Is Growth The Answer?

 Nothing grows forever. People are born, they grow at first, then they level off at a certain size and ability. Beyond that they spend the rest of their lives maintaining and perfecting what God gave them but never getting any bigger. This is true in all of life. Things begin and they grow to a certain size and then growth stops and they level off before they decline with age. Trees do not grow forever, neither do churches.

Some of our frustration and wasted effort in life revolves around our failure to come to grips with who we are and what we do. We tend to think that growth is the answer to every problem. That we can grow ourselves out of any situation or trouble. We spend billions of dollars every year trying to change ourselves and make ourselves bigger and better and faster and stronger. 

In the book of Acts we see a pattern for the church. But we read that story and we mistakenly infer that the early church grew exponentially for decades until the death of the first apostles. That is being ignorant of history. Most of the events in Acts happened in a period of under 5 years from Pentecost.

The Prescott church grew fast at first. But hasn't grown much since. So has our church. But we think that the answer is more outreach and bigger buildings and we think that what worked in the explosive growth era is the answer for every phase of a churches life.

What if we spent a little more effort maintaining what God has given us? What if we, while leaving the 99 to look for the one, cared for the 99 also? 

They tell us that the universe is expanding. Not growing, just spreading out. God is no bigger today than He has ever been. But we believe that if God is involved then growth is inevitable. I say that maybe we are missing something. Maybe we are pursuing something that has never worked and has never been true.