PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

We need to stop growing as a congregation.  Growing is too dangerous. Too many problems brought on by too many people, too many different people. 

Growth destroys the status quo, forces us to confront our comfort zones, brings in new and different people with new and different problems, enlarges the gaps between the mature and immature whether spiritually or emotionally, destabilizes relationships as new dynamics crash the scene, creates cliques as people hang out with just their old crowd, increases dissimilarities destroying the small family atmosphere,  and challenges the congregation on too many levels – personally, practically, spiritually and even doctrinally.

We need to stop growing as a congregation.  If we continue to grow, then we will be able to do more for the Lord, but doing more for the Lord will bring more responsibilities and opportunities and more work. 

We need to stop growing as a congregation.  If we continue to grow, we will bring in more people and more growth resulting in more problems.

We need to stop growing as a congregation.  But how do we this?  The solutions are simple. 

We need to stop praying because if we continue to pray for growth, God might bless us.  So please stop praying for numerical growth and a new building.  We don’t want God to bless us with either.  And yet the Bible says,

• Luke 18:1 HCSB  He then told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not become discouraged:
• Luke 10:2 HCSB  He told them: “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.
• Ephesians 6:19 HCSB  Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
• Colossians 4:3 HCSB  At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the message, to speak the mystery of the Messiah–for which I am in prison–
• 2 Thessalonians 3:1 HCSB  (1)  Finally, pray for us, brothers, that the Lord’s message may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you,

We need to stop evangelizing, because you never know who might want to be saved.  People with “problems” just bring problems.  Having a congregation filled only with mature Christians is far easier, but we don’t even want too many of those because any type of growth is dangerous.  And yet the Bible says,

• Acts 14:21 HCSB  After they had evangelized that town and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch,
• Acts 16:10 HCSB  After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to evangelize them.
• Romans 15:20 HCSB So my aim is to evangelize where Christ has not been named, in order that I will not be building on someone else’s foundation,

We need to stop having elders, because and eldership is God’s plan and if we continue to follow God’s plan then He might start to count on us doing what is right.  Despite the fact that the elders work tirelessly, and despite the fact that the deacons relieve a lot of the burdens, it is best if we just go back to man’s way of doing things.  Because if we leave out God’s plan, He won’t bless us and we can stop growing because growth is too dangerous.  And yet the bible shows,

• Acts 14:23 HCSB  When they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
• Titus 1:5 HCSB  The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders in every town:

Anyone want to stop growing?  I don’t think so.  Does anyone has the audacity to stop praying?  Is anyone bold enough to say we should stop evangelizing?  Is there one among us that does not want to follow God’s plan of elders?

“Perry,” someone might be thinking, “do you see a lot of problems beginning in this congregation?  I thought the condition of the church was spiritually healthy!” 

We are spiritually healthy, but throughout the Bible I see growth leading to problems.  Therefore in order to scripturally handle problems, are attitude first must be:

• Realize Growth Brings Problems
• Stop Before they Start
• Face Problems as they Come.
• Apply Remedy Supplied by the Holy Spirit

Sometimes problems can exist because of immediate growth.  Sometimes problems come simply because of the passing of time.

I see within this congregation unlimited possibilities, because I see so many people gifted by God.  But we are experiencing growth at a rate that can only be explained one way – God is blessing us.  If we want to continue to be blessed by God, if we want to continue to grow, then we must always be willing to meet the challenges of growth which is meeting the challenges of being blessed.

How do we do this?  The answer is simple, but not necessarily easy.  We learn and apply the lessons from an inspired source – The Holy Spirit.  This can be done using a variety of NT books because in the first century the local churches grew.  But let’s choose one – 1 Corinthians.

First let’s establish that the Corinthians Church was a growing church (Acts 18:8-10)

Acts 18:8-10 HCSB  Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed the Lord, along with his whole household; and many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.  (9)  Then the Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent.  (10)  For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”

Second let’s remember that the Corinthian Church was a blessed church (1:4-7)

1 Corinthians 1:4-7 HCSB  (4)  I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace given to you in Christ Jesus,  (5)  that by Him you were made rich in everything–in all speaking and all knowledge–  (6)  as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you,  (7)  so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Third we will look at their problems and then lastly look the solutions.

But despite all their gifts and blessings, problems arose within the Corinthian church; problems dealing with:

• Personalities (sectarianism);
• Perversion in Morals (sin);
• Personal liberties (selfishness);
• Pride interfering with worship (schisms);
• Perversion in Doctrine (secularism)

These are not the only problems churches can endure.

Personalities – Sectarianism

1 Corinthians 1:10-13 HCSB  (10)  Now I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.  (11)  For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by members of Chloe’s household, that there are quarrels among you.  (12)  What I am saying is this: each of you says, “I’m with Paul,” or “I’m with Apollos,” or “I’m with Cephas,” or “I’m with Christ.”  (13)  Is Christ divided? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name?

1 Corinthians 2:4-9 HCSB  (4)  My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power,  (5)  so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.  (6)  However, among the mature we do speak a wisdom, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.  (7)  On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages for our glory.  (8)  None of the rulers of this age knew it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  (9)  But as it is written: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has never come into a man’s heart, is what God has prepared for those who love Him. 

