The Shift From Church Growth To Kingdom Growth.

Here is the next post in a series of six regarding "The Present Future" by Reggie McNeal.
We will turn our thoughts to new reality number two: The Shift From Church Growth to Kingdom Growth.

Our working definition for "the kingdom" is how things really are and how they should really be.

Here goes...

New Reality Number Two – central to church growth teaching was an admonition that church leaders should assume responsibility for the growth of the church. We have the best churches men can build, but are still waiting for the church that only God can get credit for.

I immediately think of two stories Jesus told pertaining to growth and his kingdom.

The Parable of the Growing Seed 26He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

The Parable of the Mustard Seed 30Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."

Wrong Question #2: How Do We Grow This Church? (How do we get them to come to us?)

Several decades of the church growth movement’s emphasis on methodologies have conditioned church leaders to look for the next program, the latest “model,” the latest fad in ministry programming to help “grow” the church. I am constantly asked, “what’s next?” The focus of the church is on itself, on what it takes to succeed.

I believe wholeheartedly that we must change. But there is a difference between revolutionary change and evolutionary change. We are not looking for the next model or expression of church. Our church model will flow from the people that make it up and the nature in which they live their life. We want to be value-driven, not model driven. We can drive ourselves crazy in pursuit of the perfect model, living in a world of either-or, when we desperately need to adopt a both-and view of church. Either-or thinking leads to inaction because your mind will never stop and your feet will never start. We buckle under this kind of pressure, throw our hands up in the air in frustration. Remember that if we pursue church we may in fact miss Jesus. But if we pursue Jesus. who is alive and active today, we will get the best church imaginable.

People who are successful or competent in one way of thinking frequently resist a new approach. This is why revolutionaries wind up as the defenders of the status quo.

Tough Question #2: How Do We Transform Our Community (How do we hit the streets with the gospel?)

If they aren’t going to come to us, then we’ve got to go to them. This is turning the church inside out. We can keep trying to get them to want what we have or we can start offering what they need.

It's a bit cliche I know, but we are a church that says "go and be" not "come and see".

Missional spirituality requires that God’s people be captured by his heart for people, that our hearts be broken for what breaks his, that we rejoice in what brings him joy.

Our hearts need to be captured for all of his people, not simply the church-going ones. What breaks God's heart? What brings him joy?

The message to people outside the bubble is: Become like us, believe like us, dress like us, vote like us, act like us, like what we like, don’t like what we don’t like.

Remember that Jesus was full of scandalous grace and radical acceptance.

Kingdom thinking challenges church thinking.

Where are you currently being challenged in your thinking?

I think we are unaware of what we have to offer people.

Are you in touch with your story in God? Is your faith fresh and active? Is it easier for you to talk about church than Jesus? It it personal?

We’ve got to take the gospel to the streets. This is the only appropriate missional response to the collapse of the church culture.

I agree. It is time to put the ministry of the church in the hands of the people and the church back on the streets where it belongs.

Where are you seeing the kingdom grow in your own city and community? Where is the kingdom breaking in? Let us know.