Planting-Watering-Growing

As we began our church conference I was reminded about the process of God. God calls us to do the work(holy sweat) and leave the results to Him. I heard a preacher say "leave the size of the church up to God". Three things we should keep in mind as we plant and revitalize churhes.

1. Remember the Law of the Harvest- Gal 6:9 says that we should not grow weary in doing good for in due time we will reap a harvest. Keep serving, keep working, keep on keeping on. The bumper sticker said "Jesus is coming, look busy". We don't need to be self decieved. If we trully are in the field and laboring we can expect a harvest. If we are just going through the motions nothing will come of it.

2. Measure Accordingly- Results should not only be based on numbers. Numbers are good and a good measurement but sometimes other things must happen before we see the numbers(numbers represent people and people count). Facility upgrade is a measurement. Developing new strategies and implimentation of new systems are in the mix of growth. Developing new leaders, small groups, mission giving, giving increases and things like these help spell out progress as well.

3. God is Still God- In the scope of everything growth God remains on his throne and there are factors that He calls us to consider. A new church in a growing suburb of a major population area will have different results than a land locked urban older congregation. Each of these church must approach ministry in a different context but each can be successful in there setting. Trust God for whatever situation you find yourself in.

We must make sure we are doing our part because God is always ready and more that able and willing to do His.

Vision Again?

It seems that you have to go back to vision everytime you are taking the church foward. Warren Bennis stated that the single defining quality of a leader is vision. A leader is one who is in tune with the future, who knows where God wants him to go, a person who is focused on a clear purpose. As one person put it, a leader sees more than others, farther than others, and before others. Someone said "Our preachers aren't dreaming. That's why the church is such a nightmare." If our churches are asleep, we are the ones that need to wake up and start dreaming. Nothing happens unless it's first a dream.