Church Growth

While doing some searching on the internet, I came across an article by RC Sproul on church growth. I thought I'd pass along portions of it for your reading pleasure (if you'd like to read the whole article, you can find it here http://ccc138.org/article.asp?ID=621).

The article is entitled "Swimming Upstream." Here are a couple of quotes from it:

"The only seekers we tend to draw with seeker sensitive services are believers seeking a different church. By presenting a God who wants us to look at ourselves, who doesn't judge and command, who has a wonderful set of insights on how to have a happy, healthy marriage we put God's imprimatur on narcisism. There's nothing evangelicals like more than to be told that God loves them just the way they are."

"But why aren't the seekers coming? They like pop music, so we give them pop music. They like stories so we give them dramas. They like anonymity, so we let them have it. They like convenience, so we'll change their oil while they're here (this by the way is being done). The problem is that we can do none of these things as well as the world can. Why get up on a Sunday morning and drive somewhere to listen to pop music, when its as close as my stereo? Why settle for cheesy scripts and sets when the television does it so much better? Why spend an hour getting an oil change when the pros can do it in ten minutes? Imagine every company on the stock exchange looking to the one company whose stock rose the highest in a given year deciding to do what they did. 'Gee', thinks Ford, 'Microsoft made a killing. Let's get out of the car business and make software.' Or imagine PBS deciding to air nothing but sitcoms made up of sophisticated urban x-ers."

"The foolishness of the gospel routes the wisdom of the wise. Practically speaking the experts are failures. What they consider failure, on the other hand succeeds."

"So what does this tell us about how to grow the church? It demonstrates that we're listening to the wrong experts. Even the pagans know it is wise to counter-program. When everyone is going one way, go the other way. You will stand out. You will be noticed. You will be effective. If there were such a thing as a "seeker", someone who is looking for something, they would certainly not be looking for more of the same, or a bad imitation of what he is fleeing. When the world gives us mindless drivel, then is the time to say of the church, "Come in here. You'll get none of the nonsense you're so tired of." When the world is happy and light, we need to be somber, serious. When the gods of this world are distant, spineless, voiceless, reflections of our baser selves, our duty is to present the on true God, transcendent and immanent, omnipotent and tender, the God who speaks with all authority and wisdom. And we need to reflect not the perverse generation form which we have been saved, but Him in whom we have been regenerated, Him whose image we are to be."

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