Learning How the Church Grows

Scripture counsels us to take heed of those who are good at what they do. Within the Book of Proverbs, there are “thirty sayings of the wise.” One of them urges, “Observe people who are good at their work—skilled workers are always in demand and admired” (23:29 The Message).
Shane Bishop is the Senior Pastor of Christ Church, a United Methodist congregation in Fairview Heights, Illinois. Christ Church was recognized as one of the 100 fastest growing churches in the United States for 2018. Their weekend worship attendance has increased from 200 to over 2,500 since Shane’s appointment in 1997 and has grown for twenty-two consecutive years. Shane was named A Distinguished Evangelist of the United Methodist Church in 2010.
Shane answers the question about how to grow the church with a simple formula: 1) Make new Christians; 2) Turn new Christians into disciples; and 3) Send those disciples out to make new Christians. He says the recipe is two parts evangelism and one part discipleship, or E2D. This is like the chemical formula for water, H20, consisting of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. Growing the church consists of two parts evangelism and one part discipleship. 
Salem, like many congregations, has focused on a discipleship pathway, that is, the steps persons can take to grow in their discipleship. Evangelism, however, is the reproductive system of the body of Christ, and growth requires twice as much evangelism as discipleship. At a time when the church is declining, this is all the more important, reigniting a burning desire to reach people far from God.
Evangelism is sharing the good news. That is, we seek out and welcome new persons, proclaim the gospel (sharing what God has accomplished in Jesus), and lead them to commit their lives to God through baptism by water and the Spirit and profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
Growth requires twice as much of this than even discipleship, forming people in the way of Jesus. That’s because the new people we reach and form must be turned around and sent back out to reach more new people. May we put into practice what we have learned from someone who does it well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Church Under Water

Image
I spoke to Pastor Linda Bibb this evening. She’s the outgoing pastor at Salem Church where I have been appointed effective July 1. Salem is just a couple of blocks from the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids. She told me they were evacuated from the church building at 4:00 pm yesterday. The wonderful people of this congregation worked together sandbagging and moving as much as they could to the second and third floors. But the river was too much. Linda said the water is at least 8-10 feet deep at the church building. There is a car port over one of the entrances and the water is above that car port. So the water could be to the second floor now. This picture from the Cedar Rapids Gazette shows how high the water was earlier today at the Dairy Queen which is right across the street from Salem United Methodist Church. Unfortunately, the river hasn’t even crested yet so the flooding will probably get worse. We will attempt to get to Cedar Rapids tomorrow. In the midst of all this we ar
Read more

Tearing Down the Old Church Building

Image
The week of September 4, 2012, the old Salem United Methodist Church building was torn down. It had been destroyed in the flood of 2008 and sold to the city in the "voluntary buyout" in early 2011. Much of the building was torn down when work began on the morning of Tuesday, September 4. At one point, most of the building was down except for the sanctuary and bell tower. The workers removed their equipment and took a break. In the stillness of the morning, the roof over the sanctuary collapsed on its own and brought the rest of the building down except for the bell tower and front facing. The bell tower finally came down on Friday, September 7. It was an emotional week for many of the Salem people and for many who were connected in other ways, such as through the Walk to Emmaus. We showed this video of the church building being torn down during worship on Sunday, September 9.
Read more

Consecration on May 17

Image
Come celebrate the Consecration of our new facility on Ascension Sunday, May 17. Bishop Julius Trimble, who oversees the Iowa Annual Conference, will join us to consecrate, preach, and celebrate Holy Communion. It is a joy and a privilege to have our bishop with us. Our District Superintendent, Rev. David Crow, will also be with us. Consecration sets apart a person, object, or place for the worship and service of God. On May 17 we will set apart our new place of worship as a holy space dedicated for the gathering of people to hear the Word of God, offer prayer and praise, and to celebrate the sacraments. While the church building is not the Church, it does stand as an image of the Church in the world. In the Orthodox tradition, consecration has roots in Baptism. It is the Baptism of the church building, so to speak. Just as a person is changed in baptism and becomes a new creation, the consecration changes an ordinary building into the house of God. Likewise, this change takes pl
Read more