How to grow your church. Mega-church anyone? I recently stumbled upon a company led by an apparently very successful individual dedicated to helping churches GROW. I purposely put GROW in upper case letters because that in effect is the mission, if I understand it correctly. Though I had accidentally found the company’s website while searching for something else, I couldn’t help but take a quick peek. And I shouldn’t have been altogether surprised with what I found.
When I did a quick skim of the little biographical description of the head of the company, I didn’t need to count how many times the Lord was mentioned. Nor did I need to count how many times the Bible was mentioned. Or how many times scriptures were used. Or how the company leader would describe his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or even a snippet of his testimony in finding Christ. The answer was immediately apparent. There was no mention of the Lord whatsoever. But there was a significant mention of the well-known, popular, BIG churches with which the person in charge of the company had been affiliated. After all, people needing help in GROWING their churches to be BIG should take careful stock if they are to hire someone to help them GROW of how BIG the churches are that at one time or another were helped by this person or company. This is yet another reason why I found myself virtually weeping over America recently.
I cannot even fathom the number of churches we have in this nation, nor how many people stand behind the pulpits, nor how many people attend them, nor how many people own numerous Bibles, nor how many mega-churches are sprouting up everywhere it seems, nor how many church leadership teams are working tirelessly to increase their numbers. When I am perfectly honest, I have had my own struggles with feeling miserable at times over how few people seem to find and follow the Lord through the work that I do. Numbers, numbers, numbers. How many of us are bogged down in numbers and traditions. When my heart is not pure in this way, I need to repent. I want to have a pure heart for the Lord. And if my motives with my ministry work are anything other than to help build God’s Kingdom through Christ and to bring glory to His name, I must repent and be purified.
So here is my question. Have we forgotten the Lord as we build our mega-Christianity? All the mega-churches and traditions in the world will come to nothing. But the Lord is forever. And without faith in Him and a commitment to Him and His ways, we will perish and spend eternity in hell. And something tells me the size of churches and the number of traditions will mean absolutely nothing in the fiery flames of eternal torment.
If the Lord is not the number one priority in your life, not merely in words and in belief, but in the thoughts and feelings and actions and fruit of your life, repent of your sins, believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ that He is the Son of God and died on the cross for your sins and rose again, and commit your life utterly to Him. Before it is too late. And if you, too, find yourself stuck in numbers, get stuck in the right ones. The mission of a follower of Jesus Christ is not to build mega-churches, but to help build the Kingdom of God by making disciples of all nations that people would love and serve the Lord with all their hearts both now and forevermore.
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (KJV)