The Once and Future Church
The explosive growth of the church in the first century remains the ideological goal of every church pastor and many lay people, as well. No believer could possibly disagree with the concept of a vital church that added members daily. In contemplating the feasibility and probability of such happening today, we need to acknowledge the differences in times and terms. We might find that the same thing could never happen again or that it is indeed happening at the present time.
Once I was asked if exponential church growth were possible today, and my answer was, “No. Not without significant transfer growth.” Let me explain. I don’t personally know of any church that has “jumped up there” without a lot of ready-made members leaving their several churches and affiliating with the newer venture. I don’t want to take away anyone’s freedom of choice, but I think we need to realize and admit that this is not what was happening in the first-century church. Early church growth was conversion growth.
Looked at another way, when most of us think of “the church,” we are thinking of “a church.” There was only one church in the immediate period following Jesus’ return to heaven. They didn’t meet in a centralized building, and there were a number of things dissimilar from today’s assembly of believers. Now, it wasn’t too long before there were churches in different cities, and the local church became the format, but the original leaps in growth happened under a different economy with a different set of expectations.
If we look at the church today as the universal congregation of believers, there are indeed people being saved in large numbers daily. To do this, however, we must appeal to a former time as though it were current. A substantial portion of Scripture is devoted to dealing with the church as a smaller group of believers in a local assembly. The group is a microcosm of the whole, but it is not the whole. It could be said that large evangelistic efforts around the world in mostly untapped (gospel-wise) areas come closest to the church in Acts.
Membership and attendance are more used today than conversion rate in gauging church progress. The concept of “belonging” is biblical but inferred more than instructed. The well-established practice of joining was only developing two thousand years ago. It’s not that our churches do not emphasize reaching the unreached, but we need to understand that the current church does not emphasize evangelism to the degree that believers did in a former day. Perhaps, if we were closer in time to the Author of salvation, we’d see it more clearly.
We could say that the experiences of the first century church are happening and not happening in the present depending on our definitions. The thing that is most telling to me is how much they did in that time with few resources. Local churches could have conversion growth today if their adherents would share Christ wherever they went, and it wouldn’t cost a thing. Now, we spend untold monies in pursuit of fun with the result of gleaning sheep from other flocks. It is progress but with an asterisk.
Lest I seem too judgmental, let me say that I don’t know any pastor or sincere Christian worker who doesn’t lament the lack of conversion church growth in our time. Our ministries must be substantive and fundamental if we are to get what we want. We will have to know our Bibles, learn to pray and rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us if we are to succeed. Sharpen your axe and let down the net for a catch. To us has been the ministry of reconciliation committed and the key to the kingdom of heaven given. God help us not to fail.
Sterl
« Go back