Church Growth

God has been so gracious to our Church. It should come as no surprise because we are His Church. Hence, to be kind to us is to be kind to Christ Himself because we are His Body.

I just read this morning in Psalm 84:9, “Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!” In other words, that’s how God always sees His Church, by making eye contact with the Head of the Church which is Christ! God the Father looks on the face of His “anointed” which means Christ.

God has been protecting the Warrensburg First Baptist Church, why? Because God is faithful to His Word that says, “behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.” So for the sake of Christ, God has been blessing the Body of Christ.

For awhile now, I’ve viewed my desire for the success of God’s Church as a Christ-centered mission. I’ve thought, “I enjoy a healthy body, doesn’t Christ?”

For that reason, I’ve prayed for a healthy Body of Christ. Therefore it has been my mission to shepherd God’s flock in health and to good health–spiritual health.

And God has and is fulfilling His Body of Christ’s health for Christ’s sake, I’m sure, not mine.

If God were to bless this Church because of me, then He would curse this Church. Any blessing of health and growth (which extends from health) is due to His Spirit moving and His Son working to build His Church (Matthew 16:18).
If I could build God’s Church out of “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5), then I’m sure that it would be torn down because I’m not capable of it. Not only am I uncapable but I pose a threat to God’s Church if I think that I have anything that would actually help God build His Church.

God chose what is weak to shame the strong in order to show that His weakness is stronger than the strength of man. God even chose people who are not in order to make nothing things that are so that nobody may boast in His sight (1 Corinthians 1).

In other words, If I have done anything for this Church, then I have remained nothing so that God can work and so that I don’t hinder His power or steal His glory.

Therefore, through a weak man, in spite of me, not because of me, God is doing great things in the First Baptist Church of Warrensburg for His sake, not mine.

All glory goes to God because “to Him who is able to do far more abundantly above all that we can imagine or think, TO HIM BE THE GLORY IN THE CHURCH and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever, Amen! (Eph. 3:20-21).”

Yet, the Lord knows how much I desire to see God’s Church thrive because He has given me a shepherds heart. Not only that, but God has given me a normal heart that desires to see some progress!

And for that reason too, God has been gracious to His Church, in spite of me but also because of His great love for me. In part, I think that He has spouted up some spiritual seeds sown so that I can even see the fruit sprouting from my toil (or rather, God’s toil through me!). Though, I never assumed that I would necessarily see that in my lifetime.

So what am I trying to say? I’m saying that the glory of God through Christ with the aid of the Holy Spirit is most important! And that’s where I find my boast and praise.

If I’ve helped the Lord do anything, then God has helped me help Him because He doesn’t need my help. I need His.
And if I’ve preached anything true and if I’ve fed God’s people God’s Word, then it was the Spirit of Truth Who taught me to teach them and it was the Spirit of God who fed me to feed them.

If I’ve served God’s Body of Christ, then it was Christ Who served me to serve them.

And truly, I feel like God’s Church has served me more than I could ever serve them.

But what does all that I say look like? It looks like our Church doubling in size through 2020’s year of craziness. That involves transfer growth, new spiritual birth growth, new biological birth growth and a depth of growth.

We are closer, bigger, taller, and wider because God decided to piece some spiritual stones together to His Spiritual Church Building in the year of 2020.

I think that God decided to do it that way to show that He likes using unconventional methods. He chooses foolish ways to shame the wise.

It’s also true that I preached mostly through the book of Revelation in 2020, which isn’t a popular book to teach. And Revelation is the only book of the Bible that says there is a special blessing given to those who “read aloud the words of this book…and keep them…” (Rev. 1:3). In other words, glory to God’s Word for His Word is good!
We have families, kids that make our sanctuary half as full when they go down for Sunday School class, and we have 8 baptisms coming up in April as well as people seeking membership.

I should mention that we’ve had some people die too in the year of 2020. Before that, we had some people leave. There have been confrontations, exhortations, minor discipline, and so much fellowship.

And as Psalm 126:1-3 says rightly of my life and this Church: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream, 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”3 The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.”

Indeed, our Church is glad and so am I. Praise God!