Evangelism of Church Growth?
The Evangelical Herald
EVANGELISM OR CHURCH GROWTH?
Most evangelical church leaders and pastors would agree that the church has been called to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt.28:19). We are called to be lights of the world - to be instruments of reconciliation between mankind and the Creator God. It is our Father's will that we make His name known and that we bring many to a saving knowledge of Christ's salvation unto the eternal kingdom of His Son.
In the past two decades, the Christian church has seen the rise and promotion of "church growth programs" (CGP) in its desire to fulfill this commission. We have seen gifted authors, pastors, and salesmen sell their ideas of "how to" make our churches grow. These gifted people promote their ideas through books, seminars, videos and other media. To their credit, some churches have been successful in bringing great numbers into the church. However, as good as it may seem on the surface, we are compelled to ask, do these programs reflect true evangelism or are they numbers oriented and business driven success tools? Is heart passion for true evangelism alive and well in our churches?
Importance of Motives
Questions associated with this issue that arise are: What is a correct worldview for the Christian? What is the function of spiritual gifts? How is God using His people to accomplish His eternal purposes? As we see it, the issue raised in these questions addresses the very core of the purpose and calling of the church. A clear understanding of this issue is absolutely essential in our commitment to serve and proclaim the gospel of Christ.
Why do we associate the core values of the Christian message with how we understand CGP to such a degree? If we could be translated to the first century church, we would begin to understand how important the Christian message of faith, love, and hope related to their everyday activity in the church body. New Testament writers show us that the main focus and energy expended in the church was to proclaim the good news of eternal salvation to all and to establish them as citizens of Christ's coming kingdom. If this is true, then the church today ought to also expend its energy and focus on this same objective.
This writer's concern is that we are substituting church growth strategies and energies for a true conviction and a heart concern for the eternal salvation of all people. In the typical church, the few that are concerned for "evangelism" limit their church activities to efforts that result in real numbers only in their local churches. Pastors concentrate and are focused only on ministries that help grow the local church as measured by the numbers of attendees.
Wait a minute someone may object, what is wrong with a desire to see the local church grow? After all, the worldwide kingdom of Christ begins in our local community. True, but without the mind and heart of Christ, our vision for growth not only could be very narrow-minded, but wrongly motivated. The great vision should not be to see a huge local church, but rather to see multitudes glorifying our Heavenly Father in His eternal Kingdom. God's desire is that all people be saved. A true Christian's vision should be to impact all people that he/she can with the good news of Christ's love - regardless of temporal measured successes. With this missional mind, the local church cannot help but grow. This growth is a result of a mindset that the early church had. It is a result of a genuine love of the Father that wants His creatures to honor Him. It is a result of a heart full of love and concern for the eternal wellbeing of all people.
Any treatise or discussion on this issue must begin with an acknowledgement of a basic Biblical fundamental doctrine: That the church of Christ is called to save sinners from everlasting destruction through a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. This basic doctrine deals with the eternal and, as such, all responses or ideas to this topic must always be motivated from an eternal perspective. It is our position that our Lord's worldwide work in bringing His people into His kingdom is being hindered because of an erroneous mindset on this issue. When the Lord's work is motivated by competitive spirits, temporal objectives, divided loyalties, narrow-minded visions, success business models, the making of celebrities/idols, and selective evangelism then all Christians should indeed be concerned.
Whereas CGP center their efforts around the word "marketing", evangelism focuses its efforts on the word "love". CGP use a variety of marketing tools such as demographic studies, target groups, financial resources, and mass media advertising. These tools may be well served by these churches, but without a heart conviction of love for souls on behalf of the believers, these cannot be considered evangelism - they remain just that, marketing tools of a business model church.
Short-sighted Visions
Church Growth advocates tend to focus their loyalty and service to their local church. The attitude seems to be: "If my local church does not benefit with greater attendance then this ministry is not worthwhile." True evangelism is not so much concerned with numbers into the local church as it is to bring people into the worldwide body of Christ. Love and compassion should be the driving forces that move His people to proclaim the gospel to all people. True love and compassion of the heart longs to see all people come to recognize our Creator and Savior God as their only wise and loving Sovereign over them. We should, as Jesus, see all those that come to accept this rulership over them as brothers and sisters of the same worldwide family regardless of where they may attend church.
Among other dangers in the marketing model is the ego centered mentality of having human professionals carry out the work of church evangelism. Whereas the Word clearly calls on all believers to be involved in the proclamation of the gospel, most mega-church members leave this work to their hired staff to use the marketing strategies given them by success gurus to build up their congregations. The danger in this system is that evangelism ceases to be a work of love and compassion and becomes a cold business marker of the effectiveness of these professionals. All believers in the body of Christ have been called, using all the spiritual gifts given to them, to witness to the saving grace of God (Eph. 4:11-16).
Perhaps the greatest threat that CGP do to deter the revived passion of the early church for true evangelism is the fostering of a competitive spirit that pits local church against local church. The result of this competiveness is a lack of a world-wide unity of work for the common cause of building the kingdom of God. Jesus' desire was for His people to be in unity - that by this the world would recognize His people - by our love for each other (Jhn. 17:20-23). Certainly, a competitive spirit that results in divided loyalties to local churches is not what would please our Lord.
Heart Evangelism
Although we have shown some interesting differences as to church marketing and evangelism in the real world, the bottom line deals with the heart condition of believers. For God to bless our efforts in being obedient to His command "to go unto all the world and preach the gospel", we must begin with the right motivation of the heart. True evangelism is based on two driving passions:
A love of God that desires that His Name, His Person be honored and glorified as He is recognized as the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of allA love for all people that desires their eternal well-being and our reconciliation with one another to love as brother and sisters. Heart evangelism brings about local church growth, but a church marketing mentality does not promote heart evangelism in the church. Church growth mentality focuses on people as numbers. Evangelism focuses on changed lives that bring glory and honor to God and become heart-felt members of God's family. Although many a Christian feels he/she is loving his/her neighbor by loving acts of compassion and kindness, there is no greater love than to give them everlasting life in Christ Jesus. What good are all the temporal good deeds done in the name of Christ if people perish forever? All church activities of love to the unbelievers should have as the main objective to bring them to Christ.
CGP obsession with numbers may be satisfied with members that attend church. However, evangelism goes beyond numbers and focuses on discipleship. This is driven by a desire that new believers come to love their heavenly Father and understand all His plans for their well-being. The end result of discipleship is a Christian that desires to be an evangelist that makes other disciples. Church growth advocates many times disregard this aspect of evangelism as seen in their churches' membership lack of being involved in loving disciplining relationships. When people come to Christ for salvation, the attitude seems to be, "well and good, now let them fetch for themselves." Interpersonal relationships based on genuine love and concern for each other are lost at the altar of numbers.
Let us not be deceived that members of His Body are to be passive spectators in the Body's calling and purpose. Let us not be deceived to believe that we, as individuals, have not been called to seek and to save those who are lost. Let us not be deceived that we can sit comfortably in our comfort zones and let Church Growth Programs do the work that we have been called to do. Let us not be deceived in working for temporal goals associated with human pride.
Heart motivation, where love stirs up the passion for true evangelism, can't result from new formulas given to us by motivational orators or business gurus that are based on man's ideas of success. It will not come through this writer's appeal. True evangelism's passion for love of God and our fellow sojourners on earth can only come through the supernatural work of the Spirit of God (Acts 2:17, 18). It will come as each member of Christ's Body becomes a willing vessel whereby he/she can be used of God to let His love overflow for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2). It will come when each member of Christ's Body truly desires that His Father's name be known, honored, and glorified throughout the ages to come - world without end.