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The Church Growth Conference Jesus Taught
By Tom Brown
 Every
minister wants to grow his ministry. He wants to reach more people for
Christ. Pastors want their churches to grow. Evangelists want to hold larger
and more frequent revivals. They attend Church Growth Conferences to help
make this happen, yet all this time, Christ had given us the commandments
for evangelism. The church at large has ignored Christ training in
evangelism.
Jesus conducted His own church growth conference, yet we never
saw it in this way. Only twelve men attended the conference. I don’t have to
wonder if what He taught at His church growth conference is biblically
sound. I can accept His teachings as gold. I have followed His instruction
and can assure you that His Word works. The challenge is to take the
teachings He gave more than two millennias ago and make it practical for
today.
The disciples had just witness successive miracles. These signs
brought many people to salvation. They were excited about the possibility of
extending Christ Word to others. They wanted to win others to Christ. Jesus
knew their zeal, but He wanted to make sure their youthful passion was
matched with wisdom. This is the context of this conference. The meeting
Jesus held and His instructions are found in Matthew chapter 10. He gives us
the Ten Commandments for evangelism.
1. Know who
you are called to reach.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions:
“Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go
rather to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matt 10:5-6).
This instruction is before the cross. Since the cross the gospel
is for everyone. So we know that we should not limit our outreach to only
the Jews. However, there is an important lesson found in these words: you
can reach whoever you want to reach!
I hear pastors
complain, “We need more young people in our church.” Well you can reach them
if you want to. But you have to “become all things to all men so that by
all possible means I might save some” (1 Cor 9:22). This means you have
to become like young people to reach them. You must adapt your worship style
to suit their tastes. You will have to change the style of music you are
playing. It is at this point that many pastors balk: “Well, their music is
not anointed. It’s sound worldly.” Then forget about reaching them. You will
continue to complain that your church is getting older, but you are not
willing to change to reach young people.
A pastor friend in
Europe who is from Africa told me, “Pastor, as you can see my church is made
up of people only from Africa. The only natural born Europeans that you see
here are here because they knew you were coming. I want to reach them for
Christ. How can I attract Europeans, whites, and other non-Africans to my
church?”
I quizzed him,
“Are you sure you want to reach them? Are you really called to reach them?”
He assured me he really wanted to reach them.
I told him the
hard truth, “Then you will have to radically change your worship style.” His
church, though it was in Europe, sounded completely like it was from Africa.
They even sang songs in their native language. I continued, “Europeans will
feel like foreigners in your church. You do not make them feel like they are
a part of you.”
Another example I
gave him was this: that in Europe, including America, we start on time for
everything. In Africa you have “African time”. He tells people the service
is at 7 pm, but Africans know this means 8:30 pm. This must change if he
wants to reach Europeans. Music has to change to reflect the European
culture. I made the sincere pastor reflect on what it really takes to
capture the people he wants to reach. In doing so, he may lose his African
base. So he has to count the cost; he must be willing to pay the price to
embrace a certain segment he has failed to reach.
2. Have a Supernatural
ministry.
“As you go,
preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise
the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,
drive out
demons” (Matt
10:7-8).
The seeker
sensitive movement1
got it partly right: they focused on
people’s needs. Some however were skeptical of meeting those needs
supernaturally through prayer. But this is what we are called to do.
Many have
expressed concern for their charismatic church: “Pastor Tom, I belong to a
full-gospel church yet we are not growing, yet the church across the city
that does not pray for the sick is growing rapidly. I do not get it. What
are we doing wrong?” The problem I have noticed is they have forgotten who
they are trying to reach, the lost. They often speak Christianeze—a
language an unbeliever doesn’t understand. The charismatic church gets so
deep in theology; they get spooky, that sometimes, seekers or unbelievers
get scared off. Yet the seeker sensitive church accomplished what the
full-gospel churches were meant to do: they were meeting needs.
This is in essence
what Christ is teaching. Heal the sick and drive out demons. In other words,
people have needs now; go and meet their needs. Too often the charismatic
church is focused on self. They are looking to get people to meet their
needs, but if they would meet other people’s needs then their needs would be
met. How often have we heard ministers pleading with their congregation to
bring in the lost, yet if people’s needs were being met, the lost would
come.
You have never
seen Wal-mart send employees to your house begging you to come to Wal-mart.
Why? Because Wal-mart meets people’s needs. They sell things at a low price.
People know that, and so they shop there. McDonalds doesn’t send cooks to
your house wondering why you stopped eating at McDonalds. They don’t need to
go door to door to solicit customers. Why? They don’t need to, because they
have plenty of customers that enjoy their food. Here is my point, why do we
need to go door to door pleading with people to come to our church? It’s
because people’s needs are not being met. If we would get back to meeting
people’s needs, they would be filling our churches or attending our
evangelistic meetings.
I am always
thinking about people’s needs. Where are they hurting? What are their
difficulties? How can Christ help them? So I preach on things that meet
people’s needs, and they come by the hundreds filling my church or travel
long distances to attend my meetings. Why, because their needs get met. This
is what Christ was teaching us: heal the sick. Not just physical sickness
but every kind of sickness—marital sickness, financial sickness, emotional
sickness, spiritual sickness. When we do, they will come. Jesus did not beg
people to follow Him. He had to press through crowds that were clamoring to
get one touch from Him. Why? They did this because He met their needs.
