My Dear Friend,

If honest, pastors everywhere will admit they desire to see their churches grow. Or, in Jesus' words, to "bear much fruit" (John 15:8). And this is good. Natural. Right. And New Testament. If they do not want growth, something is seriously lacking.

But some want growth far too much. They are willing to offer worldly amusements, try any trick, use false advertising, appease impenitent sinners, or make other moral compromises just to have more warm bodies sitting in their sanctuaries come next Sunday morning! But there is another way.

God's way! To understand it, let's define biblical church growth and describe how it comes.

Biblical Church Growth

Church growth is essentially a supernaturally driven process. It begins with believers interceding for the lost. This then initiates, or increases, the Holy Spirit's mystical drawing of unsaved souls who, under the awe of God, forsake their sins, come to Christ, believe His Word, and receive Him and His Holy Spirit. Then they commit themselves to be His disciples, or deeply serious, irrevocably committed, self-disciplined, student-followers. To this end, they faithfully attend Christian fellowships to learn to live, labor, worship, and minister Christ's way.

They are single-minded and sincere. They do not attend church for ulterior motives, to receive worldly perks, find spouses, please their relatives, enjoy religious entertainments, grow their businesses, or enhance their reputation. Their aim is simple: to know Christ ever more intimately, serve Him ever more fruitfully, love His people ever more deeply, and honor Him ever more highly with the gifts and calling He has sovereignly given them.

The truth is, comparatively few will do this. Only those whom the Spirit steadily draws as Christians faithfully intercede. Under the Spirit's holy influence, they have no desire or intent to continue living in sin. To the contrary, they are ecstatic to finally be free of it! Their minds are now set on pleasing Christ all their remaining days. They dream only of finishing the race He has set before them and fulfilling their part of His honorable kingdom plan, to help His people and prepare His glorious bride. Apart from this, life is meaningless for them.

Their sin quenched, their hearts now glow and flow with an insatiable desire for steady spiritual growth, to become ever more "conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). For this, they give themselves to regular Bible study, prayer, worship, fellowship, and receive council regularly from spiritually mature elders. They also willingly submit to God's testing process, realizing we mature spiritually only by successful testing.

This, and nothing less, is the kind of church growth Luke had in mind when he noted, "The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). And "believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes of men and women" (Acts 5:14). And "a great number believed, and turned [wholly] unto the Lord" (Acts 9:21). And "many people were added unto the Lord" (Acts 5:24). These first Christians believed, turned wholly to Christ, and became vitally attached to Him, thereafter living as human branches totally dependent on the Vine of Christ (John 15:1-8).

How Church Growth Comes

It's desirable to conclude church growth is desirable. It's more desirable to know how. So, let's explore how we may experience church growth God's way. To grow:

• We must put the spiritual before the natural. God is not focused on our worldly assets: buildings, lands, funds, technologies, public reputation, or numbers of congregants. He wants all these interests to be subservient to spiritual interests. Our congregations are His house, or dwelling places, so we must put His interests, values, and goals first. And keep them there. We should seek spiritual growth in our current members more zealously than numerical growth from non-members. If we steadily make disciples of those we have, Christ, in His time and way, will give us more to disciple. Why? We are faithfully fulfilling our commission (Matthew 28:19-20), seriously putting His spiritual values before our numerical desires.

• We must put God's Word front and center. Whether Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical, or of mainline associations, we should honor God's Word above our "words" - cultural traditions, human ideals, popular beliefs, social trends, political messages, media, polling, and so forth. His Word is to be studied prayerfully and diligently from cover to cover (2 Timothy 2:15), meditated upon constantly (Psalm 1:1-3), taught with faithfulness its letter and spirit, and diligently applied to our actual lives through expositional teaching and personal counsel. The "rubber meets the road" where the logos meets our lives in an intimate, deep, enduring, life-changing way.

• The ways of God must be honored. We must cease doing church ministry and business according to this world's model and begin earnestly restudying and recapturing New Testament ecclesiastical ways, all of which are based on God's M.O. (modus operandi). Mankind's M.O., especially those of today's frenetic postmodern culture, are in a state of constant flux, and always end in frustration and failure! God's M.O. never changes, or fails. If we faithfully persist in His ways, we will joyfully succeed in them.

