result of the church truly “being” the church, in worship, witness and word. The abundant growth reports in Acts are actually reports stating normal behavior of normal churches. If such reports occurred in our day, such as 3000 being saved in one day from one sermon in one church, you can bet that church would be written up in every religious journal, and dubbed as “abnormal”. We don’t have normal results today because in most cases we are not dealing with a normal church. I am convinced when the 20th century church resumes “normal” behavior, the kind we read about in Acts, we will see “normal” result again (which the watching community would surely call abnormal!)
In the following pages, you will read principles gleaned from experiences.
Experientialism that isn’t tied to scripture is little more than sugar-coated subjectivism.
These principles were “stumbled on to” by divine providence. Most of them I discovered over years of trial and error. I call them Biblical pragmatics. They work because they are biblically based, not because they are a new and unique technique.
Every church growth student must remember that it’s Jesus who builds His church. He said, in fact, “. . . I will build my church. “He is still in the building business where He finds people who are willing to work with and under Him, using all the wherewithal He’s provided. It’s then the church grows. It must grow, it can do nothing but grow.
In the words of a restaurant owner when asked why his business had doubled, tripled, and quadrupled; “It has to long as we stick to our original objective, feeding hungry people good food.”
This is the day of large audiences. It is a day of always equating crowds with success.
While no right thinking person is naïve enough to believe that is true, we need to be careful about running numbers down. I’ve discovered that in church circles, those that are running numbers down usually aren’t running any up! God is concerned with numbers, He even named a book in the Bible by that name. you can’t read the book of Acts without being convinced that God is interested in numbers. It speaks of the eleven, the 120, 3000 being saved, then 5000, then multitudes. It goes from people being “added” to the number of disciples, to being “multiplied.” With over 5 billion on planet earth, and only a third or less knowing Christ, we know numerically what we must do.
This book is also for those who have met discouragement in non-growing churches.
Hopefully, as ministers and leaders face the exaltation of tradition at the price of maintenance in the local church, these chapters will be an encouragement that you really can break through the wall of provincialism and stagnant faith. God created the church to grow, He planned it to grow, He designed it to grow, He empowered it with supernatural power so it would grow. So the only way it won’t grow is if we stop it from growing by failing to honor those inviolable principles God set in motion. Happy sailing through these pages. God has never destined every church to be a church of three, five, or ten thousand, but He has destined every church to grow. Good growth to you.
THE VISION FACTOR
I have a file folder in my left hand desk drawer labeled “Dreams and Visions”. Into that file I drop dreams and visions from time to time. About once a month I clean out the ones that were “imaginations of my own mind” and pitch them in the trash. The others stay, some become reality, others lie there until their time comes. Every true vision awaits its time.
Thousands of churches struggle from week to week with no vision and no dream for the future.
They plod along, RE-acting to what comes instead of ACTing so as to dictate what comes. Unfortunately, many churches of all sizes major in mediocrity and specialize in status-quo due to lack of vision. The bible says:
And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. . . (Joel 2:28)
Peter quoted this verse on the day of Pentecost when the very first church was born. It’s no wonder it was born in power and dynamism. Historically, God has consistently worked through a visionary people who crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, who marched around Jericho seven times, who went into promised land and conquered.
What exactly is a visionary church?
What are the marks of a visionary body of believers?
A VISIONARY CHURCH
IS A
POWER CONSCIOUS CHURCH
The church was born in power!
The sound of a mighty rushing wind set the stage .it’s not just coincidental that the full pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church went hand in hand. It was designed that way. Not only born in power, it grew in power. It conquered in power. It met opposition in power. It was evident that the church of the first century maneuvered its way across Asia with a supernatural force that made Rome sit up and take notice. Without the benefit of a computer, a copy machine, a telephone, a video recorder or a word processor, the church grew because of her reliance on God’s power, poured out through the Holy Spirit. Phrases like this occur all through the book of Acts:
And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:33).
Their power penetrated paganism, healed the sick, raised the dead, drove out demons, and shook whole cities for the gospel.
The 20th century church needs desperately a recovery of power. God never intended the church to rub by sharp, Madison avenue techniques with slick brochures and suave lines, but by the power of God! A man on death row was walking toward the electric chair for his execution. All appeals had failed, this was the final walk. He walked past other prisoners whom he knew, and each of them had a farewell word for him. One said “ Goodbye Joe.” Another said, “Keep your chin up.” Still another said, “Take it on the chin, Joe.” But one said , “MORE POWER TO YOU, JOE.” Obviously this wasn’t the most appropriate thing to say to someone headed for 300 volts of electricity, but it is appropriate for God to say to His church….MORE POWER TO YOU!
