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Strategies for the growth of small church
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Paul Jang
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2008-03-29 00:51:44, hit : 2,835 |
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Strategies for the growth of small church
The strategies for church growth should be considered in connection with the principles of the growth of the church. In case of small church as well as large church, it should be also mandatory for the church to grow. The strategies for church growth must be based on the principles of the growth of church. The reason is that the principles of church growth point to the directions, and fix upon the plans (as methods) of the strategies for church growth (Wagner ed. 1989, 274).
What is church? This question is very important to understand the church growth. First of all, biological approach may help us to understand the church growth. Church is not a mechanism but an organism because it is an organization of living creatures. Roger L. Dudley explained the church growth to lving things as follows:
Trees grow. Puppies grow. Babies grow. Relationships grow. If they are healthy and normal, that is. So do churches. Growth is an essential property of life. When living things cease to grow, they begin to deteriorate. So every Christian is for church growth. Well, not quite (Dudley 1983, 13)
Living creatures must grow. If not, they will die when the time will come out. Church is living organization, therefore it must grow. If not, it will die. In order that a living creature grow, it must take something to eat. In this point Evertt W. Huffard explained as follows:
To be healthy physically, a person must decide to eat, at least to eat the right foods. An increase in knowledge is dependent on a decision to study and learn. Great spiritual growth and church growth carries the same individual responsibility-- a decision to grow in Christ (Huffard 1983, 93).
Church is an assembly of the chosen people who have been elected by God in Christ. Church is the body of Christ, the Head of which is Christ at the same time and the members of which are the saints. The Scripture says:
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's peoplefor works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up untill we all reach unity in the faithand in the knowledge of Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ....Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does it work (Eph. 4:11-16).
The Body of Christ means, in fact the Christian church (Wagner 1979, trans. by Kwon 1986, 36). Therefore we should want the church to grow because God and Jesus Christ want it to grow (Davenport 1978, 14). C. Peter Wagner has taught that the body life principle must be in effect on caring for the new believers (Wagner 1986, trans. by Lee 1987, 85). Church growth is will of God (Donald A. McGavran 1980, 23). Therefore "every church should grow--if your church is not growing, you are out of the will of God" (Wagner 1984, 16).
Another approach to church growth is theological one which is derived from the biblical foundations. The biblical basis is from the Great Commission: "therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20).
In these passages threefold mission of the church can be found:
(1) making disciples,
(2) baptizing them, and
(3) teaching them.
Michael Hamilton defined this threefold mission as follows:
(1) evangelizing the world, (2) the maturing of believers, and
(3) worshiping God (Hamilton 1981, 44). In a word, this threefold mission of church can be summarized into two fields of the mission: follow-up and outreach for the growth of church.
Harold Pierce, the minister of Faith Church had tried to find what's wrong for small church not to grow
in a church growth workshop (Schaller 1989, 15). The question is "how does a small congregation like Faith Church grow?" There are at least eight responses that can be offered to him and to others concerned about the numerical growth of small-membership churches. Among the eight responses, in particular, two-part small group program was suggested for the small church to grow. One is a Bible study group with special emphasis on evangelism, another a research group for the "how-to" skills necessary for implementing a church growth strategy (Schaller 1989, 17).
Dale E. Galloway has suggested eleven dynamic growth principles of the church, and his successful ministry has done by using the principles. The most effective principle among those principles for him is "the principle No. 5--organize your church with the home cell system." He dares to say "for maximum growth, for effective evangelism, for discipling, in order to win people and keep them, commit your church to emphasizing cell groups" (Galloway 1986, 104). By 1990 they had been attainable to almost 485 cells, with 4,800 persons in weekly attendance at cell meetings (Towns 1990, 78).
Galloway's vision, when he began the church in the early 1970s, was to have one cell group for every 10 members (Galloway 1990, 78). The New Hope Community Church has grown from zero to over 6,000 people. they are increasing by 1,000 members a year. Some 5,500 people a week attend more than 500 Tender Loving Care groups (Home Cell groups), each led by one of 525 Lay Pastors (Galloway 1990, 11).
In fact, it is through the small groups that the church has grown so rapidly, both in numbers of new people and in their spiritual growth (Nicholas et al. 1985, 121). The writer has been firmly convinced that the strategy of the home cell group ministry is the best way for the small church like his church to grow.
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Introduction
Ch Growth 