 Looks like I have the disadvantage of having the second message here, and you guys Trying to stay awake before we go to eat. So that's fine greetings in Christ's name It is a honor to be here and a pleasure to be here. I Know some of you folks a lot of you. I don't know but it's good to be here So the title I was given to share on is church growth Now I don't know what comes to your mind when you think of church growth But I think of a very large Massive subject like where do you start? But I it's a it's a very much an interest of mine. I spent most of my life trying to understand how to Grow churches like what is the best way to do that? So I have very much of an interest in it and I try to find people that know more than more than myself about it so It's very much of an interest and it's a it's a it's a beautiful subject, but I would like to Start with my real title of my message is church growth may be different than how you have prepared yourself and Just think about that when you think of church growth It may be different than how you've been prepared. I want to start kind of a high-end and funneled down I think there's three church growth avenues that happen and I don't the first one is a biological growth. I don't think this is a complicated one I think we understand what biological growth is and It's not it's not complicated all to understand the second one I would like to look at is transfer growth now what I find interesting about transfer growth is This is the one that we pretend not to be proud of Always find it interesting We we It's interesting how many people talk about not wanting transfer growth And I don't know what what the dynamic around that is but I don't really know of any church that doesn't have some sort of transfer growth So I think it's more important How are we looking at transfer transfer growth? Is it a is there a healthy way or a better way to look at then just be negative towards it? So think about that I Actually think it's Extremely important to understand transfer growth transfer goes. There's lots of different backgrounds that people come from Lots of different churches lots of different backgrounds some may know Christ some may not but transfer growth is not all bad So just put that out there. The third one is conversion growth now. This one here is where Probably a lot of people here are because of this they want to see conversion growth This is the one that you hear the most about people get the most excited about You go to almost any Christian church. I think there's probably very few that don't talk about and want Conversion growth it's probably the one we do the least The most poorly at We're there's a lot of energy going into it. I think we're making some headway just just I think it's a good thing But you know everybody wants to be a part of a church that has conversion growth Not very many people want to be a part of a church that has transfer growth. I find that curious Pros and cons think about it. So back circling back to my my thought is Church growth may be different than how you have prepared yourself Now my next question is this are you prepared for how? Growth looks and feels like coming from biological transfer and conversion growth Do you really know what that looks and feels like? Are you prepared for that? If you if you're a part of a new plan or you want to start a church, are you prepared for that? I would like to start and try to give you a perspective of Do a background check on our church? Speaking from our experience. Sorry about that Background checks and churches are very interesting and I think there's a lot to be learned but just to give you perspective of the people that The backgrounds for people in in our current church. We have the unchurched We have ex criminals We have lawyers, I should have probably said ex lawyers We have Mennonites Conservative to liberal We have Riverbrother now. This is the best the most safest background to come from if you don't know me I'm from Riverbrother background We have Jehovah Witness We have Catholic We have Protestant evangelical We have Amish We have Church of Christ now. What picture comes to your mind? When you put all that in one place, I'm sorry diversity picture of beauty or picture of confusion picture of strength or picture of weakness picture of unity or picture of disunity our response and the way we Understand this will determine which side of the fence you fall in or become had an extra slide here so so Somehow got an extra slide says so just run over this again picture of beauty or picture of confusion Picture of strength or picture of weakness picture of unity or picture of disunity So you will either be known as a church whether you are a picture of beauty strength and Unity or whether you're of confusion weakness or disunity you will tend to fall on one side of the other if We want growth and we're talking about starting churches. We're gonna have a diversity of background come together we have to have a way to look at that and Try to engage with it. It's very it's very important I would like to read 1st Corinthians 12 4 through 8 To try to Give up even a more broader picture of this idea Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit and there are varieties of service But the same Lord and there are varieties of activities But is that it is the same God who empowers them all in? everyone To teach is give I'm sorry to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good Let's go back and look at this verse together these verses So we're talking about varieties of gifts varieties of service and varieties of activities given For the manifestation of the spirit for the common good Now think about that and what's the purpose of these varieties of gift service and activities? They come from the same spirit from the same Lord and From the same God for what purpose for the common good What's the common good mean to you? The end of verse 6 it says who empowers them all in every one To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good the common good If we don't have these diverse gifts diversity of gifts in one setting There's no way for us personally to grow if you just have one or you just have one background or One gift or one activity. There's no way for you to grow you grow by learning about other people's activities and gifts and manifestations That's how we learn DL Moody said the best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it But to lay a straight stick beside it I think this is one of the most powerful concepts to learn and to understand and my personal opinion is There's lots of vision here and I meet a lot of people that have lots of visions to start churches. I Would like to inspire the concept To learn how to Grow churches that we have I'm all for starting new But to create a model and an understanding of it so as we go out and start new churches. We understand what that looks like It's my personal passion. You don't have to have that first. Let's show let's show one another a straight stick Then we will have something exciting to show the world So question, how do we bring diversities of backgrounds varieties of gifts varieties of service varieties of activities? How do we bring that together? What would your answer be? So just some things that we have Are practicing in our fellowship One of the things that we discuss a lot when we recognize that They have the same spirit They have the same Lord and They have the same God for the common good to profit with all King James version says What's that mean to you? Are you willing to work with