A VISIONARY CHURCH
IS A
WITNESSING CHURCH
Acts 1:8 says, “Yous shall be my witnesses.” It didn’t say, “Will you be my witnesses?”
Witnessing was not an option in the early church. ”…..now those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). O, for a rediscovery of witnessing for the church today. Most churches have a bad case of “inwarditis.” Some call it “spiritual navel-gazing.” It is the inward look syndrome, where outreach is not in vogue anymore. If you examine the activity calendar of most local churches today, you’ll discover that very little activity is given over to witnessing, sharing Christ with the unregenerate world. Our presentation perspective is at a very low ebb. Yet churches today that are thriving, growing and expanding rapidly are churches that have caught the vision of outreach. There is entirely too much too much self-satisfaction with the status-quo in many churches. God has called us to witness!! The church exists to witness, it’s the way God planned for the church to grow and expand!
A VISIONARY CHURCH
IS A
GIVING CHURCH
To give or not to give….that was never the question in the early church. There was a spontaneity in giving that caused the church to never lack funds to do God’s work. If you want to know what the tone was in this area, listen:
….and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common (Acts 4:32)
Also:
….there was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostle’s feet (Acts 4:34:35).
Though a later chapter will deal more in detail about this, suffice it to say here that today, where churches are growing rapidly and doing great things for God, if you look behind the scenes, you will see sacrificial giving on a great scale.
A VISIONARY CHURCH WILL
BE A
GROWING CHURCH
I think it is a point of interest that the very first church God brought into existence was a large church. It had 3000 baptized in one day! That’s growth! Later, they simply counted them by referring to them as “multitudes”. Let me ask you a pointed question. How big do you visualize your church becoming? 400? 800? 1000? 3000? 8000? 10,000? Are you believing God for a large church? In some quarters, “large church” is a naughty word. Some feel if it is a large church, it must be doctrinally impure or extremely worldly. Neither is necessarily true. It may be that it’s large because a little band of believers had a vision for largeness and great numbers. I don’t think God is concerned with the SIZE of any church as long as it’s a growing church. A large church that isn’t growing is just as much an abomination to the Lord as a small church that isn’t growing. God intended the church to grow. He created it to grow, designed it to grow, equipped it to grow, empowered it to grow, SO IT OUGHT TO GROW…unless we stop it. Yet isn’t it strange , when a church does grow consistently and rapidly, we stand in awe! When I came to Overlake, it was a brand new church with only about 85 people. In 18 years it has grown to a membership of over 5,000. Some people stand back and say, “That’s just incredible!” in reality, it’s really sub normal! It should have grown to be a church of nearly 20,000 or 40,000. The church of Jesus Christ has been sub-normal for so long, let it approximate normality and everyone thinks it’s abnormal! Look at the growth progress reports in Acts. They are to say the least , quite impressive.
So those who received His word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers and fear came upon every soul; and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles (Acts 2:41-43).
And they arrested them and put them in custody until the morrow, for it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed and the number of men came to about five thousand (Acts 4:3-4).
And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7).
And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said to Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed (Acts 8:6-7)
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied (Acts 9:31)
And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord (Acts 9:35).
And it became known throughout all Joppa and many believed in the Lord (Acts 9:42).
And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord (Acts 11:21).
But the word of God grew and multiplied (Acts 12:24).
Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord (Acts 13:12)
And they said, “Believed in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. You and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds and he was baptized at once with all his family. Then he brought them up at once into his house and set food before them; and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God (Acts 16:31-34).
So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily (Acts 19:20)
In your vision of a great church, make sure you visualize a potentially large church. believe God for something BIG! But … some would object, “you’re just in the numbers game.” God certainly isn’t ashamed of numbers, is He? You read, as above, about numbers in Acts, first 11, then 120, then 3000, then 5000, then multitudes. While the work of church growth is with God, I believe God wants us to have a vision for a mighty church.
How do you translate all this into practical, workable strategy? We learned in the early years of our church’s existence that we had to be headed someplace, there had to be objective, goals, targets. Our commission is to disciple the world! Then, what is our world strategy? What is our national strategy? What is our regional strategy? Our state strategy? Our local area strategy? So we went to work. At this writing, a half million dollars is being given for world missions every year. We are on track to plant a new congregation every other year, not just in the local area, but in the national area where population shifts are going. We project that in three more years, we’ll be giving over $1 million to missions alone! We keep a 10-year updated plan at all times that projects budgets, attendance, conversions, new churches, staff, facilities, ministries, etc.
