Biblical Church Growth
If you’re reading an article about church growth, it’s pretty likely you care quite a bit about God and your local church. You probably want more and more people to come through your doors to encounter the love of God. And whether you’re a pastor, a church staff member, or a faithful church attender, it’s natural to be looking for ways to help church growth happen.
You may be surprised, though, by this article. I’m not going to spend time talking about the typical trendy topics (AI integration, event planning, or social media strategies). Instead, I’m going to go “old-school” on you and ask you to pull out your Bible. Take a look at Ephesians 4:11-16 with me.
Church Growth in the Bible
“(11) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” – Ephesians 4:11-16, ESV
I want to start, simply by pointing out the very last phrase in verse 16: “…[something] makes the body [of Christ] grow so that it builds itself up in love.” The body of Christ is the church. And Ephesians 4:16 tells us that there’s something here that causes the church to grow. In other words, God himself teaches us how to go about the business of church growth!
So how does it happen? What does God point us to here in the words of Scripture? Let me point out three things.
God Gives Church Leadership
First, you’ll see in verses 11 and 12 that God has given certain people to the church for a certain purpose. The New Testament apostles and the prophets, the evangelists, as well as shepherds (pastors) and teachers – all these have been given to the church for an important job. Namely, these overseers of the church are intended – verse 12 – “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”
So notice here – these pastors, teachers, and whoever – their job isn’t to do 100% of the church’s spiritual work, though certainly they’ll be involved in much of it. Instead, their job is actually to equip the saints for serving. Their job is to teach everyday followers of Jesus how to “minister” to the spiritual needs of the people around them. This makes the church deep, strong, and resilient. It’s easy to see God’s wisdom in making this a priority.
God Gives Growth Goals
Second, in verses 13 through 15, God gives us the growth goal that he’s aiming for in his Church. You’ll notice here – the passage is very clearly talking about growth as a goal. But frankly, it has very little to say about numerical growth. The focus is instead on spiritual growth. God’s concern isn’t about the quantity of the people in our church, as much as it is on the quality of our ministry to them. God wants his people to attain to “unity of the faith” and “knowledge” and “mature manhood.” He wants his people to grow up out of childhood and to instead “grow up into him who is the head, into Christ.”
If the people of a local church are deeply rooted in the Christian faith, and if they’re happily treasuring the Christian gospel, and if they’re growing in maturity and Christlikeness, that church is going to be attractive. And it will be attractive for legitimate reasons. The church probably won’t be attractive in the superficial, big-budget production sort of way. But it will be genuinely attractive because the members of the church will be honest about their sin, humble about their need for Jesus, confident about the gospel, and compassionate for the lost.
If our churches aim at numerical growth over spiritual growth, over the long term we probably won’t end up with either. But if we aim at spiritual growth over numerical growth, chances are we’ll enjoy the fruits of both.
God Gives a Church Body
God gives us one more thing in verse 16. God gives us a church body. By this, I simply mean that God hasn’t called us to follow Jesus in solitude. He has called us into fellowship with other Christians – into real relationships where we share our weaknesses and temptations, where we pray for each other, and where we stir one another up to have conviction and courage.
And verse 16 points out that when each part of the body is working properly – when we’re mature, when we’re ministering to one another with acts of spiritual service, that sort of thing – when each part of the body is working properly, Christ makes us grow. That’s how Christ makes growth happen – it’s in the context of healthy churches, where we’re all striving alongside one another for depth and devotion and discipleship. So other people in the church need you in order to grow – and you need others in your local church. This all being said, though, we should do what we can to model this, and teach this, and ensure that our churches are places that this can actually happen.
If we set up our churches to be “easy” churches, or “fun” churches, or “show up and let us entertain you churches,” we probably will be able to get many people in through the front door. But the problem is that we won’t be equipping the saints for daily, sometimes-difficult work of ministry. These people will be trained to passively receive “ministry” from the pastor instead of learning how to serve the person sitting in the auditorium seat next to them. We won’t be preparing them to follow Christ in the world and workplace when it’s not fun and easy. A healthy church, a growing church, is one where each member is established on Christ’s message, and equipped for Christian ministry.
So let’s be careful that our decisions aren’t driven by whatever “looks like it’s working,” but that we instead align ourselves with how God says He’s working. A lake may look impressive if it’s a hundred miles wide. But if it’s just one inch deep, it’ll evaporate in a day. If we want our lake to last, it will take time to dig deeper. So let’s make the investment, and let’s train ourselves and one another to have our priorities, pleasures, plans, and practices shaped more and more by Christ and His Word.
