How to Multiply Your Membership
I have often heard ministers, elderships, and avid churchgoers pine for the glory days of the Book of Acts. We read in Acts the story of a church that is unwavering in its commitment and unstoppable in its growth throughout the Roman world. Many times, I have heard sermons and read articles comparing the church today to the church of the first century. Almost all of them could end with a phrase spoken by God through Daniel: the church today has “been weighed in the balance and found wanting” (Daniel 5:27). Why are we not as passionate as the church in the first century was? Why are we not as dedicated to the good of the church, regardless of our individual outcomes, as Paul and his peers were? And perhaps the question I have heard the most: Why is the church not growing today like it did then?
There are a lot of potential answers to this question. Most of the times that I have heard this sentiment expressed before, the answers are largely found on the level of individual faith. The church today isn’t as passionate as it was because we as individuals aren’t as passionate in our personal relationships with Christ as the first century Christians were. The church today isn’t as dedicated because we have grown more individualistic in our pursuits and less aware of the ways in which our personal pursuits affect our church family. The church today isn’t growing because we as individual Christians aren’t doing as good of a job as representing Christ to the world as the first century Christians did. The church is made up of Christians, and when Christians stop growing, the church stops growing.
This sentiment has a lot of validity. It is true that a congregation is only as strong as its weakest members, and it is also true that in the modern world it is much easier to get distracted and lose sight of the singular importance of Christianity above all other pursuits. At the same time, I have yet to hear this sentiment expressed in a public forum with any thought given to addressing the leadership aspect of the church’s success. Yes, the first century church succeeded because the individual Christians who made up the church were strong in their faith and made the whole stronger. The first century church also succeeded because it was led by people who were able to make hard decisions in loving ways (see Acts 15), respect the law of liberty without insisting on their own interpretation as equal with the Lord’s commands (see Romans 14), disagree and even argue about matters of doctrine without splitting the church (see Galatians 2), and train future leaders to do the same (see Acts 20, and the whole of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus). A congregation is only as strong as its weakest member, AND a flock of sheep is only as confident as its shepherds; both realities can be true.
Given this dual reality, how do we fix this problem both as individual members and as leaders within the church? Perhaps by implementing a verse that I find very striking but have never heard mentioned within this conversation before:
“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” ~ Acts 9:31 (emphasis added)
Based on this verse, if we are looking to multiply the church as members and as leaders, two questions must be asked first: 1) Are we walking in the fear of the Lord, and 2) Are we walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit? If we examine ourselves and find the answer to either of these questions to be “no,” we might need to examine again with the goal of fixing something. Maybe we need to talk and study more about what the fear of the Lord entails. Maybe we need to talk and study more about the comfort of the Holy Spirit – starting with bringing Him into the conversation at all. Maybe we need to start walking in these things instead of just talking about them theoretically. These are good conversations to be having as individuals, as families, and as congregations, and if this verse is any indication, they are necessary conversations for those who seek to help the church multiply as it once did.
A congregation is only as strong as its weakest members, and those weak members are strengthened when walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Spirit. A flock of sheep is only as confident as its shepherds, and those shepherds learn how to shepherd the flock by walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Spirit. Perhaps if we want the church to multiply as it once did, we need to start listening to its Leader again.
“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth[.]” ~ Colossians 1:3-6
AUTHOR: Luke Tatum
