Church growth has rapidly diminished. Pastors and laypeople alike are desperately looking for “new and improved” ways to facilitate church growth, but seemingly to no avail. Even when extravagant and well-planned events result in a surplus of “converts”, in a mere few months those same converts are never heard from again. And as we stand in the midst of failure, we may see that perhaps the solution has been right under our noses the whole time.
And that is the ideology of former Lifeway Church Growth Group President, Gene Mims, in his book Kingdom Principles for Church Growth. Gene explains that, instead of crying out to be “Traditional!” or “Contemporary!” in our methodology, we should look to the Lord and His written Word, which contains all the information needed to successfully grow the Church.
The main idea behind the book is summarized in one statement: Church growth begins with kingdom principles, not with methods. If it is to be successful, it will be nothing less than a divinely inspired process.
Mims initiates his case by stating the fact that the Great Commission is the driving force of all Church growth. In the New Testament we see that all periods of church growth occurred when the people of God were relentlessly going and uncompromisingly preaching the gospel, even in the face of intense persecution.
I especially respect Dr. Mims’ realization that Church growth is more than events and revivals, but intentional discipleship. This type of discipleship starts at salvation and continues until the believer has committed all areas of his life to pursuing the work of Jesus. He confronts the problem that many churches face as a result of merely speaking of discipleship and never acting upon it by exposing the fact that discipleship is difficult. It requires picking up your cross daily and humbly allowing the Lord work through you.
He explains that holiness, piousness even, is to be a greatly desired attribute of the growing Christian, and that if Christians become mediocre or half-hearted in their Christianity, the Church will deteriorate from the inside out as a result.
The institutions of Fellowship, Ministry, and Worship and their effectiveness are directly proportionate to how biblical and sincere the Evangelism and Discipleship of a Church is. Comfort, glitz, and glamour may attract people for a time, but will never grow the Kingdom of God
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good perspective on biblical Church growth, regardless of whether they agree with all of his views.
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