In a world flooded with common trends it is no a surprise to see the vast amount of self help books that have hit our shelves. There are self help books written for weight loss, self esteem, aging, computers, stress and almost every other problem that you could possibly face in life. It is not difficult to find a book that promises you an effective strategy and method to help you deal with your issues. If you happen to visit a Christian bookstore I believe you will notice the same trend.
I began looking for specific books with the purpose of understanding the biblical process of church growth. What I found was hundreds of books offering do-it-yourself strategies and methods to help churches effectively grow simply by implementing the techniques outlined in the books. Each book was different and offered tactics that have effectively worked in some churches, but of course there is no guarantee that it will work in yours. It seems as though we can easily get caught up in methods and quick growth strategies that pull us away from the true biblical process and cause us to settle for methods that often leave us high and dry.
I believe that God wants His church to grow and He has given clear direction as to how this will take place. Gene Mims provides an outline from scripture in his book, “Kingdom Principles for Church Growth” that does not focus on new methods or strategies but instead focuses on returning to the biblical principles of church growth. It is God who is adding to his kingdom which continues to grow. We must find our place in this growth by looking at the biblical process by which God increases his kingdom. Gene outlines this divinely inspired growth process in what he calls the 1•5•4 principle.
Just the other day I asked some of my students what the purpose of the church was and we all sat in silence. In Matthew 28:16-20 Jesus gave his disciples the great commission commanding them to make disciples. Mims states that, “The Great Commission has been the driving force of missions and evangelism for believers and churches in every generation since the New Testament times.” The Great Commission is God’s mission and should be the churches mission in the world as we follow Him. The fact is there are a lot of people that would never guess that the actual purpose of the church has anything to do with the great commission. Maybe the reason many of them do not know is because so few of them actually participate in fulfilling that purpose.
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” The premise behind many of these self help books is the idea that you have the ability to accomplish these things in your own power. Simply by implementing the strategies you can effectively conquer major issues in your life. We tend to get enamored with the idea that we can do things ourselves which begins to hinder our reliance upon God. When it comes to fulfilling the great commission however we have no authority or power, it has not been given to us. All authority has been given to Christ and it is only in Him that we can accomplish these things by His power and authority.
“Go, therefore.” Jesus has declared that we must go; this is not optional, it’s a command! Our purpose in God’s process of church growth is to go and make disciples. We are going under the authority that has been given to Jesus which means that we are not responsible for the reaction of those who hear the gospel; however we are responsible for sharing the message. Our responsibility is to make disciples and in the midst of that process God promises that he will not leave us or forsake us. The great commission is the one driving force for church growth.
News commentator Dan Rather has a good way of keeping his professional objective always in mind. He says he looks often at a question he’s written on three slips of paper. He keeps one in his billfold, one in his pocket, and one on his desk. The probing reminder asks, “Is what you are doing now helping the broadcast?” - Our Daily Bread. As Christians we should be asking the questions “Is what I am doing now helping to fulfill the Great Commission?”
In most self help books there is not only a goal in mind but there is a method that is given to help you reach that goal. The goal of the church is fulfillment of the Great Commission, but are we simply left with this command and no guidelines on how to accomplish this? Mims has come up with five biblical principles that the church must do in order to grow. The Great Commission is the 1 driving force behind kingdom growth commanded by God and there are 5 biblical principles that the church must corporately do to be obedient to the Lord. Mims reminds us that this is God’s way of growing churches and building His kingdom in this world.
These five principles are found in Acts 2:38-47. As you are turning in your bibles to Acts chapter 2 listen to what the Word of the Lord says in verses 38-41, “’Repent,’ Peter said to them, ‘and be baptized’ each of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’ And with many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, ‘Be saved from this corrupt generation!’ So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them”
I believe it is safe to say that a church will not experience kingdom growth if it is not active in evangelism. According to Mims New Testament evangelism is defined as “the process of sharing the gospel with lost persons and winning people to Christ enabling them to enter the kingdom of God.” If the greatest thing that has ever happened to us is the day we experienced salvation, then the greatest thing we could do for someone else is share the gospel with them! It is evident in the early church that the believers evangelized. Acts says “they urged others to be saved from this corrupt generation” and the result was church growth, “three thousand people were added to them.” We know that God is in the business of saving people and we must join in Him in that process as we share the gospel. God has chosen to redeem lost sinners and we are the method for evangelizing the world. God has called us to go and our obedience to Him will guarantee growth in His kingdom!
