Definition

Church growth is the gracious action of God and the response of man in the formation of a Church community. The Church is the called community of God’s people whom God predestined from eternity to belong to him. The members of the Church are saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and gathered into the Church through the operation of the Holy Spirit. The growth of the Church is measured by recording the number of persons being baptized and confessing their faith, as well as recording those who reject their confession or who depart from the earthly church through death.

When we speak of Church growth we are primarily concerned with the New Testament Church. It was recorded that within the first days of its conception the Church grew from 120-3,000-5,000 souls. This number included both men, women and children as we learn from the promise in Acts 2:37f. and the practise of household baptisms. In the subsequent chapters of Acts we also read of Church loss through martyrdom, death and excommunications. In the book of Revelation we see that 7 churches were on the verge of losing membership in the Church of Christ due to doctrinal heresy, immorality and apathy the verge of losing membership in the Church of Christ due to doctrinal heresy, immorality and apathy.

Counting Church growth within the Reformed tradition in the modern world is more detailed than in the missionary context of the New Testament. We measure evangelism growth (new converts), transfer in growth, (from other denominations) and natural growth (children of believers who are baptized). We measure Church loss by counting those who transferred out or lost their member ship through excommunication, resigning, lapsing their membership or having their membership erased. Death also counts as loss.

We are faced with the extra problem of trying to determine what is the true and false Christian Church. The Reformed Tradition has used the three marks as found in the Belgic Confession as the marks which the true Church must have. They involve the true preaching of the Word, the proper administration of sacraments and the exercise of Church discipline. On this account we do not consider the RCC as a true Church and we must constantly examine our own denomination and congregations as to whether or not the marks of the presence of Christ’s Spirit are still with us.

Church Growth in the Book of Acts.

Luke, the human author of the book of Acts makes use of numerical Church growth · statistics. He makes frequent mention of Church growth, especially toward the conclusions and endings of the various divisions within the book of Acts. Luke does not only mention membership growth but closely associates growth of the Word and Work of the Holy Spirit with Church growth. From Acts 1:8 we see that the book can be divided geographically, as the Spirit and the Church move from geographical boundary to geographical boundary. We divide the book as follows, keeping in mind Luke’s concluding remarks about the growth of the Church in each of these particular regions.

1. Church growth in Jerusalem (1:1–6:7).
2. Church growth in Judea, Galilee and Samaria (6:8–9:13).
3. Church growth among Gentiles (9:32–12:25).
4. Church growth in Asia Minor (13:1–16:5).
5. Church growth in Greece and Asia Minor (16:6–19:20).
6. Church growth in Greece, Europe, and Rome (19:21–end).

Near the end of these sections Luke summarizes and reports numerical and spiritual growth. “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.” (Acts 6:7a).

“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied” (Acts 9:31).

“But the word of God grew and multiplied” (Acts 12:24).

“So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily” (Acts 16:5).

“So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily” (Acts 19:20).

“Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen” (Acts 28:28).

We notice that numerical growth is associated with the growth of the work of God’s Spirit and knowledge of the Word of God. Both of these activities happen within the Church and make for Church growth.

   

The CRC and Church Growth

We praise the Lord that out of a few seceders, the Lord has raised a branch of the Reformed tradition in North America called the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). We can speak of Church growth in the CRC because God has added to our number, which in 1979 totaled 292, 379. There are aspects of our Church growth, however that have troublesome overtones, which we must seriously consider.

Total growth has not increased very much in the last 2 decades. Membership stands at 292,379 this year, but had stayed within the 280,000 range from 1968-1978. Several growth factors can be examined in relation to this slow growth.

Evangelism growth is very low with a slight drop this year. The traditional approach to evangelism had been the chapel and storefront mission approach. Success was moderate. Now we have largely abandoned that approach and our success has been even worse. It must be said that most of the evangelism growth has been in some congregations in the CRC, which means that many show no growth whatsoever.

The leadership in the CRC have proposed different alternatives to chapel, and mission approaches. These have been through the organized Church and involve bringing people into the established Church. In 1973 Key 73 was launched. Evangelism growth that year dropped over 200 persons. In 1978 the “I Found It” campaign was endorsed by the leaders of the CRC in evangelism, and follow up statistics show that less than ¹/2 of 1% of church growth can be attributed to that. Presently CET is in progress and evangelism growth in 1979 showed a drop from 1978. Perhaps the statistics are not related to the new approaches, and perhaps the statistics would be worse if these efforts were not made, but still we are not meeting the evangelism needs around us. A rather successful approach has been the Bible study groups which have met during coffee breaks, in homes and churches.

We can learn from our failures and successes in evangelism. With Luke we must conclude that the Word and Work of the Spirit through the Church must be manifested at a personal level. The Bible Study groups do just that. Our tradition has been stripped of many of its evangelistic tools, such as the chapel, men’s and ladies’ societies and even adult education programs. We must recapture what we’ve lost and seek to implement our church life so that others can participate.

Another troublesome area of Church growth has been the movement of the city churches to the suburbs. If churches moved for economic reasons, one wonders what sort of responsibility these churches have to the neighborhood they evacuated. Often when the church moved the prominent members of the church moved as well. Only the poor, elderly and visionary people stayed behind and the vacuum of the departing middle class was filled by poor white and black, workers, welfare recipients and students alike. The saddening aspect of this development is that the Church moved and did not leave its witness behind in the form of a chapel or mission church. There was no concept of the parish, having a responsibility to the neighborhood in which the church was. I live in such a destitute neighborhood, where the CRC and RCA moved but the Spirit didn’t. Now the Spirit is using the willing fundamental and charismatic type groups in order to meet the needs of this neighborhood. Would that we would move with the Spirit of God rather than the spirit of this world, whether it be manifested in materialism or racism. When we start moving with the Spirit of God we will encounter many different peoples, to whom the Spirit is bring God’s plan of redemption. Acts 2 will not only be history but reality.

Another area of concern is church growth and loss through doctrinal controversies. In 1979 the Orthodox CRC in Canada and the United Reformed congregations were formed due to doctrinal difficulties in the Church. We know we lose members through this process but will we gain? Will the a-historical views as expressed by Dr. Verhey and others lead toward church growth? Will our tampering with the historical and doctrinal truths of Scripture strengthen us or divide us? We need only look at the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian and Congregational Churches around us for an answer. Biblical and theological liberalism destroys and splits the church and does not produce church growth. Hyper-conservatism, on the other hand does not readily lead itself to church growth, if it takes a sectarian form. We desperately need a return to the Biblical Christianity as we see in Acts where the Church grew because it was faithful and fruitful in God’s Word and Work.

The bright spot in CRC Church growth was the increase in transfers in from other denominations. Perhaps we should thank the young people, the newlyweds for that. More couples stay within the Church than leave it for another denomination.

The largest source of church growth is through children born of CRC parents. This birth rate, however, is not increasing or as high as in the post WWII era. The CRC is largely a stable, self-replenishing, homogeneous unit which can survive by its birthrate alone. That however doesn’t balance the cultural mandate with the evangelism mandate (Mt. 28:16f).

In following articles I will deal with church growth in Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbeans, for I have personal contact with these areas.