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Church Growth


This post was published on Friday 4 January 2008.

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.