Catacomb Resident Blog

Stronger, Not Bigger

03 January 2024

I keep bumping into this false notion that churches are supposed to aim at growing. This is false. Let me try again to get this across.

Jesus left his followers with one mission: Carry forward His teachings. He said "go into all the world" but He did not say "seek more members". The only reason it is necessary to make that distinction is because that's the way western people think, not because that's how Jesus thought.

Do what He said. Don't inject your assumptions about what it should mean. How did the early church bodies grow? Over and over, the Scripture says, "God gave" new members. God does it. We don't do it. The size of the body in numbers is His concern, not ours.

If you stand back and look at the New Testament as a whole, the single greatest command is to love each other as Christ loved us. Jesus flatly said so at His last Seder. That was His whole "law". Work out this business of being a family, and everything else will take care of itself. When the institution becomes more important than the people, you are no longer His covenant body.

It is a given that our power to care for each other according to His teaching will in itself call out to people outside the body. One way or another, people will join. And sometimes they will move on, for good or ill. Some of them are agents for the Enemy, but that doesn't mean the Enemy gets to keep them. How do you win them over? Not by programming based on the assumptions of human membership. You win them by being faithful to the Word in their sight.

If that doesn't call to them, nothing else will. If you seek to build, you will lose track of the fundamental command to love. His love does the building. If you try to build any other way, what you build is man-made, not divine. The blueprint is in the Bible; stop designing new systems.

Do you need specifics? One duly called elder can effectively lead up to about 50 people. At that point, he must begin praying God will provide other elders. Take what He provides. If it means dividing the body to some degree, so be it. The elder's task is to lead the household of faith in remaining internally consistent and stable, never mind how big or small it may be. We are reclaiming souls from the Enemy's grasp, and it doesn't happen all at once. In a certain sense, the job is never done in this life.


Comments

Jay DiNitto

"Growth" is seen by big eva as a sign that God is working, or that they are doing something right. It's all just spectacle.

Dan D.

This is a common theme that I too push back on. When new people ask me how many people are in the church my answer is always the same "The right number for what we can manage in teaching and spiritual growth." I have no doubt that God will take his people to places where they are fed. More people in church leadership would be well to adopt the business adage "Its yours to lose."


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