Five Secrets For Guaranteed Church Growth!

Have you ever written a blog post, and started with the Title? Yeah, me too. Today. I started with the Title, for the purpose of attracting attention. Did you really think that I had those five secrets?? LOL! Of course I don’t! I do have a couple secrets, but there’s no guarantee… still want to hear them?  Read on…

In case you still haven’t gotten it – the Title is a joke. It’s a ruse, a fraud, an apparition, a bait 'n switch! There are no five secrets and there are no guarantees. No one could really give them to you. They don’t exist, unless of course you wanted to pay people to come to your church. But again, here are some secrets I could share with you…

1. Take care of the sheep you have. If your church is not caring for the sheep God has already given you, why in the world would he send you more? If you are faithful with the few, he just may give you more.
2. Love the people you have. If you love them, they will spread that love to others. Your church will become known as a loving church, a place of love, a place of healing and wholeness. That’s what love does. That kind of church just might attract people.
3. Put your people to work in meaningful ministry. Steve is our lead sound guy at our church. He just upgraded our system a bit, and now he is riding the bronco of a learning curve, mastering the new equipment. What he is doing is providing a couple hundred people every week the opportunity to worship without distractions, and enjoy beautiful music and sound. Steve is doing significant ministry… because… he not only sees his ministry as technical, but he cares for, and mentors and trains others in the process. He also ministers to them as people, thinking about them and praying for them. If people find their ministry meaningful and significant, that will be contagious, and others will want in on it too.
4. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead your 200church, then you follow his lead. Lead from your knees. Even as I write that I think of the busy week we’ve had, and how Jonny and I were only in the office together for one and a half days this past week. We prayed with two different groups of leaders, but we did not pray together privately. We will spend some time together this week, as we’ll be together for four days. When we ask God to do it, he does it, and then we can just follow. When the Spirit is leading, stress, fear, and doubt are all reduced. When the Spirit is leading, maybe we will reach more people in our community.
5. Lead out of fullness, and not exhaustion. This one’s for me, but if you need it too, then by all means receive it. When we lead and love out of the fullness of Christ in us, and out of rest, health, and wholeness – we give others our best. We model Kingdom living. I am learning this. LearnING. Not learned. I have way too many wonderful things in my life right now calling my name. I have some good news to report… don’t tell… I slept 12 hours on Friday night. I slept from 8pm-5am, was up for two hours, and then slept 7am-10am. Count ‘em – 12 hours baby! But why? Because I was irresponsible all week and burned the candle on both ends. I was exhausted! I am learning to lead out of fullness and overflow, and not exhaustion.
   

Well, those five things may or may not be secrets, but they are thoughts for you as you start this week.

You know, we say it all the time, but do you really understand how important and valuable you are to the Kingdom of God, as you pastor your small church? Your 200church? Can you comprehend the import of God calling YOU to serve and love at your church? It's huge!

You are very valuable. So go for it! LOVE those people, TRAIN them to serve, RELEASE them to love and give in the name of Jesus. TRUST in Jesus to lead and grow your church to its Kingdom potential, whatever that is. Enjoy the grace, light, joy, and love of Jesus this week.

Karl “The Shark” Vaters is with us on Wednesday, as we talk about the topic – Your Church IS Big Enough. We can’t wait to be with you on Wednesday for Episode 58 of the 200churches Podcast!