BY EVERY WORD FOUNDATION

CHURCH GROWTH OR GOD'S GLORY?

The title of this essay is not meant to imply that church growth and God's glory are mutually exclusive. Rather, it is meant to serve as a reminder or warning that our primary focus will determine the shape of everything else. When we embrace man-made goals we will also embrace man-made means to get there. This is illustrated by the modern church growth movement, which has impacted how people think about church and thus how the church operates. Man's wisdom has not been slow in coming up with ideas on how to market Christianity and make it appealing to the worldly mindset. Effective Kingdom work, however, is not measured by popular vote, opinion polls or massive numbers, but by faithfulness to the Lord of the universe in bringing every thought captive to the mind of Christ (2 Cor.10:5).

The Rock of Offence

Man's wisdom recommends that the church should remove the offence of the cross from its message. It is believed that more sinners would respond to Christianity if it was made more palatable. Thus, we see many churches in our day utilizing programs and messages that are carefully designed so as not to offend sinners. What these churches are doing is appealing to the sinner's lust for self-fulfilment and assuring him that their church is committed to helping him attain these things. But, is the objective then, only at some later date, to tell the sinner the truth about Christ and his demands? If so, how can the church maintain her credibility when she entices people into her midst by using one image of Christ and His truth and then later confronts them with a completely different image of Him? There is no basis in Scripture for suggesting that we should present this confusing double message—it arises from man's "wisdom." The Scriptures, on the other hand, unashamedly and without apology reveal Christ as a "rock of offence" (Rom.9:33; 1 Cor.1:18,23; 1 Pet.2:8).

Jesus didn't modify the truth in order to get multitudes to follow Him. We see time and again in the Scriptures that when sinners are confronted with the truth, they are offended (John 6:61-66). When the multitudes left Christ in John 6, it was in the early stages of getting to know Him. Yet Jesus didn't alter His message, because He knew that they desperately needed to hear the truth. His way was not to let them first get comfortable with Him before He challenged them with the truth. Jesus didn't attempt to gather a large following by finding out what people thought they needed and then supplying their supposed "need." Rather, Christ related to people based upon what He knew they desperately needed, which was to be confronted with His eternal truth.

Sinners need to be exposed to the light of God's truth and see how far short they come from His standard, for this is the precursor to them crying out for His mercy and casting themselves upon Christ. Rebels do not need to be encouraged in their self-confidence, but shown their helplessness and how desperate their condition is. Sinners need Christ's righteousness, but if we tell them, by our words and programs, that their great need is to know how to achieve self-fulfilment, we leave them in their sin and under the wrath of God. What they desperately need is not to know how they can successfully serve themselves, but how they can be delivered from the wrath of a holy God. They need to be told to humble themselves and bow their hearts to Christ, not encouraged in their pride and selfishness. When believers, in order to attract unbelievers into the church, shape Christian worship and truth according to the likes and dislikes of the rebellious, they are contradicting the very message they claim to be promoting. The Gospel message is not that sinners need to trust God to help them fulfil the wonderful plan He has for their lives, but that they need to be delivered from His curse through repentance and faith in His Son. We are to exhort people to faithfully fulfil their responsibilities before God, not promise them that Jesus guarantees to fulfil their personal dreams and desires.

Sheep for the Slaughter

In God's Kingdom, pursuing comfort and self-fulfilment is as far from the truth as one could possibly get. Rather, the Kingdom focus is upon losing our lives for Christ (Lk.17:33). As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter" (Rom.8:36)—slaughtered sheep and self-fulfilment are opposites. Paul said, "For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor.4:11). The reality is, when we do the Lord's will and uphold His truth, we will be hated and persecuted (Matt.5:11,12; John 15:19; 2 Tim.3:12). Moreover, the Scriptures unashamedly inform us that our suffering for Christ has been divinely ordained (Phil.1:29; 1 Thes.3:3). For we must, through many tribulations, enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). To suggest, therefore, that self-fulfilment or personal peace and affluence is central to our calling is woefully misleading. We exist to selflessly serve the King, which means we are to deny ourselves and carry the cross God ordained for us (Matt.16:24).

