Certain vital signs indicate life in the human body. If the resting heart rate is fifty to seventy beats per minute, the blood pressure 120/80, the cholesterol lower than 200, and the temperature 98.6° F., you can be reasonably sure the body is in good health. Throughout Scripture Christ's church is compared to the human body. The interdependence of the body's organs, members, and systems illustrates the close working relationship and unity of the church. Are there, then, similar vital signs of a healthy, growing church? Can you take the pulse of a congregation to determine whether it is alive? I think so, and suggest five vital signs of a growing church.
Vital Sign No. 1: A spiritual pastor with dynamic faith and evangelistic vision. The key person in the entire church growth experience is the pastor. The church with a pastor who believes that it is the will of God for his church to grow and that the purpose of the church is redemptive will see growth. If church growth is merely one of many congregational options or services, it will be inconsistent and sporadic.
"The church serves in many different ways; however, it must never forget its primary and irreplaceable task—bringing lost children back to the Father's house. Winning the lost is a fundamental function through which the church is recreated. The church both as individuals and as organizations is continually dying. Unless it is re-created by winning the lost, it fails in its greatest service to mankind, and soon there will be no church!"— Donald A. McGavran and Winfield Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), p. 32.
Any pastor who is sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, who takes the authority of the Bible seriously, and who prays intelligently and systematically about his evangelistic leadership will be able to arrange his priorities to enable his church to grow. The pastor must allow the Holy Spirit to burn into his soul a love for evangelism, outreach, and soul winning.
Despite many dissimilarities in other areas, all growing churches in America have at least one common ingredient—a pastor whom God is using to make it happen.
W. A. Criswell, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, credits his church's growth to expository preaching, yet Robert Schuller, of Garden Grove, California, rarely preaches an expository sermon. His topical messages communicate "possibility thinking."
James Kennedy, whose Coral Ridge Presbyterian church in Florida grew from seventeen to 2,500 members in just twelve years, credits house-to-house visitation and personal evangelism.
Stephen Olford in New York penetrates high-rise apartments through television. Richard Halverson finds that developing small koinonia groups in Washington, D.C., facilitates growth.
The conclusion is that although some predictable, foundational principles for growth can be established, the pastor whose soul is consumed with a burning desire to see lost men and women saved, the pastor who has the faith to believe that large numbers of people in his community can be won for Christ, the pastor who senses that God wants to move his church into action through his ministry, will see his church grow.
Vital Sign No. 2: A well-mobilized and carefully organized laity. In the summer of 1981 I spent five weeks in a major evangelistic campaign in the Philip pines, During this short period, hundreds attended our meetings, and more than two hundred were baptized. From 1910 to 1960 the Seventh-day Adventist Church grew slowly in the islands. By 1960 there were seventy-five thousand members. Yet in the next twenty years the church experienced a major growth explosion in which the membership skyrocketed to 255,000. In his analysis, Dr. Herman Reyes, of the Far Eastern Division's theological seminary, ranks "laymen's efforts" first among the factors most influential in this growth (45.7 percent of those surveyed checked this item as the primary factor in their conversion).
Yet the challenging question remains: How can the laity be inspired, trained, and equipped to witness? For a number of years I preached what I believed to be stirring sermons on witnessing. I proclaimed, "Go ye," yet most of my people did not go. I echoed Jesus' words, "Ye are witnesses," but the majority did not witness. I preached on Isaiah's passage, "Whom shall I send?" yet the response was not "Here am I; send me."
About that time I read a book by Dave Wilkerson, pastor of a suburban church in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, in which he described his frustration and disappointment at the difficulty in leading his members to witness. It seemed that he just could not get them to move out for God. All his coaxing and sermonizing did not accomplish it. Finally the root of the problem struck him. His church would not enter into an aggressive program of evangelism unless he did! He set aside every Tuesday and Thursday evening for witnessing. Visiting bowling alleys and pizza parlors throughout Philipsburg, he went fishing for the Lord. His converts began showing up in church. Fresh witnessing experiences became a regular part of the weekly service. Testimonies of changed lives electrified the congregation. Dave Wilkerson was no longer simply urging his membership to do what ought to be done; he was a living example of how to do it. As a result, his congregation became alive. This was Christ's method too. He taught His disciples through association with Himself. They did not simply hear about evangelism; they saw it lived before them.
Four simple steps characterize Jesus' training program. 1. He shared with His disciples the centrality of His mission and taught them how to witness. They learned the theory of witnessing. 2. He brought His disciples with Him into the cities and villages as He witnessed. They watched Him do it. 3. He sent them out two by two in personal field experience. They practiced what He taught them. 4. He evaluated their progress and suggested improvements. They reported to Him and continued learning. Matthew 4:19 summarizes Christ's training method. Beckoning to His choices for disciples, Jesus said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Do you want your church to grow? Stimulate and foster lay initiative. Train the laity for witnessing and service.
Vital Sign No. 3: A diversified, holistic ministry appealing to all segments of the community. Have you ever noticed the wide variety of people that came to Jesus and His differing approaches to them? For example, look at the contrast between Nicodemus (John 3) and the woman at the well (John 4). One was a man, the other a woman. One was rich and educated, the other poor and with no learning. One was a respected Jew, the other a despised Samaritan. One was religious and came seeking Jesus, although at night; the other, apparently uninterested in religious matters, met Jesus accidentally at noonday.
