Church Growth
At the end of last term we had a study week on Church Growth & Church Planting. It was a good week - one of the better study weeks.
One of the points of interest for me was that, although the week was focused primarily on numerical growth and planting, there were a couple of sessions about discipleship. I have often placed more emphasis on discipleship than evangelism, thinking it more important to grow deeper before growing wider.
However, I think that each is equally important, and that each feeds the other. The more people existing Christians see coming to faith, the deeper their own faith becomes. Equally, people with a strong and deep relationship with God become more like him, and therefore more attractive and able to share their faith in a non-threatening and powerful way.
Many Anglican churches are stuck in ‘discipleship’ mode; and even that has been watered down to little more than maintenance of what is already existing. Without new Christians, a church becomes stagnant, and without depth new and existing Christians wither and die.
The challenge to me, and to the Anglican church, is a renewed focus on evangelism and numerical growth, which is after all a sign of the kingdom throughout the New Testament. God still wants people who know him more and more, and people to know him for the first time.