Expect the church's most important growth to come from people you expect the least.
Let me tell you about someone you'd least expect.
He's a very quiet university student from Sudan;
one of those
people you immediately like as soon as you see his smile.
But, before I
tell you about someone "you expect the least,"
let me first tell
you how we should "expect the church's most important growth."
Expect
the church's most important growth...
Not just in quantity, but in quality.
From the time of Jesus and his original twelve
students,
the church grew quickly in quantity and slowly in quality.
Quantity-
100 years after Jesus, it's estimated that
the world population of Christians was at .01%.
200 years after Jesus, it grew to 3.6%.
300 years after Jesus, it grew to 10.5%.
350 after Jesus, it grew
to 56.5%. (When Constantine made Christianity Rome's religion)
Quantitatively, the church's population exploded exponentially.
We count people to assess church growth,
but throughout the past two-thousand years,
there's another kind of growth that is more
difficult to assess - quality.
Quality-
One-hundred years after Jesus, Christians were
willing to die for their faith.
(When Christian
quantity was less, Christian quality was more.)
But...
One-thousand years after Jesus, Christians were
willing to kill for their faith.
(When Christian
quantity was more, Christian quality was less.)
Currently, it's estimated that there are 2.18
billion Christians in the world.
Interpreting the present by the
events of the past,
we can assume that the quality of those 2.18 Christians will gradually grow.
Shifting from Quantity to Quality-
It's an expected assumption that when we talk about church growth, we're often talking about things like bigger buildings, newer music, better preachers, more people, and increased popularity. Let's face it, all that stuff is part of it, but that's not all of it. There's something else - a form of growth that's more significant and important for the church. There's another side to it and it's something you least expect.
Expect the church's most important growth to come from people you expect the least.
Like my
friend from Sudan-
I met him while playing basketball on a university
campus in Indiana. After talking about his passion for the Chicago Bulls and teasing me for recently becoming a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, I asked him what he was in school
for.
His answer represents an example of the
church's most important growth.
He’s attending school because he wants to bring Christ's influence into culture in a very specific way. Instead of accepting the “sex sells” norm, he
wants to work in the advertising and marketing industry to provide alternatives. He said he’s sick of the
industry turning women into objects in order to make sales. And he boldly looked at me and said he’s gonna do something about
it. I smiled and held eye contact as to affirm his passion, but really, I was only thinking about how naive he sounded. It was almost like he knew what I was thinking because he continued to remind me that Goliath was killed by someone who also sounded naive - David. The boldness of his faith gave me faith. And I think he made me a believer... He's going for it and I pray that he has God's favor just like David did.
What excites me about all of this is how his faith is expressing itself.
This is the sort of thing that accelerates the church's momentum in the world.
I didn’t expect to hear all that, but it didn’t matter, I listened with a renewed sense of
optimism for church growth. I’m
convinced this is the kind of thing that's going bring the most important kind of growth to the church. When increasing amounts of Christians
disperse from their church gatherings to do stuff like this, Christian quality will be added to the Christian quantity.
Let's not just share Jesus;
let's live like Jesus and show Jesus.
Let's not just invite people to our church gatherings;
let's exit church gatherings and go to people.
We
need a growth in Christian quality among our churches and in our cultures.
My friend from Sudan is someone I’d expect
the least,
but I know from hearing his vision,
he'll bring about the church's most important growth.
This is our opportunity. Each and every one of us can be like my friend from Sudan. Although some people are gifted to become
oversea missionaries, pastors, or Sunday school teachers, there are others of
us who are gifted in completely different ways of equal importance.
The church will continue to grow in quantity, but it’s up to you and me
to help it grow in quality. Instead of relying on the church, its missions, its programs, its employees, and it's alter calls to grow in numbers, let's recognize that each and every one of us can contribute to the quality of church growth.
Expect the church to grow the most through people you expect the
least.
(Matthew 18)
