Here Are God’s Church-Growth Plans!

5th Sunday after Epiphany, 2/10/19
Romans 10:13-17


Here Are God’s Church-Growth Plans!
I. Plan A: He sends us out to proclaim his gospel.
II. There is no Plan B.


Are you familiar with the Church Growth Movement? A missionary named Donald McGavran is often cited as the movement’s founder and the movement traces its history back to the 1960s when Christians began to ask themselves how they can best spread Christianity in the United States as it became more culturally diverse. Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, CA became ground zero for this movement.

Without going into all the details, the Church Growth Movement used sociology in trying to determine the “felt-needs” of people who didn’t have a relationship with Jesus, in order to attract them to the message of Jesus as their Savior. It gave rise to the seeker-service, which is a service intended to appeal to those who don’t consider themselves to be Christians, but are seeking to know what Christianity is all about. It’s my opinion that the Church Growth Movement reached its peak about the turn of the millennium and it’s been subsiding ever since.

For that reason, you don’t hear much about the Church Growth Movement anymore. And that’s just fine with me, because there are many facets of it that are contrary to the Bible. But Christians are still interested and even passionate about growing the Church. I hope you’re one of them.

But how does the Church grow? What’s our part in it? How does Jesus intend for it to grow?

In this morning’s text from Romans 10 Paul answers those questions. In his unique way, he logically presents how it is that the Church grows. And this isn’t simply Paul’s idea or his opinion. Here are God’s Church-growth plans! It would be foolish for us to disregard these plans, so let’s pay attention and take to heart what God has to say to us this morning.

Part I.

I remember what it’s like to raise small children. If you weren’t watching them every waking moment, they could be doing something they shouldn’t or worse. They need your constant attention. And it’s exhausting. There are times when the parents of little ones wish their children were a little older so that they wouldn’t demand so much parental time and energy. In fact, why doesn’t God simply give us adult children who by-pass all the childhood years? One reason is that we’d miss out on all the blessings and the fond memories of our children as infants and toddlers.

In the same way, God doesn’t simply plop mature Christians into the middle of our congregation. He could, but he doesn’t. Why not?

Well, he could use angels to do the work of making Christians. After all, angels were created by God to be his heavenly messengers and on several occasions in the Bible, these heavenly messengers carried out their angelic functions in marvelous ways. Think of the stunning way that they announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds while arrayed in the dark sky around Bethlehem.

But he doesn’t use angels; he uses us. But we still have one more suggestion. Couldn’t he simply bypass us and work faith in the heart of someone out of the clear blue? Indeed, he could. With God all things are possible.

But he doesn’t. He’s purposely chosen not to. Instead he has decided and decreed to use us. Why? So that we have another task to accomplish when we’re already far too busy? Because he wants to burden us with something? Because he wants us to know how tough that work is?

Not at all. Instead, the fact that he has chosen to use us to grow his Church is a divine announcement of what he thinks of us. God didn’t make us his own simply to add numbers to his collection of believers. He didn’t put his name on us to see how much he could get out of us. He’s not some divine capitalist who puts something into us to see what kind of return he can get from us later. Bringing people to faith in Jesus as their Savior is God’s highest will. It’s what he’s all about. It’s what he thinks about constantly. The plan of salvation was so critical to him that he sacrificed his Son to complete it. And now he has decided to use us to bring that message to others. He involves us in his most important work. That’s how much he thinks of you!

You talk about a reason for living! You talk about a purpose in life! You talk about a reason to get out of bed in the morning! You talk about motivation for using your time and talents as best you can!

That’s what St. Paul had in mind when he laid out for us his apostolic logic. Listen to it once again: “’Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” Here’s Paul chain of logic in reverse: Sending…preaching…hearing…believing…calling on. Jesus called you and me to faith in him in order to give us the forgiveness of sins and make us heirs of eternal life. He has given us those amazing gifts of his grace and now he wants to use us to bring those gifts to others.

Listen again to Paul’s summary statement: “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Here are God’s Church-growth plans. Plan A: he sends us out to proclaim his gospel.

Do you know what that means? We’re integral parts of his saving plan. Jesus already won that salvation for all people, but now God uses you and me to grow his Church—to share his salvation with others. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

…Maybe not. Let’s be honest: often we’re not so gung-ho about sharing the gospel with others. We’ve got so many responsibilities and

duties in life that we don’t know if we can take on another one, especially one so important and critical to others. What’s more, we’re not so sure we’re ready to experience rejection and loss. Sharing Jesus with someone might not be what they want to hear, and we might risk never speaking to them again. And what if we don’t know what to say? What if they ask us a question and we don’t have an answer? If that happens, we’re going to look silly and might do more harm than good.

Those are just a few of our objections to being part of God’s plan to grow his Church. Really, they’re all excuses; lousy excuses. God never asks us for something he hasn’t already given us. You and I make the greatest sharers of the gospel in the world because we know what God’s forgiveness is. We need it every day, even for our sins of failing to participate in God’s Church growth plans. The goal is not for us to be God’s perfect, little gospel proclaimers. We’ll never be that. The goal is to be forgiven gospel proclaimers. God has already made us that through Jesus who paid the price to make us that through his death on the cross. “Faith comes from hearing the message.” God’s Church growth plan is for you and me to share that message.

Part II.

But have you seen the latest results of God’s Church growth plan? It’s not very impressive. Look what’s happening to Christianity in our country today. There are far more churches closing for the last time than opening for the first time. Attendance is down in a majority of churches; so are offerings. From a human standpoint, the future of the Church doesn’t look bright.

So, if God’s Plan A isn’t working, what’s God’s Plan B? Are you ready? There is no Plan B. There’s only Plan A.

But isn’t that foolish? That’s like doing the same thing and expecting different results, and that’s one definition of insanity. Is God’s plan to grow the Church foolish at best and insane at worst? Is he forcing us into an effort that will result in endless frustration for us? Are we prone to fail? Will we never reach our goal?

Not a chance! Remember, this isn’t our plan; it’s God’s. And his plans never fail.

Bottom line: God’s word works. To share our faith God has given us his word. And don’t ever forget what his word can accomplish. God spoke his word on the first six days of Creation and our world and universe came into being. God’s word works. God spoke his word and the storm stopped, those with leprosy were healed, the blind could see, the deaf could hear, and the lame could walk. In fact, he spoke his word at three funerals that Jesus attended and the dead came back to life. His word works because it’s his almighty word.

And now we have that same word to use in growing the Church. And it works! It worked in me. It worked in you! It’s working in us today. It worked on the day of your baptism when that word was connected to the water. It works every time we stand with our fellow Christians and receive the body of Christ with the bread, and the blood of Christ with the wine for our forgiveness. And every time we use his word to grow his Church, the Holy Spirit is at work, calling sinners to faith in Jesus, so that they believe in him and join us in confessing him as Lord and Savior.

And that, my friends, is why there isn’t a Plan B when it comes to God’s Church growth plans. Plan A works.

There’s an auto dealer located in suburban Milwaukee who’s known for his slogan, “Who do you know wants to buy a car?” While the English grammar is lacking, the slogan works; it has so for decades.

Who do you know who needs to hear about Jesus? Ask yourself that question this week. Pray about it. Talk to other Christians about how to go about approaching that person. And then look for opportunities to share God’s truth with them. Just tell them what you know. The Holy Spirit has promised to work through what you say. The results are up to God. His plan is simply to use us to share his word. That’s God’s Church growth plan. It always was and it always will be. Find your part in it! Amen.