Tears and Tossings

How does a church grow? What actually counts as growth?

It is a large crowd? Lots of church programs? A large budget? Some would assert that they have it down to an exact science -- size, speed, sustainability, and spread. These four approaches to church planting will virtually guarantee sauces if you follow them, they claim.

Yet -- what does the Bible say? Well, the Bible says that church planting is more like farming than fireworks. Fireworks are a quick, short, visual, and entertaining phenomena that attract a crowd. Farming is hard work, with some seasons of harvest and some seasons of drought. It is work that very few people see done, yet the results are seen in the harvest. Farms plow, sow seed, and then beg God for rain -- because God is the only one who can give growth (1 Cor 3:6-7).

Church planters cannot put their trust in techniques, methods, pragmatic approaches, or the wisdom of man. Church planters grow a church by faithful pastoring and relying on the hand of God (Mark 4:27).

So, as Fireside goes through seasons of rain and seasons of drought -- we must remember that church planting is not like a fireworks show but like faithful farming.