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The vital Issues and Problems of Church Growth
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Paul Jang
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2008-03-29 01:58:49, hit : 6,379 |
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The vital Issues and Problems of Church Growth
What is the big issue? It is that churches grow or die. It is a law of life that "where there is no growing, there is dying" (Schuller 1975, 30). Because the Church is like a living creature, it dies if it isn't growing. "Growth is an essential property of life. When living things cease to grow, they begin to deteriorate.
So do churches" said Roger L. Dudley (Dudley 1983, 13). M. Wendell Belew says that he wonders why some churches grow and others die (Belew 1971, 14). This is very important. Not growing means a state of sickness. Ron Jenson and Jim Stevens have attributed the causes of the health of a church to its laity's involvement in the ministry of the body as follows:
The health of a church will exist in direct proportion to its laity's involvement in the ministry of the body. Noninvolvement of laity in the ministry is a serious disease of the church. It is a hideous disease which attacks the church's vital organ. (Jenson and Stevens 1981, 126)
For this problem, George Barna has made an analysis
that there are two underlying reasons why churches seem
paralyzed when it comes time to respond to problems and opportunities: the failure of both pastor and laypeople:
(1) because the pastor is not willing to relinguish control long enough to allow others to have a stakein the church's ministry. Pastors must move away from the old pattern of ministry. When they do so, they tend to develop a new leadership to be able to multiply and manage the congregation (Schaller 1979, 170), and
(2) because of the laypeople's failureto become excited about ministry and take an active part in the church life (Barna 1990, 79-80). "You are important to the Lord Jesus! One marvelous thing about being a disciple of Jesus is that you never get lost in the crowd" shouted Winkie Pratney (Pratney 1977, 22). In this sense we all are called to have a witness and to minister to the ministry (Tillapaugh 1988, 131). The laypeople should recognize that they already are the misionaries sent by the Lord into their society (Kim 1990, 25).
Thomas R. Bennett took the first interest in the ministry of laity in his "Project Laity" (Casteel 1968, 54). C. Peter Wagner says that if the first vital sign of a growing church is a pastor who is using his gifts to lead his church into growth, the second is a well-mobilized laity (Wagner 1977, 69). "Church growth depends upon the diversified services of the laypeople belonging to that church" said Dr. Bong Ho Son (Son 1985, 9). Frederick A. Agar said, "a competent church has not only good pastoral leadership, but also a properly developed, well trained lay leadership" (Agar 1924, 38). "Together pastor and people can impact a community for Christ" said Darrell W. Robinson (Robinson 1993, 195).
What then are the following problems? Kenneth Gangel suggested three basic problems in utilizing people in the service of Christ through the church. He states:
We face three basic problems in utilizing people in the service of Christ through the church: misuse, disuse, and abuse. The first is a reference to the employing of unqualified teachers and workers;
the second, to the many uninvolved Christians that throng our church pews; and the last, to the problem of over-burdened workers in the church. (Gangel 1970, 325)
Another basic problem of the church is that no one programs for the individual, the layman (Green 1972, 163). In conclusion, the basic problems of the church growth could be integrated to three;
(1) do-nothing pastor,
(2) uninvolved laity, and
(3) no programs.
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Introduction
Ch Growth 