Church growth is not measured by how full the seats are, but by how transformed the hearts become. It is not about counting attendance, but about cultivating obedience, humility, repentance, and love for Christ. 

A growing church is one where lives are being changed, faith is deepened, and believers are shaped daily to reflect the character of Jesus. Even if the congregation is small, when the Word is preached faithfully and people are becoming more like Christ, heaven rejoices—because true growth begins within. 

 When numerical growth is made the goal of church ministry, that’s thinking in terms of success instead of in terms of faithfulness. Yet, churches often do this. I don’t see this emphasized in the New Testament at all. 

There are times that the New Testament acknowledges large numbers being added to the church, as in the book of Acts. But it’s not set forth as something to be aimed at or as any way of measuring success. It’s just acknowledged. It’s just noted as a work of God’s blessing.

 Success is not measured by how many are attending church. Success is measured by being faithful to the Word of God and to the responsibilities Christ has imparted to the church. We must be faithful to the means that Christ has provided for His church to grow and thrive. Faithfulness is the measure. 

Making church growth your goal is dangerous because you have to figure out how to achieve that growth. You have to figure out how to get people to show up and figure out how to keep them coming back. You look at certain things and say, well, if we do this or that, people won’t come. If we say certain things, they won’t come back. As you do this, what usually happens is that you end up with things that violate Scripture or ignore Scripture because they seem to work.

 So you end up with a pragmatic mindset, not a biblical one, for how to do church life. And then, just because things are increasing financially or numerically, you can think you’re doing great when you’re not. In fact, you’re displeasing the Lord Jesus. 

We don’t want to be characterized by spiritual blindness, human wisdom, or pride. It’s vital to examine our work of ministry. It needs to accord with the biblically expressed aims of ministry. It isn’t wrong for a church to have a desire to grow. But it ought to be growth that takes place through faithful ministry and the Lord adding to the numbers in the church. 

When we see people being converted and genuinely saved and more people becoming hungry for sound, healthy church life being added to the congregation, that is wonderful. We can rejoice in that even though it’s not our aim, it’s a byproduct of our aim. Our aim is to be faithful to Christ. It’s His church, He’s the Chief Shepherd of it, He builds it, we don’t.

 We get to be part of what He is doing, but as the Apostle Paul says, some plant and some water, but the Lord gives the increase. We don’t need to lay out visions, steps, and strategies to grow the church. Statistics may prove helpful in some ways but are not a measure of the success or health of a church. 

Read those letters to the seven churches. Those leaders and congregations are called to faithfulness. And being faithful is what we must all be aiming at.

IMOLEDAYO