By Not Known
__God desires us to grow in quality and quantity. A church grows in _quality_ when__
* believers’ love for God increases
* they show greater and greater appreciation for the finished work of Jesus’ death on the Cross
* each walks in faithful obedience keeping in step with the Spirit,
* deepens in knowledge, maturity and application of Scripture,
* demonstrates acceptance and love for fellow believers,
* becomes more eager to share the Gospel with nonbelievers, and
* shows practical and sacrificial concern for the needy in their society and the world.
* seeks to bring Kingdom values into their marketplace and social institutions.
* they believe that though they are operating in a particular geographical area, God wants them to impact and influence the world for God’s glory.
__*Quantitative* growth is important too. A local congregation grows__ when
* existing worshippers become excited about their faith, and they invite friends and relatives to attend Sunday worship.
* they share with others, the joy of their own relationship with Jesus and see them trusting Jesus also.
* these new converts are followed up immediately and discipled until they can stand on their own spiritually. As they mature they become bolder in faith and testify about their relationship with God to people in their own network.
* soon one disciple becomes two, two becomes four, etc as each grows and leads others to Christ.
* this leads to more friends and families in the church, more discipleship groups and more small groups which constantly nurture and empower new believers. This means we must be constantly training and preparing new leaders for new small groups and discipleship groups to be formed.
* as the total number of members and worshipers increases, the church also increases the number of services and even plants new congregations in other parts of Singapore.
* More worshipers attend prayer meetings because all realize the need to trust in God and seek His help and guidance as we grow.
* More outreach and missional projects are initiated to win more to Christ.
“God is a missionary God. A healthy church will always be especially concerned about its missionary work both on its doorstep and overseas. It will not be insular and parochial, but steadily develop a worldwide perspective of the work of God, and encourage everyone to be directly involved in some form of missionary concern. There should be a constant flow of candidates for the harvest fields abroad; and these men and women should be strongly backed by the church in terms of finance, prayer and personal links. Certainly the church is not a club whose activities are purely for the enjoyment of its members. As William Temple once remarked, ‘The church is the only society on earth which exists for the benefit of non-members.’ ” (David Watson: I Believe in The Church)
Is this true of us as we celebrate our church anniversary today?
Graham Ng