The last thing I want to do is discourage any person or ministry, or cause division. We must be careful about limiting the ways God can work, but we also need to be aware of how our strategies—even well-intentioned, statistically valid ones—can actually take us off course.
Allow me to suggest how certain popular church-growth “rules” can put a church’s health at risk when slightly misapplied or taken to extremes.
Church Growth Risky Rule #1: If it brings people in, it pleases God.
Recently, I attended a pastors’ gathering where many participants expressed frustration with the lack of numerical growth in their churches. One pastor said to me, “My feeling is, whatever works, and if it pleases God, that is what I want to do.”
I understood his good intentions, but I couldn’t agree with him. “You know, I don’t want to be nit-picky,” I said, “but I really have to differ with you. It’s not whatever works; it is whatever is pleasing to God. Period.”
Why? Because if it’s pleasing to God, it will work.
If there was ever a church growth plan that did work, it was the one the early Christians used. Talk about numbers. Talk about effectiveness. This church exploded. Why? Because they knew why they were here on earth and what they were supposed to do.
A careful reading of Acts 2:42-47 shows the early church didn’t make bigger and better their business. Instead, they focused on five priorities: worship, prayer, evangelism, learning and loving. The passage ends with the words, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (KJV). The first church didn’t have a problem with growth because God took care of the growth as they took care of honoring His principles.
Church growth is ultimately God’s business, not ours to control.
Our commission is to live out the Gospel individually and whole-heartedly in community. Then, in keeping with God’s will, “the Lord added to the church daily” will become the success story of our church.
Not every pastor will necessarily have a “megachurch,” but he will have a growing one.
Church Growth Risky Rule #2: The less confrontive or overt the Gospel message, the better.
One positive aspect of the recent growth movement is the emphasis on getting nonbelievers to come to church.
I’m concerned, however, that in a sincere effort to get their churches to grow, some pastors are exchanging entertainment for exhortation and gimmicks for the Gospel.
We recently conducted a survey at our church and found more than 40 percent of those who attended had become Christians at one of our services. If people walk away from our services with a good feeling but no idea who Jesus is, I know we have really missed the boat.
Graham Scroggie said compromise is what “prompts us to be silent when we ought to speak for fear of offending.” Of course, drama, videos, music and other media used to communicate Christian faith in churches today aren’t compromises by themselves. Yet we must be sure gimmicks don’t take the place of the Gospel. Let’s be sure we are actually proclaiming the whole Gospel—including sin, judgment and salvation.
