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Well, it’s true. You've heard them and so have I, those “Myths about growing churches”. Have you heard the myth, “the only thing that large churches care about is attendance”, or how about “You must compromise the message and the Mission of the Church in Order to Grow”? Lately I've been reading a book for class by Rick Warren called "The Purpose Driven Church". Although I don't agree with everything he presents, he has got me thinking some about how a church should grow. What I find incredible is that it all started small, even his church, and grew..steadily, and sometimes painfully to what it is today. If his grew - so can ours! (Yet I think too often in the CHM we're often miss-informed, scared, purposeless, or not in tune with the Holy Spirit.)
In response to the question "only caring about attendance", Rick commented: “If you are preaching the positive, life-changing Good News of Christ, if your members are excited by what God is doing in your church, if you are providing a service where they can bring unsaved friends without embarrassment, and if you have a plan to build, train, and send out those you win to Christ,l attendance will be the least of your problems.” “Healthy, lasting church growth is multidimensional. Every church needs to grow warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry, and larger through evangelism.” (Acts 2:42-47)
“Church Growth is a natural result of Church Health.” A healthy church grows.
In response to the second myth about "compromising the message", he wrote the following:
“This myth implies that leaders of growing churches are somehow “selling out” the Gospel in order to grow, and that it must be shallow and lacking in commitment.” They assume it’s a “watered-down” message. Many churches are like that, however this guilt by association is unfortunate."
"Jesus ministry attracted enormous crowds. Why? Because the gospel is GOOD NEWS!! (John 12:32) A Christlike Church WILL have the same drawing effect on people. Another reason for the confusion of shallowness is they confuse what is, “expected of the unbelieving attenders with what is expected of the actual church members.” Saddleback distinguishes between “the Crowd” and “the Congregation”. “At Saddleback Church we do not expect unbelievers to act like believers until they ARE. We expect very little from the seeker who is investigating the claims of Christ. We simply invite unbelievers to come and check us out as Jesus did. Yet, “we require a major commitment from those who want to join our church. All prospective members must complete a membership class and are required to sign a membership covenant. By signing the covenant, members agree to give financially, serve in ministry, maintain a godly lifestyle, etc” … We remove hundreds of names from our roll every year.”
...…. Like what you’re reading? Want to hear about all EIGHT myths about megachurches? Check out the book, “The Purpose Driven Church”.
Overall, it's a great book that I'd recommend to even laypeople - not just pastors/future pastors.
Click the video below to learn more about the incredible history of Saddleback Church.
It's really quite amazing!