The second principle is discipleship. Acts 2:42-43 says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. Then fear came over everyone, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.” Discipleship is defined as a “lifelong journey of obedience to Christ that transforms a person’s values and behavior and results in ministry in one’s home, church, and the world” (Mims). The Great Commissions says we are to “teach them to obey all that I have commanded” and Acts says that the people “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…” Once again we are commanded to teach them, discipleship is not an option.
Three pastors got together for coffee one day and found all their churches had bat-infestation problems. “I got so mad,” said one, “I took a shotgun and fired at them. It made holes in the ceiling, but did nothing to the bats.” “I tried trapping them alive,” said the second. “Then I drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to the church.” “I haven’t had any more problems,” said the third. “What did you do?” asked the others, amazed. “I simply baptized them,” he replied. “I haven’t seen them since.” This is a funny story and yet it sadly resembles our churches. We baptize a large number of people who don’t come back. It is very easy to forget what it was like when we were first saved, especially if we did not have a background in a church. When I was saved at 17 years old I knew nothing about church or how to be a Christian. It took a lot of teaching and guidance from others to get me to where I am today. This is the same thing we must do in the lives of others who have come to Christ. We must teach them to love, trust, and obey God instead of leaving them to figure it out on their own as baby Christians. I do not believe that it is in God’s plan for Christians to mature on their own, instead Christians mature as they experience discipleship and practice discipleship with others.
The third principle for kingdom growth is fellowship. Acts 2:42, 46-47 says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. And every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added those being saved to them.” The believers evangelized, practiced discipleship, and devoted themselves to fellowship and God continued to add to their number daily.
It is by God’s design that we have fellowship with one another. I constantly hear the excuse that you don’t have to be at church in order to worship God. I would not necessarily disagree with that statement, but I would add that you do have to meet with the fellowship of believers to be obedient to God. I know that in our church many of the believers would define fellowship as having a big meal. We are Baptists and we love our food! However, fellowship is far more than simply eating or spending time together. Mims describes it as, “an essential function of the church. Fellowship is the way members of a church express the “oneness” they share in Christ.” Fellowship with God and each other is a key to kingdom growth as seen in Acts as the people devote themselves to it. “The desire for fellowship is the mark of a mature believer and a mature congregation” (Mims).
Ministry is the fourth kingdom principle. Acts 2:44-45 says, “Now all the believers were together and had everything in common. So they sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as anyone had a need.” Ministry is defined as “meeting another person’s need in the name of Jesus, expressed as service to persons inside the church family and expressed as missions to persons outside the church.” (Mims) I believe that as we evangelize and disciple others and as we devote our time to the fellowship we will begin to have compassion and concern for others that allows ministry to flow naturally in our lives. I was talking to a fellow believer today about the church and he mentioned that he did not have a ministry. As I thought about what he said I realized that this is a man who spends the greater part of his life devoted to the fellowship of believers. He gives of himself sacrificially to anyone who has a need and is sensitive to others who need help. He not only spends time meeting needs of those inside the church but he also takes time to meet needs outside of the church as he participates in missions. I believe that this person has a ministry that God has entrusted him with in the church, but he simply didn’t recognize it. God provides the means by which we can minister and every single believer is gifted to minister both inside and outside of the church. If believers are not participating in ministry then they fail to obey the Lords command and stunt the growth of the church. Kingdom growth occurs as people follow God’s divine process of evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, and worship.
The fifth principle that a church must do in order to experience kingdom growth and fulfill the great commission is worship. This is found in Acts 2:46-47 as the early church “devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added those being saved to them.” Worship is one of the most vital functions of the church. It is “the response of believers to the presence, holiness, and revelation of Almighty God.” (Mims) Often true worship is sacrificed for schedules, traditions, and misleading focuses in our church services. Though different styles of worship can help lead us in worship true worship is less of a form and more of an experience. We worship God when we experience Him in a meaningful, spiritually transforming way. (Mims) When a church member can walk out of a service and simply say “well that was nice” untransformed then worship probably did not occur. On the other hand, when people leave a worship service with no doubt that they have been in the presence of the Lord and they are spiritually transformed leaving the building different than when they came in you can rest assured worship took place in their lives. This encounter with God is essential in the church, worship must take place in order for kingdom growth to occur. I believe we spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to create worship when in fact it is God who begins and controls worship. True worship isn’t how we like it, it is how God likes it. God is in control of worship and we should seek His leadership in worship instead of seeking new methods and strategies that are supposed to bring about worship. Worship is not an option in the believer’s life, it is obedience! It is always an experience with God that creates a response in His children.
