Why do you want your church to grow?

How do we begin to answer this question?  "Why do you want your church to grow?"  Is this a rhetorical question?  Is the person who asks a dumb question as dumb as the question being asked?  Why do you want your church to grow? What kind of question is that!!!

We all know what the text book answer is...

 "I want my church to grow because there are people going to Hell in droves and the more people we can gather in to the church, the more people we can get to Heaven, I have a heart for people, I have God's heart for people, I care for souls". 

There is the text book answer and I would not want to be quoted any other way!  However......however.....God looks at the Heart.

Without getting to heavy into the issues of the heart, see my blog at www.oneyearclub.blogspot.com

I have seen and heard of Pastors, that if you were to ask them that question, they would give you the text book answer penned up above, but yet, how do they treat the people that are presently in their churches?  Are they used as ponds to help further grow their empire...ooppps I mean church?  Are they taken for granted, as the people are simply used to further their agenda? Are they ridiculed, ignored, put to the side?

We are so focused on those "outside" the church we forget to appreciate and minister to those inside the church.  God has not called us to Pastor those "outside" the church but those he has drawn in.  We have "Outreach Ministry" but do we have "Ministry of the Interior".

We will spend time and money for those outside, but how much time and money will we spend for those that we already know are in (the church) and are not going anywhere (or so we think).

So back to the question, "Why do you want your church to grow?"  Men are driven to want to succeed.  Could it be that a large church equals success to us.  After all, if I have been sent to start a church than a big church means I have largely succeeded therefore I am a success.  How else do we measure success?

Nobody asks us how many people we are loving, caring and nurturing, they only ask us "how many people are in your church?".

Could pride and ego be at the root of why you want your church to grow?  And the answer..."of course not, how insulting!".

I remember numerous times being embarrassed at the size of my church when family came to visit.  I remember on one occasion my Aunt saying, "Richard, your mother told me you were starting a church, this isn't a church, this is a handful of people in a little hotel lobby".  Now don't get all spiritual on me, I know "where two or more are gathered, there I am...." but my Aunt called it they way she saw it.

I often wished, and of course prayed, that I had a larger church, but WHY?

For sure, part of it was because it meant more people going to Heavan, but was that my sole motivation in wanting a larger church? And to break it down further, what was the percentage between caring vs. my pride? Who knows, except God.  I cannot even truly know because I will lie to myself.

Why do some churches grow and others don't? It would take a whole book to dig in to that, but could one of the many, many reasons be, THE HEART!

And I know, I know, you're heart is pure as the driven snow and the Pastor's heart down the street is fueled by Pride and Ego.

Examine your heart? Ask yourself, is your focus more on the people outside your church, that are not coming, or is it on the precious few that God has given you. 

How do you see them? As ponds to further build your church or as people God has given you to love, care and nurture?

And so I must asked this stupid question once again, forgive me....but "Why do you want your church to grow?"