Heaven + Earth

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about church growth. We’re heading into a couple of days of staff planning here at MW and one of our tasks has been to come up with 3 practical suggestions that will help grow the church. After sifting through a ton of research, weighing different opinions on “seeker-friendly” vs. “seeker-sensitive”, “attractional” vs. “missional” and so on, I’ve come to the following conclusion: The single most important thing we can do to build the Church is pray, fast and petition God in earnest for Him to add to our numbers daily the lives of those being saved. This is not to over-spiritualize or suggest that we then don’t have to do anything else. It is simply to say what the Bible tells us over and over again - God builds His church. We get to help Him, but He is the general contractor, the foreman, the architect and chief engineer, (insert other redundant construction analogies here). We need to approach Him, consult His carefully plotted blueprint, and then get to the hard work of formulating and executing a plan to build His house.

Too often we invite God in through the back door of something we’ve already built and ask Him to bless it, and to maybe issue an insurance policy on it so that we’re covered in case it all comes crashing down around us.