Focus on the training, the increase will come.
The numerical increase in the local church is of God and is the will of God. The mandate is to disciple the nations, and the local church is how God gets this done. As we go out, evangelizing the lost, it is God’s will that the saved be brought into the local church to be taught and trained as ministers of Christ. Thus, there is no one whose mind is fixed on God’s mandate on the earth who would speak low of or despise numerical increase in the local church.
That said.
It is pertinent to always fix our minds on the REASON God adds people to His church. The idea isn’t JUST to have a populated church but to have more people trained to become effective ministers of the gospel. Any numerical increase that doesn’t translate into this has fallen woefully short of God’s purpose and plan. This is the ONLY reason a pastor ought to desire numerical increase; any other reason cannot be inspired by the Spirit of God.
People desire increase for many ridiculous fleshly reasons today.
For some, they want to be called one of the fastest-growing churches in town.
For others, it is just to increase revenue. More people, more money.
While for some, it is just the satisfaction of seeing a mammoth crowd before them while they preach.
None of these should be THE REASON we desire numerical increase. Whatever our reason is will always reveal itself in HOW we go about our pursuit of God’s desire to see more ministers trained and raised for the cause of His work.
Now, if TRULY the reason you want increase is that you want disciples multiplied, then you know that it takes TRAINED MEN to multiply disciples. That is, for you to be able to properly train and raise people as ministers of the gospel, you must ALREADY HAVE well-trained ministers, who will get the work done. If you have more people than you have TRAINED hands, then you will fail woefully to multiply disciples. I believe this is very clear.
The above brings us to an irrefutable point: If your desire for numerical increase agrees in intent with God’s desire, then your FOCUS will be on ensuring that you have PROPERLY TRAINED men who will ensure that this discipleship is effectively done. If you neglect this and keep going after the increase, then clearly, you won’t increase for ulterior, selfish, and carnal reasons.
We are often swift to make reference to the addition of 3,000 souls to the church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41), and the eventual increase to 5,000 men (Acts 4:4), and the steady increase from there upward. We want the same. Don’t we? After all, it’s the same Spirit at work then, who is at work now. But here is something we probably have not properly thought about. According to Luke’s account, there were about 120 DISCIPLES gathered together upon Jesus’ ascension, awaiting the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 1:15). Paul puts the number of disciples that Jesus appeared to at 500 (1Corinthians 15:6). Now, think about it. If all they had was 120 properly trained men, that would be ratio of 25 new converts to 1 disciple. If we go with 500 trained men, that puts it at 6:1. Point is, that they had already trained hands to handle the discipline of that influx of multitudes. The eventual outcome of that is seen in Acts 6:7…”the word of God increased, and the number of DISCIPLES MULTIPLIED GREATLY in Jerusalem….” The platform for discipleship was set and thus, the new converts were well disciplined.
So, I ask you, dear Man of God,
how many men have you trained today who can EFFECTIVELY disciple those multitudes you want to see come in? There is no Pastor I know, who aggressively went after the numbers without prioritizing the training of the men to handle it, who did not compromise on the proper discipleship process, and who did not suffer a leadership crisis. Because the challenge is this: if you have more numbers than the trained men that you have, you will be pressured to appoint emergency leaders, who have no proper training at all either in true followership or leadership, and the consequence is that, such men will eventually become your greatest headache.
God doesn’t just want to add more men to you just so your building can be full; He wants men trained. If He knows that you don’t have the men and the structure to make that happen, I put it to you, that God will only keep bringing them in trickles, in accordance with what you can handle at the moment. And if that doesn’t satisfy you, then you would have to resort to all manner of a gimmick, then you’ll lose yourself, and there you are…doing all the things you had said you’d never do.
So heed this counsel.
Do what you must do, within proper scriptural boundaries.
Ensure your local church is mission-minded. Be an evangelizing church.
Stay praying. Believe in God for increase.
But by all means, FOCUS ON THE TRAINING. Your primary attention must be on raising men who are trained enough to effectively disciple others. Pour all your energy into it. If you are evangelizing, and you are praying, the people will come, first in trickles, then eventually in troops. It will happen!
The few people that God is adding to you should be disciplined by the few men you have trained. That’s how the number of trained hands that you have will continue to increase. Steadily. And with that, more men to be disciplined will come!
Don’t put yourself under any kind of pressure. If you have not properly trained men to be effective pastors, you have no business opening new centers. God CANNOT LEAD YOU TO DO IT. Stop deceiving yourself!
If you do things in a hurry, you will regret it. The work of ministry is not a copy-copy thing. It’s not a but-we-are-colleagues thing. There are things you CANNOT copy if you don’t have TRAINED MEN to run it. If not, hypertension will kill you. And that’s not a figurative statement.
The years are very long. You are in this thing for decades. Focus on the training, and the increase will come. I know that doing that wants to make it appear as though things are slow, but dear sir, whatever will be built to last cannot be built in a hurry. If you chase the numbers without raising the men, you will eventually betray proper apostolic doctrine and practice.
We have big dreams for the Gospel in our local church, but we are doing it with no pressure. We are strengthening our discipleship structure and training and raising more leaders so that when the crowd begins to troop in, we don’t start convening emergency meetings on what to do. We simply keep doing what we are doing, and the word of God will increase as the number of disciples multiplied greatly.
Never forget this:
Focus on the training, and the increase will come.
Blessed.
