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Church Growth for Small Church (02)
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Paul Jang
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2008-03-24 15:27:42, hit : 2,889 |
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Church Growth for Small Church (02)
What then is the very methodology for small church to promote church growth? This is a vital issue for the small churches which have been stagnant today. Although there can be, of course, various descriptions for the growth of small church, of those the method of lay-ministry be recommendable. Peter C. Wagner emphasized the lay-ministry to be absolute factor in his book, Leading Your Church to Growth as follows:
The pastor is strong leader who wants church to grow and is willing to pay the price. The people of the congregation are aware of their biblical role of followership and are willing to allow their pastor to lead. The congregation as a whole is motivated for growth...The chief contribution of laypeople to the growth of the church can be summed up in one word: ministry (Wagner 1984, trnas. by Kim 1993, 145).
Rev. Chung, Suk Hyun, a professor of practical theology in Tae Ku Theological Seminary, Tae Ku, South Korea emphasized church growth potential based on the Bible in his book Church Growth and Role of the Laity, as follows:
But no matter how great the function of pastor is, it is important that his function can be effevtive through who; through the laypeople the function of the pastor must be into effectiveness. The Bible says, "every branch does bear fruit" (John 15:2). The pastor, therfore cannot grow his church without participation of the laypoeple in the church growth movement. The laypeople have excessive potentials (Chung 1988, 12).
In order to understand why important is the lay-ministry, it must be considered that there are two ways to which can approach in the Bible and theology. Firstly, it is etymological approach. The word laity derived from the Greek language laikos.(Arn ed. 1979, trans. by Lim 1985, 56). It had pointed to the people belonging to laos (Arn ed. 1979, trans. by Lim 1985, 56), or the people of God. In original use, the word laos had not described a group of persons in the church set apart from professional leaders but the total body of believers (Wagner 1989, trans. by Lee 1993, 119). It can be found in 2 Corinthians 6:16 and 1 Peter 2:9 in the New Testament. Therefore it pointed to the whole people of God who have been chosen and called in Christ (Arn ed. 1979, trans. by Lim 1985, 57).
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Introduction
Ch Growth 