We are warned that many difficulties will come our way, but when they do, we are to be encouraged by faithful heroes of the faith, listed, for example, in Hebrews 11. The great saints have always had to persevere through many trials and hardships. Moses did not have his focus upon self-fulfilment, which would not have been hard for him to attain in Pharaoh's house. Instead, he chose "rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward" (Heb.11:25-26). Our 'reward' is not realizing self-fulfilment in this life, but obtaining a glorious inheritance in the next (2 Cor.4:17,18; 5:1; 2 Tim.4:8; 1 Pet.5:4). It is due to this focus that we read, "Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Heb.11:35). Paul understood this when he said, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor.4:17). And, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom.8:18).

We do not need information on how to please ourselves (we know only too well how to do this). Rather, we are in great need of exhortation to imitate Christ and lay down our lives for the benefit of others (Rom.15:1-3). The word 'disciple' refers to a follower of Christ who does everything in accordance with His truth, as Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed" (John 8:31). This is because "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt.4:4). Christ's disciples are those who, for His sake, will forsake everything this world holds dear (Lk.14:26,33). Serving ourselves remains a constant temptation because it comes naturally to our sinful nature. It requires eternal vigilance to forsake those things that appeal to our flesh (Phil.3:7) and to count ourselves as servants for the sake of others (1 Cor.9:19). When the church ignores or minimises this message, it becomes a club of self-serving hedonists.

True Joy

To imitate Christ does not mean enduring a miserable existence, for true joy is found in glorifying God. Joy is not a goal, but a consequence—a consequence of delighting in God's will and glorifying His Kingdom. This is only possible when the Lord, by His mercy and grace, gives us hearts that focus upon seeking His Kingdom above everything else (Matt.6:33). Christ's complete satisfaction came from doing the Father's will (John 4:32,34). The whole of Christ's life was one of sacrificing Himself for the benefit of others (John 10:18). The basis for Christ's joy was self-denial, not self-seeking and this remains the basis for our joy too, for the servant is not greater than his master. When Jesus, in His great high-priestly prayer, prayed for His disciples to have His joy fulfilled in them (John 17:13), did He think that they would do this by using a different path than the one He used? Paul didn't think so, for he exhorted the Philippians to follow the same path of self-sacrificial service that Christ took (Phil.2:5-8).

Fellowship Is Essential

In our day, mega-churches have also impacted our perception of fellowship. The way such large gatherings, by necessity, organise themselves, undermines this vital component of intimate fellowship amongst the members in the local body. To be fair though, this practice of compromising on meaningful fellowship was accepted in churches before the mega-churches came onto the scene. Biblical fellowship is more than the superficial brushing of shoulders that one might experience at a cocktail party where small talk is the accepted norm. When such shallow relating within the church is passed off as "fellowship," then the very idea of the local church is undermined. Moreover, to play down the importance of meaningful fellowship with those in your local body, puts a cap on your own spiritual growth. We do not grow as individual believers outside of community with other believers. Vital for this growth is the nurturing of meaningful relationships with all whom God calls into a particular local assembly.

However, when programs and activities become the focus of church life, it retards the development of meaningful relationships. Deep, godly relationships are integral to spiritual maturity, which in turn is vital for truly effective service. When we gather on the Lord's Day, we are not merely individuals gathering at a central location to hear someone preach. To allow the local church to function as a preaching point, where the mingling of the attendees is not very different from the mingling that takes place at intermission at the theatre, no matter how eloquent the preaching might be, is to disregard a critical element of the local church. As vital as preaching is for our edification, unless those who are gathering together are being knitted into an intimate family, you do not have a healthy local church.

The fact that the particular circumstances faced by the early New Testament churches determined how they functioned and looked (i.e., small gatherings meeting in homes), ought not to make us devalue the significance of these details. There are strong indications that the New Testament church, like the Old Testament church, was family oriented. We read of households meeting together with other households and for the most part, that they met in homes. It is vital for healthy churches to have healthy families, thus the church must seek to strengthen family units and help them mature as family units. Thus, it is not right to fragment the family for worship or to ignore the need to encourage and equip them to minister as family units.

