How Do We Account For a Growth of a Church?
This week Sue, Pat, Jocelyn, and I have worked on the Church statistic reports to be submitted to the Conference. The report is a quantitative measurement to evaluate the progress, stagnancy or decline of the Church. It is mostly based on numbers. For example, how many views a week do you hit, how many people attend your worship service, how many people have you received by confession of faith? There are also questions related to finances and other ministries.
As I filled my pastor’s section, I noticed that our membership roll has been consistent and the average attendance throughout the year has been around forty. This makes us a low medium size church. What the report doesn’t measure, however, is the goodness that each one of us does in the name of our Lord Jesus. The report doesn’t also quantify voluntary hours that many of you put to make things happen.
If we only focus on the numeric aspect to determine the growth of any given church, we could be misled and lose sight on what God intends us to do. A good number in the pews is wonderful but I am afraid that it doesn’t translate whether a church is faithful to its mission or not. I am of the belief that there are fundamental prerequisites that a church must meet for growth to take place. The church must stay focus to the Biblical call to spiritually nourish its members regardless of the number.
Some of you have been asking what are we doing wrong? Is there any formula for church to grow? We all want more people in the pews. We want more people to watch our online services. While this could require, to some degree, a business and marketing approach, we should not lose sight of the spiritual dimension that such enterprise demands.
In the Bible there are two verses that caught my attention. The first is from Psalms 133:1. In this verse King David praises the goodness of the people of God to be together in love and unity. It is only then, he says, that God pours out his blessings.
The second verse is from the book of Acts 2: 42. The Christian Church was at its debut. The new members devoted their times to the study of the teachings of the disciples, the sharing of communion and a devotion to prayer. As a result of this verse, Luke (the author of the book of Acts) writes in verse 42, “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (NIV)
There is no silver bullet for the growth of a church. As long as we stay faithful to our mission to transform the world, pray, devote our selves to the teaching of the Scriptures, and attend to our members needs and of course reorganize our worship structure and intentionally reach out, HUMC could find itself in the path of growth. The Lord always does his part, it is up to us to discover ours and pursuit it with dedication and determination.
In His Name,
Pastor Will
