Growing up is an idea of God. His word clearly says that "God gives growth" (1 Corinthians 3.6) What many of us often ask ourselves is If God gives it, why do not we see it? We have become accustomed to seeing our children grow, our plants and our animals, but we are not used to seeing our churches grow. In all of us, the idea that "not growing is abnormal" is printed. I have to assume that dealing with other issues (Christian and important) for a long time has served to leave aside the abnormal fact that the church does not grow.
Only from my personal perspective I think that no leader is tickled to know that the group that has to attend is stagnant. Just solve the problems (and we have them in all ways in the growth issue) involves the ability to look honestly with two fundamental attitudes: To recognize our mistakes (Although one continues to commit) Have courage to change. Launching ourselves to the work of doing our part in the growth that only God will give with these two attitudes frees us from many bonds. We always repeat to our leaders that one of their fundamental attitudes is "to be able to recognize mistakes quickly", a leader who can not recognize when he makes a mistake will be stuck in his position and what is worse: in his work.
Experience has already taught us that we can have leaders without seeing growth for more than a year simply because we do not want to recognize that there are things that we are doing wrong. Mind you, this is not a sin, making a mistake is part of the job when you try to do something, usually the one that does not make mistakes is because it does not do anything. Attached to this attitude must come the ability to change, to perform another task, to give value to other things, to be able to sacrifice the "blessed program" that the church has had years ago (although it has not borne fruit) and to initiate, to try, to prove and even create new ways that allow us to see our churches grow. There are three simple keys that open new perspectives when we want to adjust the part that belongs to men in God's work. If you are one of those who are in the mood to change to see your church grow I share with you three odeas that have helped us grow.
Define clearly and measurably the growth goal to be achieved by your Church in the next quarter. The first thing that a boy, a young man, an adult and a church need to be able to achieve something is to clearly tell him what he should achieve. Precisely the first function of a leader is to indicate "where we are going". If your church does not know what it is you want to achieve during the next quarter, how will it be achieved? I know, do not think I'm so naive, you'll be putting this message with everyone who likes numbers, statistics, etc. Surely someone is thinking that theirs goes beyond the numbers and that they are interested in the spiritual or in the growth in the quality of their church. I will not dwell on this message on this point, not because it is not important but because it is clearly a trap or an excuse to not grow in all aspects. Take just a few seconds to think about these examples: Noah, Moses, Joshua, Nehemiah, and Paul, in relation to this question. Did these men of God have clear and measurable goals? The answer is yes.
For Noah was to build an ark, for Moses to take the people out of Egypt, for Joshua to conquer the promised land, for Nehemiah to build the wall and for Paul to plant churches in strategic places. What is the clear and measurable goal of your Church for the next quarter? Even Jesus was a person with clear goals. In Mark 10.45 He says that he came to "give his life as a ransom for many" and in Luke 19.10 he further defines his main goal by declaring "I have come to seek and to save what was lost."
Our churches need to know what they are trying to achieve. Sometimes the leaders complain that the members do not move a single foot, but keep in mind that those who do want to work can not start the march until we clearly indicate where we are going. QUESTION What is the clear and measurable goal of your Church for the next quarter?
Perform the sequence of actions that correspond to us to achieve the proposed goal. There is a distance between where your church is today and the goal you have written. To see your church grow and the goals can be achieved you must fill that space with actions.
The first clear step for your members will be to define what are the actions that will lead them to reach the goals. The parable of the lost sheep shows us a good definition of an effective action: "He goes after the lost one until he finds it" (Luke 15.4) or by going to the example of Jesus and his goal on this earth, he says in John 12.27 « For this I have arrived at this hour », Jesus realizes that although the goal was good, now the time has come to carry out the concrete actions for that goal to be fulfilled. Paul also makes mention of this subject when he says »the husbandman to share in the fruits, he must work first» (2 Timothy 2.6) At this point many of us burn our ships, because it is one thing to plan and set goals and another very different to do the necessary work so that those goals are achieved. If you already have the goal for your church and have defined with your members what are the actions that make the difference to reach the question that will help you in the quarter is this: QUESTION Is your church taking the necessary actions to achieve your goals?
Review the progress weekly to correct the actions on time in order to reach the proposed goal. Direct evaluation is an action that is not incorporated in many churches. The lack of evaluation is one of the reasons why churches do not grow, since where there is no evaluation there is no correction to reach an objective. The more effective you want to be in a job, the more regularly you should be evaluated. In Luke 13: 6-9 there is a parable that gives us a somewhat hard idea of an evaluation, "If it bears fruit, well; and if you do not cut it ». What we can not deny is that spiritual things do not pass only by fidelity and quality but also by results. The fruit is the result of a work done by man (planting, watering, etc.) where God provides what only He can give. (Growth) QUESTION Do you need to correct the actions of your Church in order to achieve the proposed goals? I highlight some phrases of Paul that help us to start a work process that concludes in growth: (The passage refers to Paul's personal spiritual goals but allows to extract principles about the concretion of a specific goal) "I do not think I have already achieved I do not consider myself a "perfect" goal, but I continue my career until I conquer, since I have already been conquered by Christ. No, brothers, I do not think I'm still qualified, but for me now it's only worth what's ahead, and forgetting what I left behind, I run towards the goal, with my eyes on the prize of the heavenly vocation, I mean, of the call of God in Christ Jesus. All of us, if we are of the "perfect", we have to think like that; and if you do not see things in this way yet, God will enlighten you. Meanwhile, let us know how to preserve what we have conquered.