It is important to recognize that the early church gatherings were meant to be close-knit communities committed to serving the needs of others above their own. Their worship focused upon God and they glorified His ways rather than focusing upon their own definition of what would be entertaining or fun. They believed that they existed for a purpose and their worship and their lives demonstrated their conviction that this purpose was to glorify God by serving others. True service comes from knowing the people around you and knowing about their real needs. Inseparable from attaining such knowledge is regular, meaningful fellowship among believers as they gather in local congregations. Christian fellowship is an essential characteristic of Christ's body and is achieved through local congregations.

Marketing Techniques

When success in the church is defined by how many people attend, then marketing techniques become crucial. Man's wisdom trusts in pop psychology and modern marketing strategies in order to identify and then package those things that people think will give them the most self-satisfaction. An unquestioned assumption in marketing is that the customer is right. Market researchers ask, "What do customers want?" and "How best can we help them fulfil their perceived needs?" Successful marketing in the business world focuses upon making a product attractive to potential customers. When the church embraces this outlook, its appearance and methods of operating change. In order to get as many people as possible into the pews, churches now freely adopt modern marketing strategies. Like supermarkets, churches believe that the way to get the maximum number of people through their doors is by providing multiple programs and attractions that cater to everyone's tastes. The result is an "operation" that becomes as impersonal as visiting a shopping mall—i.e., lots of people, much activity and something to suite everyone. In such massive and busy gatherings, if people even greet one another, it is superficial and more like a shopping experience than Christian fellowship. Biblical truth takes, at best, a back seat because a successful "show" is more important than doctrinal faithfulness or meaningful relationships—success trumps truth.

Worship Is Not Entertainment

The church's worship service is not to be thought of as a performance designed to tantalise our senses and entertain. Entertainment focuses upon man's desire for personal satisfaction and fulfilment—it's self-centred. Worship, on the other hand, is for the purpose of exalting and glorifying the greatness of God, which includes magnifying His mercy, justice, eternity, etc. To think it is possible to reach the lost world by encouraging people in their self-absorption and lust for pleasure is merely to grease the steep slope to hell that they are already on. Corporate worship is not for fulfilling man's hedonistic lust for self-satisfying fun. Rather, it is meant to be a sincere, reverent and humble exalting of God's holiness, mercy and will.

The reason we gather in local congregations is not to be entertained, but to worship the Lord of the universe who has delivered us from the bondage and guilt of sin and restored our relationship with Him. We gather with others who love the Lord in order:

1) To join our voices in praising His majesty, power and mercy.

2) To be instructed through the preached word as to who God is and what He requires of us.

3) To be equipped to serve the needs of others above our own—the needs both of those within the church and those without.

4) To encourage each other to live faithfully and whole-heartedly for the Kingdom.

Conclusion

When the church fails to exalt Christ and His truth alone, we are faced with two fundamental problems:

Firstly, we fail to confront the sinner with Christ's absolute demands. This means the sinner is actually being encouraged in his rebellion of exalting his own will above God's will and of shaping God according to his own imagination. This is idolatry, which is mankind's most prevailing sin. When Christ's servants fail to challenge man's idolatry they strengthen him in his idolatry, that is, he is encouraged to believe that his 'will worship' (i.e., man-made worship) is actually true worship.

Secondly, by compromising Christ's truth we ultimately offend the true believers in the church, because it frustrates and confuses them as well as retards their spiritual growth. True believers, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, want to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). They want to feast upon the pure word of God and be challenged to excel in zeal for the Lord's work. They want to fellowship with Christ in the lives of others who are also zealous for the Kingdom. However, when the truth is compromised, both they and the Holy Spirit are grieved. This grieving and awareness of lack will be experienced by believers even when they are unable to fully articulate the reasons for their sense of dissatisfaction.

The focus of the church should be upon glorifying God and only He can tell us how to do this. God's wisdom is not the same as man's—"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways" (Isaiah 55:8). Jesus' prayer for His disciples was that they would be sanctified by the truth, for God's word is truth (John 17:17). The church that is committed to truth will be committed to the glory of God, for it is the truth that glorifies God. When the church is committed to God's glory, church growth will take care of itself, for it is God who gives the increase (1 Cor.3:6).