Is Building a Big Church the Right Goal?
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Here is a Scripture I want you to think about. In Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood and preached to the crowd and three thousand were added to the church that day. What I want you to pay close attention to is what the Bible records after that. This is the blueprint for doing it the right way:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-47).
When you read this, the growth of the church wasn’t the focus, it was the result. What they focused on was devoting themselves to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread together, and prayer. In other words, they followed Jesus’ command to go and make disciples. Because they committed to these things, the last verse says the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I believe this method of building a church has not changed. Any desire to grow a church that is not bathed in prayer, teaching, fellowship, and breaking bread is not focusing on growing the church. In other words, church growth is not about the quantity of the people in the building but the quality of change coming to their lives. What good is it to have a full building if no lives are being changed?
There is one thing to note about Jesus’ ministry. When the crowds grew larger, his messages got more challenging. Jesus was not enamored with the amount of people following him. He would constantly go through a weeding out process because he didn’t want fans, he wanted disciples.
In John 6 Jesus feeds the five thousand and shortly thereafter he and the disciples leave to go to Capernaum. When the crowd realizes they had all left, they decided to follow him. As they followed Jesus, he proceeds to give them a very difficult message. Here is what happened after he spoke to them.
“On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ … From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:60, 66).
You can read the in-between to know what he said, but he didn’t lighten the message because he was interested in keeping the crowd. He was more interested in creating true disciples than building a big following. We must be willing to get back to this place, and that’s why if the goal is to build a big church, it’s the wrong goal.
If you are a pastor or leader than I encourage you today not to worry about building a large church. If it happens, fantastic, but don’t allow that to be the goal. Focus on preaching the gospel, making disciples, and transforming lives by helping people grow deeper in their walk with Jesus. What you will find if this is your objective, is there will be wonderful fulfillment in your ministry and surprisingly the Lord may add daily to your numbers. You may end up with a big church, but it will be filled with a multitude of changed lives, not just a building of filled seats.
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Photo credit: Unsplash/John Price
He is the author of The Pursuit of Purpose, which helps readers understand how God leads them into his will, and the author of The Pursuit of Victory: How To Conquer Your Greatest Challenges and Win In Your Christian Life. Clarence is also committed to helping 10,000 people learn how to study the Bible and has released his first course, Bible Study Basics, to achieve that goal. To learn more about his ministry and resources, please visit clarencehaynes.com.