Turning Little Churches Into Big Churches

Turning Little Churches Into Big Churches

“And the word of God increased: and the number of the disciples multiplied...” 

Acts 6:7

A recent postcard from the World Network of Prayer (UPCI) reads, “1996 was the most productive year in the history of our fellowship.”  Sister Nona Freeman, a retired veteran missionary to Africa recently wrote an article entitled, Jesus Christ-Still the Same.  In this faith provoking article she states that “the Word is a time-proven irrefutable fact.  Whatever God has done through the ages, He can do it again, and more, much more than our finite minds can comprehend.  He can stack up waters of the sea and make a dry highway through the flooded river, confuse enemies in darkness while giving His children light, pour a mighty river out of a rock, and rain bread from heaven, deliver a mass of helpless slaves from grievous bondage, and drown their enemies with one stroke.  Name the need, and He can and will do it....All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. His limitless power will do whatever we believe Him for.  No exceptions. ...In our forty-one years in Africa.. we saw every miracle recorded in the Book of Acts happen in our services.” 

Just this last year of it was reported that we now have 1,400,000 constituents in the African Region. In one year in this region alone 73,073 were baptized in Jesus name; 103,480 received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 6,776 churches. 

In the nation of Ethiopia alone there are over one million believers in the UPCI; 56,176 were baptized in one year and 82,366 received the Holy Spirit.  In this one nation there are 4,451 pastors and 4,688 churches in our denomination.

We are living in the most tremendous day in the history of the church.  Like Daniel we must “set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting...”  (Daniel 9:3)  Like Zechariah we must “Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain...” (Zechariah 10:1)  Like Hosea we must know that “it is time to seek the LORD.”  (Hosea 10:12)  We must accept the same challenge that God gave to Jeremiah, “Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”  (Jeremiah 33:3)

C. Peter Wagner in his timely book Prayer Shield, stated that “the most massive growth of churches is found in Pentecostal/ Charismatic traditions.” Armed with this understanding, coupled with the statistics and verses given above, I wonder why we persist to believe that God will not give us great Church Growth. Must our churches remain small?  Could it be because of our doctrine and standards of holiness that our churches are not growing?  Is it really Scriptural for the church to grow? 

Churches remain small because we fail to exercise faith for growth.  Once we have exercised the faith, we must then exercise our works and efforts.  “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26)  A leadership principle expresses it another way.  “Effort In, Results Out!”

Just because we know that it is only God who can cause the church to grow does not give us an excuse to sit back and wait for church growth to happen. We must sow the seed, plant it, and then water it. It is after this EFFORT that God will give us the RESULTS.  If you do not want your church to grow, it will not grow.  Each time you set a goal for your church to grow, you are making a statement of faith.

One man said that there were three secrets to success. The first, WORK.  The second, WORK. The third, WORK.  Church growth is a lot of hard work.

Our doctrine or standards of holiness could not be considered as reasons for lack of church growth. Of course, if you are looking for an excuse, any excuse will do.  People all over the world are hungry for the truth and they are searching for something that is original and life changing.  The beginning of the church is found in the Book of Acts.  Even organizations following the Trinitarian tradition acknowledge that the church was born in Acts 2. Our doctrine finds itself clearly in Acts 2. This doctrine was strange to the Jews that were assembled in Jerusalem for the Pentecost.  Surely the church would not grow, and could not grow.  Wrong.  It did grow and that day 3000 were added to the church. They continued in the Apostles’ doctrine. That means they continued believing and spreading what Peter had given them as doctrine. 

In Look Out! The Pentecostals Are Coming, by C. Peter Wagner, there is an interesting review of the United Pentecostal Church of Columbia. He writes, “Some Pentecostals won’t even want me to mention this third point.  But it is true that by far the fastest growing church in Columbia is the United Pentecostal Church. The United Pentecostal Church is somewhat unorthodox because it baptizes, not in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but in the name of Jesus.  Its nickname is ‘Jesus only’. The United Pentecostal Church refuses to dot the i’s and cross the t’s of the Council of Nicea (the famous church council of 325 A. D. where the present doctrine of the trinity - three persons in one essence - was articulated and approved.) United Pentecostals, of course, don’t agree. They preach salvation by the blood of Christ, and can testify of multitudes of transformed lives as signs of people being born again. They believe in the Holy Spirit, in baptism in the Spirit, and speaking in tongues. They consider themselves true Pentecostals, as their name implies.  They are not Jehovah Witnesses who deny the deity of Christ.  And if anyone doubts their spiritual power, they could simply point to a graph which compares their church growth to that of the next largest Pentecostal Church.” 

A book has been written by Dean Kelley called, Why Conservative Churches are Growing.  Again, Wagner in Look Out! The Pentecostals are Coming reveals that UPCI opposes Christian involvement in organized sports, politics, labour unions, and are very strict.  Women do not cut their hair, apparel must be up to the most rigid standards of modesty.  Members do not attend dances, theaters of any kind, and consider television, and secular music to be worldly. The United Pentecostal Church Manual says, “We warn all of our believers to abstain from any of these practices in the interest of spiritual growth and the soon coming of the Lord for His church.” 

Wagner records that “It would be easy to draw the conclusion that such standards would quickly render the United Pentecostal Church irrelevant to contemporary Colombian society.....It might well be, therefore, that the STRICTNESS OF THE UNITED PENTECOSTALS IN COLUMBIA IS ACTUALLY ONE OF THE CAUSES OF THE FACT THAT THEY ARE THE LARGEST AND FASTEST GROWING CHURCH IN THE NATION.”