I have insisted that every pastoral/staff person take one day a month for prayer, fasting, envisioning and meditation. I’ve asked them to dreams and seek God’s face for the future to their ministry in this body. The results have been phenomenal! not all dreams fly, nor are all visions from God, but some are. We don’t even know sometimes which are and which aren’t until we have tried to implement them. Their confirmation often comes at that time when they make it or don’t.
We hold at least two staff/ elder retreats per year just for the purpose of further dreaming and planning. No dream is a bad dream in the initial sharing of ideas, visions, and plans. These sessions have been extremely fruitful and up building. It’s here that web discover what the spirit wants for this body. It doesn’t come quickly, but slowly as we wait upon the Lord.
If the leadership has no vision for the future, the local church will have no future! That will be discussed more in a later chapter. Now, a word of warning to the wise! Ever-present in every church are vision-dampers. They come in the form of people, statements, inuedos, attitudes, and traditions. Here are a few “vision-dampers” you’ll need to watch for.
“The future is God’s business, not ours”.
That sounds very spiritual, and proponents of that often quote Jesus’ sermon on the mount that says, “Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day” (Matt. 6:34). These people would have you believe that it’s not very spiritual to dream, plan, or be visionary about the future. And, they are right if WE are the ones alone who put together the future and then try to drum up support from God and Man for OUR plans! But being visionary is really an effort on our part to find out what God has in mind for the future, and then get in on it. Jesus also told a very pointed parable about a man who started to build, and didn’t first sit down and count the cost. The meaning of that is that we must plan. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.
“What’s going to cost”
Somebody will always ask that question when visionaries meet and make bold plans for the future. It’s almost like the cost factor is the key determining factor. We are learning not to ask,
“What’s going to cost” but rather, “Is it a great thing for God?” If it’s a great thing for God, Whatever it will cost is not too much. If it’s not a great thing for God, and was free, it costs too much! For some reason, there will always be someone who constantly says, “Can we afford it?” In 1974 we needed busses to pick up scores of kids in our drawing area whose parents attended church nowhere. The need could not have come at a worse time financially. We were strapped, and every dime was designated. But in a move of faith, one of our men said, “Let’s forget what it will cost and concentrate on God’s ability to provide and I move we buy two second-hand busses to begin with!” It passed, we did it, and a donor paid for the first bus completely! For a few years four busses transported some two hundred children in to Sunday school, some of whom are grown, married, and holding positions of service in the church today! Remember, if it’s a great thing for God and helping to fulfill the great commission, the cost is in occidental!
“We never did it that way before!”
These have been called the 7 last words of church. And well they may be! This is one of the most subtle of all vision-damper. When I think of this statement, I will always think of God’s word to Israel, “Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it” (Isa.43:19)? God will only do new things where new things are welcome. God’s message is unchangeable, but ways to present it are changed everyday. A church whose leadership has taught the people to expect new and vital workings of God are growing today.
I have made a habit of asking preachers and people when I visit a church, “What are your future plans for taking your country for Christ?” Some of the looks I get would bring an instant freeze! By far, most pastors, church leaders and others have made no plans for tomorrow. They’ve entertained no vision, dreamed no dreams and few if any plans for the future.
Someone once said that we’ve been subnormal for so long, if a church became normal, most people would think it abnormal! Assuming that the “normal” church we read about in the Bible was a visionary church, we desperately need to seek to be a “normal” church.
Put the following monologue in your think tank and let it germinate.
Have you ever noticed the difference between subnormal churches are frozen together; normal churches move by the Spirit, subnormal churches creep by committees; normal churches do it now, subnormal churches just table the motion; normal churches preach convulsively, subnormal churches lecture calmly; normal churches double their budgets, subnormal churches double their meetings; normal churches evangelize subnormal churches fossilize; normal churches bulges! Normal churches hemorrhage subnormal churches only bleed; normal churches cross Red Seas on dry ground, subnormal churches jump mud puddles and get wet; normal churches are fishers of men, subnormal churches keep aquariums; normal churches multiply, subnormal churches only divide; normal churches are run by God’s power, subnormal churches manufacture their own; normal churches stay in orbit, subnormal churches stay on the launching pad; normal churches make much dust, subnormal churches sweep it under the rug; normal churches reach for the moon, subnormal churches try for the street lights; normal churches attempt the impossible, subnormal churches debate over the impossible!
Normal churches will be raptured by Christ!
Subnormal churches will be ruptured by rot!
END of PART 1
VISION
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