ANALYZING THE STAGING IN THE CHURCH

POINTS TO DISCUSS

1.-The church does not advance.

The first step to understand the lack of growth in the church is to recognize the disease, if one is not aware of this will not have the will or the necessary consciousness to apply the necessary remedies.
It is important that we also have healthy self-criticism to recognize that it is part of our responsibility that we are suffering from this problem. If we can not take responsibility for the problems we are going through, we will not be able to overcome them.
Just as it is practically impossible to help an addicted person to solve his problem if he does not recognize that he is ill it is also very difficult for a church to solve his growth problems if he does not recognize that a large part of the responsibility for the lack of growth lies in the action of its leadership and its members.

In the area of ​​the church we quickly fall into the same excuses as Adam looking for responsibility outside of us, in another human being and even in Satan, believing that in this way we have solved the problem and we have removed the responsibilities above. When the pastor , their leadership and the members responsible for the growth problems in the activity of the enemy are making 3 mistakes that will not allow them to grow.

Error 1: The first mistake is to believe that the enemy can stop the advance of the church. Jesus said in Matthew 16.18 "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it" indicating that there is no enemy power in this world greater than the one that Jesus delegated to the church of Christ to conquer lost people and that can stop the advance of the kingdom of God.

Mistake 2: The second mistake is to focus on the power of the enemy instead of focusing on the power of God when the power of the enemy was already defeated once and for all time on the cross.

The book of Job was written so that every Christian knows that the action of Satan is controlled by God at all times and that it is not the power of the Devil that stops the progress of the church but the lack of obedience of the church that does not use the power that God has given him. When Jesus said in deeds 1.8 "you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" was indicating that there is nothing that can stop your church when it advances in obedience to its Boss.

When Jesus predicts in Matthew 24.14 that "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come "reminds us again that the church will not be stopped by anyone or anything in the execution of its task. "You will be" and "it will be preached" are affirmations that the church will perform this task without Satan or any force being able to stop his church.

Error 3: The third error lies in not knowing the activity of the enemy because when we believe that the responsibility of the lack of growth is due to the activity of Satan we err in the diagnosis of the problem since the problem of growth of the church does not lie in Satan but in the church itself.

In order to solve the lack of growth of the church we must recognize that we Christians (pastors, leaders and members) are responsible for carrying out the tasks and mandates that Jesus left us as work.

And not only do we have the assignment, but Jesus left us so that there are no excuses for three things:

1. The authority to do the task (Matthew 28.18-20)

2. The power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to carry it out. (Acts 1.8 "you will receive power")

3. All the financial, human and logistical resources to develop the great commission in the hands of Christians.

Because if Jesus left us all these things, the church does not grow and I do not finish the task of "carrying the gospel to all the nations" yet?

The church that does not grow is because it is not being obedient to the basic commands of Jesus related to the purpose for which He created the church.

When the church lives in obedience to the basic commands of Jesus to 1) love God 2) Love people. 3) Evangelize the lost. 4) Make disciples. 5) Build the church (eye, not YOUR church, but the church of Jesus with a kingdom mentality) 6) Take the gospel to the end of the earth or make missions to the unreached ethnic groups where you never hear Jesus speak .
God gives the growth that He promises (1st Corinthians 3.6 "growth has been given by God") to the church when the church is in obedience to these commands as it is fulfilling the purpose for which it was created by Jesus.

2.-Principles of church growth.

The principles of growth of the church are the laws that God has placed for the growth of his work to happen through history.
They are like the law of gravity that you can ignore but if you do not respect them, you will be hurt. Do not go to your balcony, step on the air and see what happens when you do not respect the law of gravity.
to. The growth of the church consists of two parts: the work of God and human work.
We already saw this in 1 Corinthians 3.6 where Paul and Apollos do the human task and God makes theirs. We could go through the whole Bible seeing this principle but let's see only 3 to affirm the idea.
Moses talks with Pharaoh and guides the people and God opens the Sea.
Josue and his army spin Jericho and God knocks down the walls.
The disciples run the stone and Jesus resurrects Lazarus.

We start from the reality that God always does his part of the work, it is not He who is failing. This principle should lead us to simple questions regarding the commands that Jesus left us to see if we (his church) are doing our part of the work.

Evaluation questions for our church

Do we have our private time with God every day to strengthen us and be ready to obey?
How many people have we shared the gospel this week as a church?
How many people have we discipled as a church this week?
What space have we given our members to build "each other"?
Have we prayed this week for the people who still do not know the gospel?
Are we investing as a church human, financial and logistical resources to plant a new church?
Have we offered this week to support the missionaries who are going to take the gospel to the unreached ethnic groups?
Are we helping the missionary candidates that God raised in our church so that they can be trained and go out to the mission field?
Each one of these answers shows if we are as a church in obedience to the commands of Jesus or not. Each response indicates if we are doing part of the work that corresponds to us.
If we are not doing our human part in the Work of God, God does not have to do his part.
The work of God usually comes after his children are obedient to do their part in the Work.
Is this principle being respected in your church? If your church is not doing the human part of the Work of God this may be the reason why your church has a lack of growth.

b) The growth of the church happens when your church practices the values ​​of God.
The two basic values ​​of a Christian and a church are loving God and loving people. (Matthew 22.37-39)
This is the abc of the Christian life and the church. If in this abc we are failing, it is evident that growth will take a while to come.
Basically, this principle indicates that when the members of a church dedicate themselves to PRACTICE these values, God already finds human channels to carry out his work.
Loving God is evident that indicates a desire to know his will and obey and loving people indicates that people (not programs, not meetings, not events) will have priority in the agenda of pastors, leaders and members.
If this were so, many people would be "loved" in different ways (serve them, evangelize them, disciple them, reach them, help them, etc.)
When this does not happen it is because our church is not focused on people but on other objectives.
The church of Jesus grew when He was on earth because He practiced the values ​​of God.
He loved his father looking for him every morning through prayer and listening to his voice and then he loved people directly. We do not have large records of classes, meetings and events in Jesus' ministry. 90% of his ministry went directly to people.

b. God gives growth when the church fulfills its purpose in this world.
This is a principle that lies in common sense and in every call of God that we see in the Bible.