The problem I have
seen is there is not a focus on authentic miracles, thus many skeptics are
turned off by the tactics of evangelists. Paul tells the Corinthian church
to be considerate toward unbelievers or inquirers that come to church.
“So if the whole church
comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not
understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out
of your mind? But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand
comes in
while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a
sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid
bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among
you!’” (1 Cor
14:23-25).
Look carefully at
what Paul says and what he does not say. He does not discourage the use of
the gifts of the Spirit. On the contrary, he gives an example of the proper
use of the gift of prophecy and shows that “unbelievers” or “someone
who does not understand” will fall down to worship God because God spoke
to him through prophecy. It is my firmly held belief that even unbelievers
or seekers want a touch from God. They often need to be healed or delivered.
They often need a word of wisdom. Paul is not down-playing the gifts of the
Spirit, but simply giving wisdom to the congregation on its proper use. The
only gift he warns about is speaking in tongues. It is because this is the
only gift that does not meet other people’s needs, but only the person
speaking in tongues. So he limits its use in the church so unbelievers do
not get scared and run away from hearing the message.
This means we
ought to be seeker sensitive when the gifts are in operation, but not to the
extent that we “quench the Spirit.” We simply need to help seekers
understand more fully the benefits of the gifts. For example, in my church
people often get very excited about praising the Lord. Many will dance in
jubilation. I am aware however there are many that are uncomfortable with
expressive praise, so I will “coach” the seekers in practicing praise. I
might talk to them about sports where people get excited when their team
wins or about dancing and how people are willing to move their bodies to
music, but why not get excited about the Lord or dance before God. What’s
so wrong about that? By coaching seekers in this way, they let down their
resistance and go along with the congregation. They discover a new way to
worship God and they have fun doing it. At the very least, they are not
quick to judge the joyful praise of the people.
I might coach in
the same way when we pray for the sick. I will explain briefly what we are
doing and why we lay hands on the sick. Just taking a little time to explain
things to seekers will put seekers more at ease.
Our church also
gives newcomers a packet, and in it we explain the various strange things
they might see or hear—tongues, healing, lifting hands. The packet
accomplishes what my coaching would do. It gives them scriptural proof and
backing as to why we do what we do and it makes them more comfortable with
the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. I am simply sensitive to seekers or
unbelievers questions, but I am not willing to put the brakes on the gifts
of the Spirit or to try to calm the joyful praise of my church members.
3. Don’t be materialistic but
make sure your people are taught to give.
“Freely you
have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper
in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a
staff; for the worker is worth his keep” (Matt 10:8-10).
The number one
excuse non church goers give as to why they don’t go to church is “All the
church cares about is my money.” We know this is usually not true, but
people perceive this to be true. Our goal is to change this false
perception. First of all, the church is one of the few places people can go
for free. There is no charge. Yet you do not hear people say they stopped
attending movies because all Hollywood cares about is money. Yet the truth
is Hollywood cares only about your money. People don’t complain that all
doctors want is their money, but doctors need their money. Restaurants,
department stores, service people require payment. You must pay to get their
service, yet people do not seem as bothered by the world’s desire to get
their money. So what’s the problem with the church? It is perception.
Jesus says, “Freely
you have receive, freely give.” He wants the world to understand that
the minister does not care about their money. The minister cares about their
soul, their lives. They do what they do as a free service. We must do
everything we can do to change the perception of unbelievers. They must
understand that we do not want their money, but their souls. Then Jesus
counters, “The worker is worth his keep.” There are two
juxtapositions: on one hand, give freely, or the other hand, those who have
received must also share with the person who has given freely. There must be
balance.
This means the
minister has an obligation, for the sake of the people, to teach on the
importance of giving. The people cannot come to church and expect free
services without the obligation to fund those free services. The minister
has failed its people when he is afraid to teach on stewardship. It is the
teaching on stewardship that may turn off selfish people. They may accuse
you of only wanting their money, but the risk must be taken, and careful
thought must be given on how to raise money without needlessly offending
generous people.
Good people like
to hear about the obligation to help others. They want to know about the law
of seed time and harvest. People with faith enjoy hearing about God’s
promises to bless those who are generous. Stingy people may not like these
messages, but you cannot succumb to fear because of greedy people. Teach on
the obligations and blessings of giving.
I think if the
minister lives a sacrificial life and avoids over consumption then people
will find it hard to accuse the man of God of preaching for money. At the
same time, a minister that can barely provide for his family including his
children’s education cannot bode well for the congregation. A congregation
has rarely succeeded when the minister lives below the level of the
congregation. Paul gives wise advice to how much to pay the pastor: “The
elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor,
especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture
says, ‘Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,’
and ‘The
worker deserves his wages.’”
(1 Tim 5:17-18).
“Double honor”
is required. There is no way you can read this passage and think that the
minister should live beneath his congregation. While it is not wise for the
minister to look like a king, it is doubly foolish to make him look like a
pauper. God desires to bless us even with material goods, and so the
minister should be an example of God’s desire to bless the righteous.
1
The Seeker Sensitive Movement is a
church whose main purpose is to make the church look more attractive to
unbelievers. The positive things cannot be overstated: use of multimedia,
savvy productions, coffee shops, more casual atmosphere, messages geared
toward meeting felt needs, etc. However the negative things must also be
highlighted: forbidding the practice of spiritual gifts in the church
service, worship oriented toward entertainment, and ignoring messages on
sin, judgment and hell.
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