Mark Dever's 9 Marks newsletter (avaialable free through www.9marks.org) points to this link.
I'll provide the first few paragraphs and then you read the excellent commentary that follows:
How can you have a growing church? According to the advertisements in a recent issue of one prominent evangelical magazine, churches can grow by attending a seminar on effectively training church leaders in the local church; by ordering some new Sunday School literature; by buying electrical communications gear from a store in Alabama; by picking the right study Bible or Christian book, the right college or seminary. One prominent seminary, if you enroll, claims to "empower you to be a world changer."
Church growth today is big business. Many people, from bureaucrats in declining denominations, to sociologists of religion, to earnest young evangelical pastors, would like to know what a growing church is like and how to have one.
The apostle Paul knew that fundamentally a growing church is made up of growing Christians. And so he took time to pray for and to instruct the Christians he knew. And by God's grace, the church grew. Let’s turn now to Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, beginning at 3:12.
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2 comments:
Yes, God has to be at the center of a church for it to grow. I suppose that people are hesitant to do so because it means releasing your control -- your posession -- of the church.
But I'm sympathetic to how pastors can fall into the trap of measuring numbers above anything else. Someday, I'll have a District Superintendent breathing down my neck about attendance and tithing.
well, how do you get the children in a household to grow up well,
1. the father of the house works dilgently
2.the children are fed with good food prepared well and hygenicall
3.exercises are encouraged,and the children are adviced to do thata which will strnthen thier musles
4. adequate Rest for the children.
Pretty much ,church Growth can be similar to the growth of the children in a family.
AND IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS JESUS WIL BE THE ONE TO GROW HIS CHURCH and He can USE you the Pastor to FACILITATE THAT.
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