these different varieties? If we're looking for church growth, we really do need to not only answer this question, but live it I think it's exciting. I think it's a fun I think we need to be very aware of how we how we're growing and I think we need to understand that our growth Is gonna come from all three avenues biological transfer and Conversion be aware of it face it And own it take ownership of it I personally think that how well we live this will either be our accelerator or our break pedal of church growth It's my personal opinion So I want to circle back around and look at this concept again diversity of backgrounds variety of gifts variety of services and variety of activities what that looks like in a church that all three growth avenues come from First of all, let's look at a diversity of backgrounds. I want I think it's important that we understand Not do not confuse backgrounds with the free with the three varieties that we talked about in Corinthians I think it's important that we separate that and this is why Keep that separate in your mind. How do you bring? diversities of backgrounds together How have you guys been doing that in your churches go back and read that? Nine nine list of backgrounds that we have in our church. How do you bring that diversity together? What's the common thread that people need to know is it just telling them to love Jesus? Is that gonna cut it? I've been in other countries, but I speak as a Westerner. I think most of you probably speak as Westerners Western mindset my next question to you is When we think of diverse backgrounds coming together and uniting them under the kingdom of God, how is that going to be accomplished? one of the things that we Discuss a lot about is what of your what is your lens of authority? What is the lens that you look at to scripture and the kingdom? If you don't figure this out You're gonna have chaos in your church Because we all come with a lens if you're an in the in the Western world Even in most countries that other countries I've been into they have a lens we've been influenced There's Protestant influence evangelical influence Calvinist influence all kinds of religious backgrounds that were influenced Anabaptist influence and I think a wonderful like I love the Anabaptist heritage If you go back and look at early early Anabaptist, I'm all on board. They're 95% right But the Anabaptist we here have today. It's a hybrid of a whole bunch of lenses So if you want to grow your church one of the things that we found very helpful and Very uniting is to talk about this. What lens are we is our what is your lens of authority? We have chosen to think about it from the historic faith concept Some people react to this and I find that curious But if you don't understand and have a lens to dial the backgrounds in and that we that we understand it through and Submit to you're gonna have a thousand things coming at you and you're not gonna how to how to deal with it. I personally think the path to the Lens of what you choose will choose either It'll communicate to you what the true faith wants delivered the faith once delivered. I want to know what is the faith once delivered I Think the lens of the historic faith points us in that direction and gives us a With all the different backgrounds when you're sitting in a room and you're trying to come up with something if you don't have a looking at scripture in the kingdom of God in the right in a in a Everyone trying to come together under that You're not gonna last very long and you're not gonna grow very well I think it's the umbrella that the church needs to come under and as the first brother talked about Discipleship this is where discipleship becomes a weekly in a daily discussion. It's constant It it I am I am still learning to change my lens. I'll continue that to the day I die So it's not something that you just wake up and grab As a side note if you ever want to read something interesting read the prescription Against heretics by Tertullian. He says Christ first delivered the faith the Apostles spread it They founded the churches that faith therefore is Apostletic which descended from the Apostles. It's a great read It it has a lot of good stuff in it moving to varieties of gifts I Just broke this down just to give us a perspective of how to how to think about it There's a lot of gifts that we need in the church varieties of gifts But the thing that came to my mind and I kind of tried to evaluate why this came to my mind But why do we need to bridle our tongue when we think of gifts and this is why for some reason? Men get jealous of other people's gifts James 310 says from the same mouth come blessings and cursing my brothers these things are not so to me If we want to grow a church the second thing we need to look at first thing is lens second thing is Is there jealousy among us among the guests we all need it to survive we need one another Something to think about Let's look at the next one. I put these two in the same category Varieties of services and varieties of activities. Why do we need to prefer our brother? If you ever come to our church for very long and you and you meet Daniel Willis and if he's discipling you After you're discipled by him after 30 times of telling you you need to prefer your brother And the second thing he'll tell you is you can't complain and grumble You can't complain and grumble you may think this is Simple it is one of the most powerful things you can introduce into a church that it becomes your culture It's a big thing today's you know, it's a buzzword. What's your culture? Your culture should be Don't complain and grumble Learn what it means to prefer your brother Romans 12 9 says let love be genuine Abhor what is evil hold fast to what is good Love one another with brotherly affection Think about this. I'll do one another and showing honor. Are you out doing your brother and showing honor? I Challenge you to do that It is one of the key things of church growth that we miss we try to skip it. We try to Jump it. We try to go around it Do not be slothful and zeal but fervor and spirit serve the Lord if you want to serve the Lord Learn to outdo One another and showing honor One of the most powerful things that you can put discipline into your life to do that part of church growth is How are you growing? How are you being developed if that's not happening? You won't have church growth So to circle back around what is your lens? To bring them diverse backgrounds together Are you preferring your brother and you know how to bridle your tongue? I just would like to close with these couple thoughts that Leadership in every church needs to understand this and I Think we need us to have a meek and I don't know what else to say this but an equal amount of time in evangelism and in church Development with among us now. Maybe it's not equal, but if it's not happening at an equal level at some point We're gonna get lopsided and we're gonna you'll you're gonna collapse on yourself And I think we've seen and been among many churches that have done this and this is one of the reasons there's other reasons This has been our experience We're not healthy We don't have a healthy church without having both We know what we know what it's like to be to have churches where it's no evangelism We know what it's like to see churches where it's all evangelism Neither are healthy. It's a lot. It's it's a handicap Don't allow those two to become competition to one another and to pit pit against each other Blessings to you. It's all I had to share. Thank you for your time