Grow

Acts 2

1. Grow yourself first

This brings the balance. If you’re not growing yourself, you will get it out of whack. But if God is working in your life and you get away from numbers for their own sake and ministry is an overflow of the work God is doing, now you have something good.

2. Grow for the right reasons

Church growth has gotten a bad rap, because mixed in has been the egos and logos. But if we keep our hearts pure, the job our master has given us is to grow.

Luke 17:7-10: we are unworthy servants. The growth isn’t for us.

No one is more astonished about what’s going on at my church than me….because I know me. And I think that’s why God likes it–he’s looking for someone doing what they’re told to do.

3. Grow!

God needs us as his workers. This is not a game–we’re on assignment to make the biggest difference we can for eternity’s sake.

So how do we get it back in balance?

—-refocus on the Great Commission.

The social justice flow has gotten off kilter; we’re feeding bellies that are going to go to Hell. If you help someone, even in Jesus’s name, and we never win them to Christ, we lose! It is a tool to bring people to Christ.

—-keep score.

If people matter and people are numbers, then count everything. Measure it. Your team needs to know what matters and how to win.

—-if it’s not working, change it.

We cannot be committed to style, tradition, culture–we must be focused on results. I’m not saying results for us. It’s because Heaven and Hell are realities.

Here are three ways to change it:

1. Get rid of sacred cows

2. Learn from working models

3. Focus on the environment

You have to make sure you change the right thing. You can use methods and say it didn’t work; but without the right environment, nothing grows.