Church Growth And The Work Of God

By Josh Reich on Oct 6, 2023

JoshuaReich.org
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We know that God is the one who makes a church grow, that it isn’t on us. This is both a
comfort and a problem.
Scripture: None
Tags: Communication, vision, Discipleship, Church Growth (view more)

We know that God is the one who makes a church grow, that it isn’t on us. This is both a comfort and a problem.

It is a comfort because we can rest. We don’t have to force things, we don’t have to make something happen. It
is a problem because it can make us lazy. It can make us throw up our hands and say, “Well, I just need to
preach the gospel and that’s it.” This is much like the Calvinist who doesn’t share his faith because “God will get
who he’s going to get”, as one pastor told me.

Those are extremes, but they are important to point out.

Yes, Jesus grows his church. God grows the seeds that are planted. The Holy Spirit draws people, and often
times a church grows and God moves with no explanation.

Other times a church grows, and while the Holy Spirit did the work, there were specific things that church did
and did not do.

How much are you praying? How much is your elder and staff team praying? Not only for people in your church
but for people not in your church? Are you asking God for specific people you are in relationships with? Are you
praying that God will send 300, 500 people to your church this Easter? How burdened is the pastor for people
who don’t know Jesus? Are there any sins in your church, leadership team or your life that you need to confess
that are hindering the work of God?

In your church and in your preaching and worship, are you exalting Jesus and making it simple for people to
understand?

Many times I’ll have pastors ask me to listen to their sermons, and all I can think the whole time is that I have to
have a seminary degree to understand what he is talking about. Being simple is not being shallow. Being simple
is being helpful. The gospel is complex, deep and robust, but it is also so simple that my four year old can
explain it to you. Our kids can draw a picture of the gospel, so our preaching should reflect that to a certain
degree.

One of the ways we evaluate this in our church has to do with communion. When we move from the sermon to
communion, is it an easy transition or does it feel like a hard right turn?

We’ll talk about systems in a minute, but do you have a clear vision, a clear strategy and a clear picture of what
you are shooting for? For example, can you articulate in simple terms what a healthy, mature disciple looks like?
Many times in our churches, we can’t. I’m sad to say, in our church we waited too long to articulate this, and it
did a disservice to our people.

I think the work of God is deeply connected to our ability to clearly help our people grow. They are connected. If
Jesus builds his church and the gates of hell will not prevail, what kind of people will withstand those gates?

Many times churches do not know what they are trying to build in people. They don’t know what a healthy,
mature disciple looks like, so they aren’t sure what they are aiming at. For our church, we took too long to
define this clearly, and I think that hurt us as a church.

Why?

Not only did it not serve our leaders and people well, we weren’t able to ask God for specific things to build into
our people. It hinders the ability to focus a sermon calendar on those important discipleship aspects.

Let me leave you with an important question for churches, boards and staffs: What kind of disciples are you
building? Is that what the New Testament calls us to? Do you have a clear path to accomplish that?

Josh Reich (website: JoshuaReich.org)

View all articles by Josh Reich
Josh Reich is the lead pastor of Revolution Church in Tucson, AZ, which is trying to
live out the rhythms of Jesus. The church's dream is to "help people find their way
back to God."