• God's Spirit must preside over and fill every activity. This begins when leaders commit to regular (daily) prayer meetings. There, at Jesus' feet, we reconnect with His mighty, ever-flowing river of the Spirit (Ezekiel 47:1-12; John 7:37-39). As we draw near Him with songs of thanksgiving and worship, pray His Will, pray in His Spirit, and seek His mind, He imparts His initiatives and fills us with His power while we soak in His Presence. We emerge distinctly changed; not human-led or reason-led but Spirit-led (Romans 8:14). This regular Spirit-saturation makes all the difference. Every work, every message, every program, every mission, and every public outreach then flows from the singular, heavenly, supernatural fountainhead of the all-powerful, Christ-appointed, divine Paraclete. And our actions reenact Acts.

• God's righteousness and holiness must be honored. God honors those who honor Him (1 Samuel 2:30). A holy God will not give His holy converts to an unholy church. If its members are unwilling to separate from this world's sins, He is unwilling to attach new members to them. He reserves that favor and fruit for the willing. A separated God will not grow a church that is conjoined with the world; that prefers drifting with its culture's relative truth to standing on His absolute truth; that, ashamed of biblical righteousness, trusts in righteousness-by-polling. Jesus' monumental instructions stand like an Everest of truth overshadowing His church: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness ..." (Matthew 6:33). Then what? "... All these things shall be added unto you," including new converts and disciples.

• Our praise and worship must be pure. Jesus said those who please the Father "must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24). Therefore, the lyrics to our songs should honor the written truth, always quoting or agreeing with the Bible; and honor life truth, reflecting the true nature of the Christian walk; and, above all, honor the living Truth, Jesus. And we should worship in the truth of honesty, free from all lying and deceit. We must also worship "in spirit," or in our spirit-core infiltrated with the Holy Spirit; in a right spirit of utter sincerity; and in a pure spirit, with all sin confessed and forsaken. Never rush praise and worship to get on to other things. Our conscious aim should be to give Christ an unhurried offering of praise that pleases Him deeply. He will confirm He is pleased by "inhabiting," or indwelling, our worship (Psalm 22:3), saturating us with His mighty, life-giving, sensed Presence. Then we not only worship Him, we experience Him.

• We must be living in unity. When the early Christians grew dynamically, they were unified. Deeply, thoroughly one. They held fast one goal: to fully know Christ and fully do His will so they could fully glorify Him. They gathered around one center: obeying Jesus! Realizing He charged them to "love one another, as I have loved you" (John 13:34), they complied, living in one accord. If they sinned against another Christian, they asked forgiveness; and if sinned against, they forgave. They chose to have Christ's attitude about each other, never holding grudges, ever seeking reconciliation. They put others' needs before their own. They endured others' bad attitudes while focusing on getting their own right. When fellow Christians fell out, they stepped in to reunite them. They prayed for, and with, each other daily. They thanked God for each other, honoring others' strengths and praying over their weaknesses. This is how they reached "Pentecostal condition." Or, in Luke's words, "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication . . . When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord" (Acts 1:14; 2:1). All similarly unified churches are growable churches.

• These changes must start at the top. Minister, elder, pastor, we must lead in these reforms. When Israel's first priestly leader, Aaron, was anointed with God's holy oil, representing His Holy Spirit, the oil ran down, not up - from Aaron's face, to his beard, to his priestly garments, and to its tassels. Psalm 133 says unity flows just like this oil: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity . . . like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments" (Psalm 133:1-2). Similarly, biblical unity begins at the "head" (leader) of every local assembly, its pastor. As we intentionally live in unity, others will follow our ways in Christ, consciously or unconsciously. And the oil of the Spirit will flow down - to associate pastors, to our elders, to our deacons, to our worship leaders, to our youth leaders, to our children's ministers, to our Christian schools, and to every individual member. And as the Spirit's oil flows, the Good Shepherd's pleasure, and our flock, grows.

As we diligently pursue these reforms, one day we discover our churches are growable. All biblical preparations are in place. The altar and sacrifice are ready for the heavenly fire to fall. The Upper Room is filled with unified, willing, prepared vessels. Cornelius' house church is ready to experience its Pentecost. The Antioch church, no longer troubled by divisive Judaizers, is ready to become a thriving Gentile worship center and base for nation-changing missions. Why? Obscure, divided churches got serious about becoming growable, about church growth God's way. So, get going!

Get growable! Get God's attention! Get His assistance! "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them [growable ministers, churches]" (Mark 16:20). And may He add to your church daily those who will be saved.

Getting going, getting growable,

Dr. Greg Hinnant

GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES