Last week I gave a sweeping look at church history and how the church has come to a point of many leaders but few disciples. What I want to do is focus on where the modern church stands and its impact on discipleship. But in order to do that we need to look at two important developments: the Church Growth Movement and the introduction of corporate methodologies into the church.
Many missiologists say the father of the Church Growth Movement was a missionary, Dr. Donald McGavran, author of the 1955 book The Bridges of God. He wondered why certain churches were growing while others weren’t, even though some churches were only miles apart. He explored the causes and barriers to church growth and what could be reproduced in churches. This spawned a new arena of study as to what could be done to help churches grow. People such as Elmer Towns, Win Arn, and C. Peter Wagner wrote books on how to increase the numbers within a church.
More recently Christian Schwarz of Germany wrote Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches. He said in order for a church to grow it needs such things as Empowering Leadership, Gift-Oriented Ministry, and Passionate Spirituality. He created an industry whereby a church consultant could help a church determine areas that needed attention and provide solutions.
In recent years, the Church Growth Movement has decreased in influence but its impact remains: there is a way to increase the number of people who come to a church.
The second development we need to look at is corporate methodologies used within the church. With the increase in numbers in churches, there was a greater need for accountability, particularly in the area of finances and large decisions. The church began to use methodologies used in the corporate world such as a board of directors and a board of trustees, asking businessmen from the marketplace to be involved in these boards. Thus churches began to take on a corporate approach to the management and growth of the church.
Don Cousins, in his book Experiencing Leadership: Letting Go of Leadership Heresies, says many churches are Board Led, Staff Run, and Congregation Served, which has similarities to the corporate world. Churches began to apply business principles hoping the church would increase in influence and attendance.
Both these developments have helped the church. The Church Growth Movement rekindled the need for church planting as the best form of evangelism. Business principles brought checks and balances into the church. But there have been four repercussions.
First, the focus was on large attendance numbers. The premise was since the church is a living organism, it is meant to grow. In some respects that is true, but should the goal be to grow in numbers or to grow in intimacy with Jesus? There are many churches that have large numbers but little depth.
Second, people in the church began to think that by using formulas, the church would grow. Church growth became a sociological science. Some would say, “This plus this plus this will equal growth.” Church growth became its own industry producing many church consultants willing to help unhealthy churches.
Third, when the church introduced business principles, it began to look more like a structured organization rather than a living organism. The pastor was the CEO, the associate pastor was the COO, and the treasurer was the CFO. Five- and ten-year plans were created to direct the church towards the future.
Fourth, the ideology of church growth combined with humanistic efforts robbed God of His glory (Is. 42:8). The focus shifted to what members of the church could do to get the church to grow. And when there was success, namely the increase in attendance, people could say, “Look what God did!” but secretly pat themselves on the back, sometimes at the point of exhaustion.
What is the solution?
First, change the focus from growth in attendance to growth in intimacy with Jesus. When the focus is on numerical growth, you will need leaders to manage all the people coming in and all the ministries that are created. But leaders who are not disciples will not last long and there will be a high turnover. When you have people who are intimate with Jesus they will make good disciples who will make good leaders and last longer.
Second, allow Jesus to build the church. This is very important to understand. In Mt. 16:18 Jesus said, “I will build my church.” It is not man-made efforts that build the church, but Jesus. Thus He is the one who determines where a church will be, how big it will get, and who will be part of the church. The key is staying intimate with Jesus so you hear His voice and directives. Jesus builds the church, not man, although He does allow us to participate in what He is doing within the church.
Third, although business principles are good for checks and balances, there needs to be a check and balance on using business principles. Those involved in the leadership of the church need to be intimate with the Lord, with the ability to discern His voice and direction. They also need the ability to wait together if there are conflicting ideas and desires. Additionally, those who lead the church need the maturity and ability to change direction as the Spirit leads, sometimes throwing out the predetermeined five- and ten-year plans.
Fourth, in everything that happens, the main reason we do what we do is so that God gets the glory, not man. Jesus died for the Father’s glory (John 12:27-28), we are saved to glorify God (Rom. 15:8-9), and we are to glorify God in everything we do (1Cor. 10:31). I like to say that glorifying God means to make Him famous. Thus the church’s goal is to continually make God famous, not make a name for itself.
The bottom line is that in order for the church to be the church Jesus desires to build it will need disciples who want to be intimate with Him, hear His voice and obey, are sensitive to the Spirit’s leading, and desire to glorify Him in everything they do.
Questions to Think About:
Do you believe it is God’s will that some churches are meant to be small, or are all churches meant to be big?
Does your church look more like an organization rather than an organism? Is there freedom to change direction as the Spirit leads? Or are the leaders following a predetermined growth plan?
© Gary Lau 2013
All rights reserved. This article may not be distributed, forwarded or duplicated without prior permission from the author.
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