“The Pauline loyalists doubtless championed Gospel freedom and would claim primacy for Paul as the founder of their church.  The Apollos clique were the intellectuals, carried away by the eloquence and seeming superiority of the brilliant Alexandrine expositor who had made such a flash among them since Paul’s first visit.  The Cephas block were presumably the Judaistically incline, whose boast would be in Peter as the authoritative voice of the apostles and mother church at Jerusalem.  There was even a ‘Christ’ party invidiously arrogating the Name, and saying, ‘I am of Christ’ in a factious way which implied the inferiority of all others.” (J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book, vol.6, p.95)

Perversion in Morals – Sin

1 Corinthians 5:1 HCSB  It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even condoned among the Gentiles—a man is living with his father’s wife.

1 Corinthians 6:1 HCSB  Does any of you who has a complaint against someone dare go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?

1 Corinthians 6:6-8 HCSB  (6)  Instead, brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!  (7)  Therefore, it is already a total defeat for you that you have lawsuits against one another. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather be cheated?  (8)  Instead, you act unjustly and cheat—and this to brothers!

1 Corinthians 6:15-20 HCSB  (15)  Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? So should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Absolutely not!  (16)  Do you not know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, The two will become one flesh. (17)  But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.  (18)  Flee from sexual immorality! “Every sin a person can commit is outside the body,” but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.  (19)  Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,  (20)  for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

Personal Liberties – Selfishness

1 Corinthians 8:1-13 HCSB  (1)  About food offered to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.  (2)  If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it.  (3)  But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.  (4)  About eating food offered to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.”  (5)  For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth–as there are many “gods” and many “lords”–  (6)  yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.  (7)  However, not everyone has this knowledge. In fact, some have been so used to idolatry up until now, that when they eat food offered to an idol, their conscience, being weak, is defiled.  (8)  Food will not make us acceptable to God. We are not inferior if we don’t eat, and we are not better if we do eat.  (9)  But be careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.  (10)  For if somebody sees you, the one who has this knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t his weak conscience be encouraged to eat food offered to idols?  (11)  Then the weak person, the brother for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge.  (12)  Now when you sin like this against the brothers and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ.  (13)  Therefore, if food causes my brother to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won’t cause my brother to fall.

Pride Interfering with Worship – Schisms 

• Pride in Social Standing
• Pride in Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 11:17-22 HCSB  (17)  Now in giving the following instruction I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse.  (18)  For, to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.  (19)  There must, indeed, be factions among you, so that the approved among you may be recognized.  (20)  Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not really to eat the Lord’s Supper.  (21)  For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one person is hungry while another is drunk!  (22)  Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you look down on the church of God and embarrass those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you for this!

1 Corinthians 13:1-2 HCSB  (1)  If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  (2)  If I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 14:36-38 HCSB  (36)  Did the word of God originate from you, or did it come to you only?  (37)  If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s command.  (38)  But if anyone ignores this, he will be ignored.

Perversion in Doctrine – Secularism

1 Corinthians 15:33-35 HCSB  (33)  Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”  (34)  Become right-minded and stop sinning, because some people are ignorant about God. I say this to your shame.  (35)  But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come?”

Other inspired books deal with other doctrinal problems, but in the end, they all have in common leaving the authority of the Scriptures.

Solutions

• Look To the Cross
• Listen to Authority
• Learn to Love
• Lift-up the Lowly
• Live the Gospel

Look to the Cross 

1 Corinthians 1:18 HCSB  (18)  For to those who are perishing the message of the cross is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is God’s power.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 HCSB  (30)  But from Him you are in Christ Jesus, who for us became wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,  (31)  in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.

Listen to Authority

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 HCSB  (1)  Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.  (2)  I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet able to receive it. In fact, you are still not able,  (3)  because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like ordinary people?

1 Corinthians 4:6 HCSB  Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over another.

Levy Tough Love

1 Corinthians 5:4-13 HCSB  (4)  In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, along with my spirit and with the power of our Lord Jesus,  (5)  turn that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.  (6)  Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough?  (7)  Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, since you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.  (8)  Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast, or with the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  (9)  I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people–  (10)  by no means referring to this world’s immoral people, or to the greedy and swindlers, or to idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world.  (11)  But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother who is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a reviler, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.  (12)  For what is it to me to judge outsiders? Do you not judge those who are inside?  (13)  But God judges outsiders. Put away the evil person from among yourselves.

Learn to Love 

1 Corinthians 8:1 HCSB  About food offered to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 HCSB  (19)  For although I am free from all people, I have made myself a slave to all, in order to win more people.  (20)  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law–though I myself am not under the law–to win those under the law.  (21)  To those who are outside the law, like one outside the law–not being outside God’s law, but under the law of Christ–to win those outside the law.  (22)  To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.  (23)  Now I do all this because of the gospel, that I may become a partner in its benefits.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 HCSB  (4)  Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited;  (5)  does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs;  (6)  finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth;  (7)  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Lift-up the Lowly

1 Corinthians 12:22-26 HCSB  (22)  On the contrary, all the more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary.  (23)  And those parts of the body that we think to be less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have a better presentation.  (24)  But our presentable parts have no need of clothing. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable,  (25)  so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other.  (26)  So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Live the Gospel 

1 Corinthians 6:11 HCSB  (11)  Some of you were like this; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 HCSB  (19)  Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,  (20)  for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 15:58 HCSB  (58)  Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

 

We do not need to stop growing as a congregation.  Not growing is too dangerous!

Tags: Article, Church Growth

This entry was posted by PHall on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Luke, Acts, Romans, I Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, II Thessalonians, Titus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.