“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Other than the month of July, for the past seven Fridays we have been talking about different factors than contribute to church growth. None of them are guarantees. None of them in isolation from the others are likely to accomplish very much. Together these do not form an exhaustive list. I’ve read books on church growth before. Some of these things have been mentioned in those list, some of them have not. What this has been is a list of things that have contributed to the season of growth my church is currently experiencing. There are more we could probably talk about, but these have so far been the six that came to mind first. At the end of the day, though, real and sustainably growth happens because God directs it. Today we are going to end this series by talking about one last critical factor for any church thinking about growth: Do you really even want it?

Last time, we talked about the importance of developing a welcoming culture as a church in order to make sure guests always know you want them there. I started by getting us thinking about visiting a home where we clearly weren’t welcome. The truth is that some people make you feel unwelcome because they don’t want you there.

Now, it may be that a particular church is not intentionally unwelcoming. They may love each other and love others, but they’ve gotten so used to doing things a certain way that they can’t conceive of doing them differently. But the net effect is that when guests visit the church they upset the apple cart and the church reacts accordingly. They go into a kind of protection mode, doubling down on traditions and insider language and seating preferences. The message that winds up getting sent loudly and clearly is that the guests are unwanted and unwelcome. They are tolerated for the time being, but their presence will not be required again in the future.

Some of these same churches are baffles as to why they just can’t seem to ever get any traction in the community in order to grow. But while they talk a mean game of growth, deep down they don’t really want to grow at all. The reasons for this may be many, but I think the primary one is that growth necessitates change, and they don’t want to change.

What all of this means is that if you are concerned about the size of your church, and want to see it grow larger than it is, you need to ask and answer this question: Do we actually want to grow? And before you fire off a reactionary, “Yes!” let’s take a minute to give it some serious thought.

Do you actually want your church to grow? If it does, some things are going to change. New people will bring new personalities and passions and problems into the church. They will have their own expectations about what the church should be like. And although unless they are particularly brash they probably won’t insist on those very hard at first, eventually, when they stop feeling like a guest, they’ll start trying to redecorate in their own style just like if you let someone stay at your house long enough, they’ll stop thinking of themselves as a guest and start thinking of themselves as a resident. Can you handle the changes new people are going to bring? That is a very serious question that requires some very serious consideration if you want your church to grow.

Here’s something else that’s true about a church that grows: How you do church is going to change. The feeling when you walk in the door is going to shift some. Are you prepared for that day when it arrives? When I was in seminary, one of my favorite professors gave us the counsel that on a Sunday morning, we should strive to be a mile wide but an inch deep. His point was that the pastor should be engaging with as many people as he possibly can on a Sunday morning. If you do that, you can’t spend a lot of time or go very deep with anyone, but everyone will leave feeling like they’ve been engaged by the pastor, and that matters.

With a church of under 100 (as most churches in the country are now), you can walk in the door and know very in the room. You know their stories and their families and even some of their issues. Even if you don’t like all of them all the time, they’re all like family, and you stand with family no matter what. When that same church grows to 150, that same feeling is still there, but it’s stretched. There are a few people whose names you just can’t seem to remember. You don’t know as many stories, fewer families, and the number of people you can really go deep with seems to diminish. It doesn’t actually, but by comparison to the overall size of the church it feels like it.

Years ago, before the Church Revitalization Movement really started taking off, one of the most prominent church growth gurus was Ed Stetzer. I suspect Ed is still doing good and valuable work, but I don’t hear nearly as much from him today. One of the things he spent a lot of time talking about then – to the point he created a course you could purchase to help you deal with it – was the 200 Barrier. He observed that growing churches struggled to get beyond 200 people. Many might get close to that point, but only a few could actually push through to keep the momentum going.

The reason for this is one I understand better now that my own church is knocking hard on that door. How you do church then changes. The family feeling of a church under 100 starts to really fade. New people are coming fast enough that many members can’t keep up with them all. People who have been there for years and who are used to knowing everybody suddenly realize – and express – that they don’t anymore. This is the point at which a church’s answer to our question starts to really assert itself. Do you actually want to grow? Do you want to trust God enough and make the necessary organizational changes that further growth will require, or do you want to keep things the way they have always been? Those ways may prevent growth, but at least they are more comfortable than living on the frontier all the time. We think about frontier living today through the rose colored glasses of nostalgia, but frontier life in actuality was dangerous, difficult, and often deadly.

Churches that grow beyond that point are the ones that figure out an organized system for raising up new leaders, especially group leaders. They create clear and easy-to-follow pathways to membership that include intentional discipleship. They stop looking inward almost entirely and start looking outward with ever increasing intentionality and energy. They become almost hyper-focused on getting people into smaller groups where they will be able to build the kind of relationships that will sustain them in a larger environment. They start to get more and more concerned with pursuing excellence in their various environments instead of overlooking so much and letting so many things go. This is because with so many guests coming all the time, they begin to have an easier time seeing things through their eyes.

All of this is coming when you start to grow. Personally, we are living in the middle of a lot of it and are still figuring it out together. The question that must be answered before any real movement here is going to be able to be sustained is simple: Do you really want to grow or not? In your heart of hearts, do you want to have a church that gets locked in at a particular size, or do you want to see just what God could lead you to do together?

Now, this doesn’t mean that a small church can’t still be a faithful and vibrant church with a strong and sustainable Gospel impact. I’m the last person who is going to make that kind of an argument. Some churches are called to be small. That could be because the area they are in won’t allow for a great big church. It could be because they are so committed to sending that they just keep sending out fresh disciples to go to other places all the time and never keep any of them for themselves. It could be that they are in an area that is so lost that a big church will be perceived as a threat rather than a blessing, but by staying small and focused they can accomplish more of the heart and culture change that will allow for great future Gospel expansion.

But the truth is that Jesus gave us a particular commission that all but demands that our churches be growing churches. Shortly before He left the disciples to return to the Father, He gave them their marching orders. These marching orders were not just for them. They were for all of His followers. This was a great commission that was intended to apply to every believer and every church body for all time until He returns. He said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” That means everybody. If your church is making disciples consistently and intentionally, it is eventually going to start growing. You just about won’t be able to help it.

Making disciples of all nations starts with the people in your immediate sphere of influence, and gradually broadens out from there. As Jesus put it later, they were to be His witnesses in Jerusalem (their hometown), all Judea and Samaria (the surrounding region), and to the ends of the earth (the rest of the world). If you make one disciple, you then go find another, and make that person a disciple. Meanwhile, those people are seeking out disciples to make which means the math quickly starts to turn exponential. And again, unless your church has such a strong sending culture that all of these disciples are sent out to go do their work in other places than your church (and most churches don’t have that), most of those disciples are going to stay in your church. That means that your church is going to grow if you are consistently and intentionally making disciples; if you are consistently and intentionally doing what Jesus commanded.

Is that what you want? Really? If it isn’t, you’d better have a good reason why because eventually you are going to have to answer to Jesus for it. If it is, then what are you waiting for?

Start doing the work to clarify exactly who God made you to be and by that how He made you to make disciples. Develop a regular time when your church can fellowship together. That time will grow and change as your church does, but you need that intentional fellowship. Start building relationships with your local school and investing there in intentional ways. Give your kids and youth ministries the attention they need and deserve, making sure that you are teaching kids not only to love Jesus, but to love His church as well. Jump with both feet into the rhythms of your community. Make yourself an indispensable part of community life. And give great attention to your culture as a church in order to make sure that it is as welcoming to guests as possible. Set yourself on the path to becoming a growing church. When Jesus one day says, “Well done, good and faithful servants,” you will be glad that you did.