Are you sure you want your church to grow?

A few weeks ago I shared this post asking, “Do you want your church to grow?” Later that same week Thom Rainer had a similar post. No, we do not collaborate on our blog topics. So I was surprised when I saw his post, “What (Some) Church Members Really Mean When They Say They Want Their Church to Grow”.

Rainer writes:

“You will rarely find a church member who says he or she is not for growth in the church. But many church members have unspoken, perhaps unknown (my emphasis here), conditions attached to the statement….”

He digs a little deep here. Do you hear where he is going with this? He says that many church members say they want to see their church grow, but they often will include the word “unless.”

“…In other words, I am all for growth in the church unless it impacts me in some way.”

I want to see the church grow, unless it means _________________.  You can check out the rest of Rainer’s post for seven “unless” conditions that frequently come up.

As he points out, we may not even be aware of this.  We might not even be aware of our own feelings. It may be “unknown” to us how we are standing in the way of seeing our church, rather God’s church, grow.

I often say that God wants to see people come to know Him even more than we do. So a very important question to keep asking is this.  How am I, how are we, getting in the way of God’s work?

Here is how I ended my post asking “Do you want your church to grow?” I think it is worth reading again.

Do you, do we, want to see people come to know the love of Christ and follow Jesus? Yes. It has to be a resounding yes. Then the question becomes, are we willing to live this out no matter what it may cost? Again, the answer has to be yes, right?

Blessings,

Pastor Matt