Jesus approached Nicodemus with a direct spiritual appeal: "Ye must be born again." He approached the woman at the well through the avenue of social contact. He simply asked her for a drink of water. Matthew 9:35 describes Jesus' total approach to His world: "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people."
The broad variety of methods Jesus used and His concern with all dimensions of a person—physical, mental, and spiritual— drew the multitudes to Him in large numbers. Ellen White affirms this principle of a diversified approach to church growth in these words: "Some will be attracted by one phase of the gospel, and some by another. We are instructed by our Lord to work in such a way that all classes will be reached."—Medical Ministry, p. 327.
In each community there are levels of interest. The vast majority in any community may not be prepared currently to respond to a direct spiritual approach; therefore, the churches' approach to holistic ministry plugs into felt needs and moves people continually along the inter est line. Yet the churches' chief responsibility is ministry to those in whom the Holy Spirit has already produced a receptivity. This group must consume the churches' major portion of time.
A holistic, diversified ministry naturally leads to the necessity for the next sign of church vitality.
Vital Sign No. 4: A well-thought-through, carefully organized and executed master plan. Recently I flew to Chicago from a church growth seminar in Maine with the vice-president of Anaconda Copper Company as my seatmate. As we flew together, we discussed the elements that contribute to success in any venture, whether church or business. He commented: "In our company, presidents and vice-presidents and the entire executive branch must submit five objectives for the coming year, as well as organized plans to meet those objectives."
In management, the goal or objective must be measurable. Thus a growing church, as a growing business, must develop measurable, attainable goals and careful, meticulous plans to reach those goals.
One of my current responsibilities is to foster growth in churches around the Lake Union Soul Winning Institute, of which I am director. Two years ago our school was responsible for planting a church in a new area of Chicago. At the end of 1980, that church had an active membership of approximately ninety. During the last few months of the year the church board met to establish goals for the coming year. We developed three basic goals for 1981. Because we were meeting in a small, rented chapel, our first goal was to locate a new church site either by purchase, by plans to build, or by renting another facility. Our second goal was to increase our member ship to 175 by the end of 1981, and the third goal was to involve 50 percent of our membership in some form of evangelistic outreach.
To accomplish these three goals, we established a building committee, which met regularly and located a new site. We have begun a series of outreach programs. Church membership is up to 105, and attendance is between 160 and 170 with chairs in the aisle of the small chapel. Third, the church has been divided into bands, witnessing classes are currently being taught, and we are well on our way to achieving the good of involving 50 percent of our membership. In three years our goal is to increase the membership to 250, to own our own building, and then to reach out in communities south of us to establish sister congregations.
To establish measurable goals, basic questions must be asked: What is our current membership? How have we grown during the past year? The past five years? Where do we want to be one year from now in terms of growth? What are our specific growth goals this year? Where do the priorities of the church lie?
Small churches (and most churches fall into this category) tend to stumble from crisis to crisis. Board meetings deal with such issues as: "How are we going to afford to fix the leaky plumbing for the toilet?" "What about the roof that is rotting away?" "How can we balance the church budget?" The wide range of problems goes on and on. Rather than focusing on the lost masses and planning to reach them, the church tends to become ingrown, self-centered. Creative planning is necessary to break out of this shell. Every member of the church should be instructed in a regular system of labor. Do you want your church to grow? Carefully define your plans. What do you want to accomplish in the last half of this year? In the first half of next year? Be specific. Meet with your church board. Get out your calendar. Define your programs. Plan for your programs and carefully execute them.
Do you want your church to grow? Establish a faith goal. Place the goal and sequential steps in logical order. Develop a time line for accomplishment. Assign committees. Follow up on that assignment and supervise implementation.
Vital Sign No. 5: Priority given to soul winning. Growing churches are those that desire to grow, that have a supreme passion for winning the lost. Growing churches are those that have clearly understood the mission of Christ stated in Luke 19:10: "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." A growing church is one that clearly recognizes its mission of redemption, one that looks at the world through the rose-colored glasses of the cross of Christ and senses that men and women without Christ are lost and destined to eternal damnation. A church that clearly recognizes its mission of redemption in the community will thus carry out clearly defined plans.
Planning alone is like a car with no engine, a refrigerator that is not plugged in. It takes a living relationship with a loving Christ to feel His burden for souls. Luke describes Christ's attitude for the lost: "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it" (verse 41). Growing churches come near to people and rub shoulders with them in the everyday activities of life. Growing churches sense that a world is lost. Growing churches have a deeper love for the lost than they do for their own petty problems; they sense that the great burden of Christ is the redemption of the lost. Jesus is burdened for souls. He feels the pain of every cancer victim wasting away in the hospital. He experiences the sorrow of every woman whose husband has left her for someone else. He shares the grief of every mother whose child is born with a deformity. He experiences the horror of thousands of refugees in every war. In a way that you and I can never understand, Jesus bears the heartache, the sorrow, and the grief of the entire human race. Thus, for His people to be like Him and to bear His burdens means to reach out for the lost, to communicate the gospel of Christ, to see them saved ultimately in the kingdom of God.
A church with this vision and purpose will have all die vital signs of health and growth.