Common sense

Why would God give growth to a church that is only dedicated to its own purposes and not to the eternal purposes of God?
Why would God give growth to a church focused on using the offerings and resources that God gives in itself developing a selfish and self-centered behavior where everything that God gives the church consumes in itself?
Why would God give growth to a church that has put aside the mandate to "be light" to all nations and has spent years looking at itself and only the people of your city?
Call of God: We look only 3 but the whole Bible includes the nations in the call to their servants.
Abraham: I will bless you and you will be a blessing ... and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you. Genesis 12
Isaiah: I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and I will hold you by the hand; I will keep you and make you a covenant to the people, by the light of the nations. Isaiah 42.6
Church: They will be witnesses ... to the last of the earth. Facts 1.8

3.-Because the church does not grow.

So far we have detailed several reasons to explain why the church does not grow.

Let's summarize them so we can be aware of them and work to make changes.

The church does not assume its responsibility in the lack of growth.
The church is not obedient to the basic commands of Jesus.
The church does not live in practice the values ​​of God.
The church is not focused on the lost.
The church does not focus on fulfilling its purpose for the nations.
It is evident that to develop actions that change this reality we need a strong desire to change, to move to a different church model and to make profound changes in the life of our church.

For this we must think simple but practical ways that help us in our human part of the work within the work of God.

4.-How to grow the church.
Let's see what actions we can develop to see growth in the church.

Let's clarify that when we talk about "How to make the church grow" we do not mean that we can do it humanely but we refer to the human part of the Work of God that corresponds to us.
As we have seen in one of the principles of growth, our work is only a collaboration in the work of God and it is God who gives the growth in a definitive way.

Actions to collaborate with the work of God to see growth in our church.

Train and challenge our leaders and members to a relevant devotional life.
Train and challenge our leaders and members to practice personal evangelism weekly.
Train and challenge our leaders and members to practice personal discipleship on a weekly basis.
Train and challenge our leaders and members to look beyond our church and neighborhood to plant churches in other neighborhoods and cities.
Train and challenge our leaders and members to pray for ethnicities that have not been established.
Train and challenge our leaders and members to offer for missionaries working in unreached ethnic groups.
Train and challenge our leaders and members to recognize those called by God in our church to be missionaries to support them in their training and sending them to the mission field.

5.-The church that grows.

Growth never appeals to us because we assume it as normal. We are not surprised by the growth of a plant, an aniamal or a person because we know that this is normal.
When we see a church that grows we are surprised and we see it as something abnormal that draws attention but should not be so.

The church that grows is simply the one that is respecting the growth principles that God himself developed for all his creations, that is living according to the values ​​and mandates that Jesus left to his church and that embraces the purpose toward the nations for which God created the church.

This simple framework is challenging for the church because the churches do not live according to this reality. The lack of growth often makes them look more at themselves and lock themselves in their own plans.
The potential that Jesus has for his church is recorded in facts 1.8 and every church that is encouraged to focus on that model will see the hand of God in the growth and development of his church.

6.-Church in permanent mission. The antidote for lack of growth.
Since its inception the church has a continuous struggle with the two strongest enemies of the Work of God.

The first enemy is the selfishness of Christians.
This story is born in facts 1.6 where the first disciples had already incorporated the desire to think first of them and then of the Work of God.

Your question What will happen to us? It is a selfish question that is why Jesus does not answer it and focuses on leaving them a challenge that banishes selfishness. You should say to think about the lost, from your place to the end of the earth, this will not allow you to focus on yourself and sell the enemy of personal selfishness. This triumph is basic for a person, a pastor or a church to focus on Jesus' purpose for his church, which is to take the gospel to all nations.

The second enemy is the egocentricity of the Church.
This is reflected in facts 8.1 where it is clearly seen that the words of Jesus in Acts 1.8 were not taken into account by the pastoral of that time or by the church.
The church after having spent time from the words of Jesus was still "in Jerusalem."

The second enemy that is active today in all our churches is the egocentricity of the church.

The first church focused on itself, began to think about "its programs", "its events", "its meetings", "its objectives" and left out the purpose that Jesus clearly indicated in Acts 1.8 that it was to set its sights in taking the gospel to the nations.

That is why God acts drastically, allows a persecution and the church is scattered by "Judea, Samaria and even the last" with the incorporation of Paul.
God showed that his plans to reach the nations were not going to be stopped either by the selfishness of the Christians or by the egocentricity of the church.
God follows the same plan and uses each church that overcomes these two enemies and embarks on "reaching the nations."
When a church establishes a work plan to reach its Jerusalem, its Judea, its Samaria and be protagonist through prayer, recognize the missionaries and offer for the training and sending of missionaries to the last of the earth, is placing the antidote for lack of growth.
God knows that this church is embracing its values ​​and its purposes and will bless it, prosper and fill with human, financial and logistical resources so that it develops the mission to those who have not yet heard of Christ.

Bibliographic references

Martínez, Juan & Mark Branson. Iglesias, culturas y liderazgo: Una teología práctica para congregaciones y etnias. Miami: Editorial Vida, 2013. ASIN: B008EGREMO

Stanley, Andy. Amplio y profundo: Edificando Iglesias de las que todos quisieran ser parte. Miami: Editorial Vida, 2013. ISBN: 0829765409