Grow Up
Grow: Rethinking Church Growth - Part 2
April 14, 2024
Ephesians 4:11-16, Hebrews 5:12-14, 1 Peter 2:1-5, 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
Brothers and sisters, I couldn’t talk to you like spiritual people but like unspiritual people, like babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink instead of solid food, because you weren’t up to it yet. Now you are still not up to it because you are still unspiritual. When jealousy and fighting exist between you, aren’t you unspiritual and living by human standards?
1 Corinthians 3:1-3
_______________
Growth is a natural part of life. It’s been said that if you are not growing, you are dying. But the question is, what kind of growth are we talking about?
In the church, growth is often measured by numbers… in particular worship attendance or membership, and financial giving. That’s it. But scripture consistently refers to the church as a living organism, as the body of Christ. I wonder, what would happen if we measured the growth of the human body on those standards alone? What if growth was only measured by how tall we got and how much weight we gained?
That might be a good starting point for an infant, especially one who may have been pre-mature or underweight at birth, but for an adult, there comes a point when we will not grow any taller and if anything, many of us would rather lose weight than gain it. If our only measurement for growth is physical size, then we spend the majority of our lives either stagnant or dying because we simply cannot grow anymore.
There are many debates about whether or not a church can grow too big, or what the ideal “weight” or size of a healthy church might be. Some idealize the multi-thousand member mega church as the expected norm, while others in mid to larger size churches quickly realize that they have become so bloated with programs and buildings that they must streamline in order to make their ministry sustainable. It has been argued that it is better to do one thing exceptionally well than 20 or 30 things mediocre because your budget and your people are stretched too thin.
In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins identifies what he calls “The Hedgehog Concept”, in most successful companies. As a leadership model, the hedgehog concept is based on the fact that a hedgehog really only has one natural defense mechanism in nature. It can roll up in a spiky little ball and become almost impossible for a predator to eat. It is easy to look at that hedgehog as small, weak, and insignificant compared to more majestic animals like lions and bears, but no one can argue with the effectiveness of the hedgehog’s ability to survive and thrive by warding off predators in such a simple way. If it tried to fight back or compete with other animals, it would likely lose, but when it does what it was created to do, all is well.
New Testament writers regularly call out the church for essentially getting fat on baby food ( Eph. 4:11-16, Heb. 5:12-14, 1 Pet. 2:1-5, 1 Cor. 3:1-3, etc.) They are never concerned about numerical growth in the countless small house churches and faith communities sprouting up across the known world. Rather, they call out the lack of spiritual maturity among those who have been in the faith the longest. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul particularly uses their constant jealousy and quarreling as evidence of this lack of spiritual growth and health.
I wonder how much of our own quarreling and even decline in today’s world stems from our jealousy of larger churches and our own insecurities about size and money?
What if real growth means simply being the best, healthiest and most mature little hedgehog we can be?