If we fulfill the 1 driving force behind church growth by doing the 5 functions of church growth we will experience 4 results. If we actively fulfill the divine process that God has given to his church these four results will take place. God has written the ultimate self help book since His plans, methods, and results do not fail.
The first result is numerical growth. In the book of Acts the early church evangelized, devoted themselves to teaching (discipleship), devoted themselves to fellowship, ministered to one another, and worshiped God and the bible says that God added to their number daily! We can be assured that numerical growth will happen when we peruse God’s process of church growth. Numerical growth is a sign of God’s work being accomplished in His church.
The second result is spiritual transformation. Mims recognizes that if numerical growth is all a church strives for, the outcome will be the creation of something “a mile wide and a half-inch deep.” I don’t believe that God ever intended his people to be shallow. God is in the process of making his children more like Christ. As we evangelize, disciple, fellowship, minister, and worship I do not believer there is anyway we can remain unchanged ourselves. Spiritual transformation will take place as we are obedient to God.
A third result is ministry expansion. When the church begins to grow in number and those people begin to be transformed they become more spiritually mature. As this maturity increases new doors are opened for new ministry that was impossible beforehand. New ministries will form continually as God’s process for church growth is carried out within a body of believers.
The fourth result is kingdom advance. If a church is growing, its members are becoming more spiritually mature, and new ministries are opening up it is obvious that more and more people will be reached with the gospel. As the growing fellowship of believers evangelizes they have the ability to reach more and more people.
This is the 1•5•4 principle that Mims discusses in his book which is taken directly from the word of God. It isn’t some man made strategy to get more people in church it is a God designed process to advance His kingdom. As we return to the biblical principles for church growth the results are guaranteed. A church that is fulfilling the commission of Christ by actively perusing evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and worship will experience numerical growth, spiritual transformation, ministry expansion, and kingdom advance. These things permeated the early church and these are the things you will essentially find in a church that is being obedient to God by following His divine process.
great stuff! live it as you preach it, my brother.
in His Grace,
I believe the only command in the great commission is “Make Disciples”. “Go, therefore” is not a command. It is a participle and should be read, “as you are going, therefore”. The term “world” is not a reference to the globe. As you are going into your world….the world of sports, the world of medicine or your own little world. What does your world incompass? School? Work? Raising Kids? Whatever your world is and where ever you find yourself in it….”make disciples.”
Actually, isn’t the word “go” in Greek a Plural First Aorist Passive Participle? It is my understanding that the participle is used in a way that expresses action that is a precursor to the main action and to show who is doing the action, and the action itself remains “undefined” because it is passive. It is used more to show who is doing the “going” and what to do during the going (making disciples) rather than expressing the ways to “go.” I am not convinced that the focus and emphasis in this passage is the word “go” and yet I think we often make that the main focus. Make Disciples, however, is the verb; it is the action that we should be doing. “Go” is simply a passive participle that describes who and what, but doesn’t necessarily describe the how and I believe that it has equal syntactic status to the main verb “make disciples.” It isn’t “as you go” nor is it simply “go” it is, however, “go and make.”
We shouldn’t put too much emphasis on going with little emphasis on making disciples and we shouldn’t put to much emphases on making disciples with little emphasis on going, but in fact we should put the same amount of emphasis on both because they are of equal importance. Our task as believers should be to “make disciples” both as we intentionally go to “all nations” and simply “as we are going,” whatever the case we should be making disciples. This is a command that does not end, which means it should be a constant part of a believers life.
The term “world” as you say does not appear in the Greek at all. It is not “world” but the word is actually “nations.” If we put that in your terms it would be “As you are going into your nations…the nations of sports, the nations of medicine…” That doesn’t make much sense. “Nations,” in this instance, is most likely translated as peoples, both Jews and Gentiles. “Go therefore and make disciples” is our command and “of all nations” is the object of that command.
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