The Pain of Growth

The Pain of Growth

You ever have growing pains?  If you didn’t you probably know someone who did, maybe your own kids.   You know when you were around 8 or 9 you’d wake up with your legs aching. 

Growing pains are kind of a generic diagnosis that covers a variety of aches and pains when you are that age.  And it’s not actually bone pain, you know from the bones growing it’s actually a muscular pain. 

This is interesting, one source wrote  “One symptom that doctors find most helpful in making a diagnosis of growing pains is how a child responds to touch while in pain. Kids who have pain from a serious medical cause don't like to be handled because movement can make the pain worse. But those with growing pains respond differently — they feel better when they're held, massaged, and cuddled.”

The scripture that was read this morning detailed some of growing pains that that the early church went through.

This is week 3 of our series on church growth.  In week one Stefan looked at “Why We Grow” and highlighted three reasons, 1) Because Jesus Commands it 2) Because the Bible Illustrates it 3) Because Reality Demands it. 

Last week I looked at “How We Grow” and we focused on how the church and the pastor need to be prepared in order for growth to happen 

In both weeks we looked at the incredible rate of growth that happened in the church in those first few months.  Literally thousands of people were coming to know Jesus, were being baptized and living in community. 

Sometimes you will hear people wish that their church was more like the New Testament Church or you’ll hear the pastor of a brand new church say that their church is going to be a New Testament Church.  But in the midst of all of the celebration of new life and church growth we stumble across the scripture that was read for us earlier, in particular Acts 6:1 But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent.

Rumblings of discontent?  In the New Testament Church?  That doesn’t seem right at all, I mean this is just months after the Holy Spirit had come and the church had been born.  Rumblings of discontent?

And the reason for the discontent, the reason the church changed and didn’t remain the church that was described in Acts 2 wasn’t because of sin, or pride or the devil.  It was because of people.  People who saw things from different perspectives, people who had different life experiences, not better or worse life experiences, just different. 

Even if there had never been another person added to the group the people themselves would have changed and that would have changed the church.

We all change, that’s a given.  As we grow most of us will change.   My world view, my church view and my political views have all changed through the years.  Some would say they have evolved; others would say they have de-evolved but regardless they have changed.

When Cornerstone was in its infancy a gentleman by the name of Marlin Mull told me that there are two types of people in every church, “The goers and the whoaers”.  And I’ve met both types, you know what he meant, those who when you talked about new things and changes they were willing to say “let’s go”. Today we call them early adopters.

And there are others’ and they brace their feet and say “Whoa, not on my watch”. 

And the goers and the whoaers were there two thousand years ago as well.  There were those who celebrated the growth of the church and those who grumbled about how things had changed. 

I love the story about the old guy who was being interviewed and he was asked “In your hundred and two years you’ve must have seen a lot of changes?” to which he replied, “Yep, and I was against them all.”

For the rest of our time this morning we’re going to look at Church Growing Pains.

Let’s be honest with each other and acknowledge that this church cannot and will not grow without there being some pain. 

Through the years I have talked to pastors from growing churches and it doesn’t matter if their church was a city church or a country church they all had the same tale. 

Now in the beginning everyone was gung ho for growth, I mean who wouldn’t be?  How could you be against church growth?  That would be wrong on so many levels.  But as the church began to grow some people began to hesitate and baulk and some even left the church to find one they would be more comfortable in. 

And the pastors all agreed that those who were opposed weren’t bad people in most cases they were good people even godly people but people who weren’t willing to pay the price. 

So it’s probably not fair to talk about church growth without acknowledging that when you grow often there are growing pains.

And maybe you are thinking “Well maybe we shouldn’t grow then.”   Every once in a while I’ll be speaking to a senior and they will look at me and say with all sincerity “Don’t get old!”  And my reply is “I have a cousin who didn’t get old, it’s not working out so well for him.”

If the church is to survive and thrive it will need to grow.  The other option is that it will die.

So what happened in the early church to cause the rumblings?  They were experiencing pain.  But what type of pain?

1) There Was Pain Involved in Change.  Everything changes.  And growing churches change.  You can’t deny that.  It’s easy to look at Cornerstone and see a static picture but it wasn’t always like it is today.

Twenty- one years ago we had 7 adults involved in a Sunday Night Bible Study, that was Bedford Community Church.  Five of the seven are still actively involved in our church today.

Eleven years ago we had changed our name to Cornerstone Wesleyan Church and we were averaging 45 in our Sunday Morning Service.

10 years ago on this Sunday there were 37 of us who joined together to worship at the Lebrun centre in Bedford.  15 of those 37 are still a part of Cornerstone.  About six weeks after that Sunday we changed again when we moved into our new building and then things really began to changes. 

Within six months we were averaging 135 in our services.  Last year we averaged 295 in our two morning service and afternoon service, and each Sunday we have people from around the world worshipping with us live online.  Things change.

Through the years some people have moved to other communities and others have moved on to other churches, and other people have joined us, and with every new person the church changes. 

A church of 7 is radically different than a church of 45 which is completely different than a church of 135, which is different than a church of 295.  As we grow we realize that it is a fact of life that the church will change and it won’t be like it was before. 

Twenty years ago we were meeting in our living room at 184 Basinview Drive, since then we have met in a community centre then a movie theatre and then back to the community centre, and at times when we got bumped out of our rented facilities we worshipped at the Berkeley in Bedford, at Basinview School, in a conference room in Sackville and at Fish Hatchery Park under a tree. 

Eight years ago we had one service on Sunday mornings and we had lots of room, now we have two services on Sunday morning and there are times it is crowded.  Things change.

And you can only imagine how the early church felt, after the resurrection there had been 120 who had gathered in the upper room then we read in Acts 2:41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.  That was a change, and they hardly had time to catch their breath and we read in Acts 4:4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.  Things change. 

Every new person, every new family will change the personality of Cornerstone.  Think about it we are not the same church we were before you arrived to make your contribution.  It becomes like a recipe that is changed by each additional ingredient. 

As some of you know, the Smart car is no more, long story but it has been replaced with a Toyota Corolla.  And because I was looking for basic transportation with decent mileage I just bought the CE, which is Toyota speak for base model. 

The only option it has is A/C because I couldn’t get one without A/C, I tried.  But if you added cruise control, a nicer interior, heated seats and a back up camera to the the CE you would now have a Corolla LE.  Add navigation, a sun roof, push button start and satellite radio and you have the technology edition.

They are all Corollas but every time you add something you make it different.

And so the early church began to experience change and with the change came some growing pains.  And understand that as we grow then there will be changes, not necessarily bad changes or for that matter even good changes.  Just changes because change has to happen. 

Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of England said “He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”

And Robert J. Kriegel author of “If it Ain’t broke Break It” reminds us “The only people who enjoy change are babies with wet diapers and busy cashiers.”

And so the growing church will experience the pain of change.

2) There Was Pain involved in Sacrifice When you start reading about the early church you discover that almost all of the descriptions talked about their giving habits. 

Contrary to popular opinion church growth doesn’t just happen.  It requires sacrifice.  Sometimes lots of sacrifices.

One thing that people don’t like talking about in church is money, but the truth is that churches can’t function without money.  The money has to come from somewhere and the Scriptures are quite clear that the “somewhere” are the people of God.  There is a lot of difference between the financial commitment needed to maintain a church and the financial commitment needed to grow a church.

Before we moved into our building we were able to maintain our church paying $500.00 a month rent for the community centre and some office space, that’s pays the mortgage for two days now.

Ten years ago we had Denn part time, and Jason was very part time and still a student, and Angela was leading the children’s and women’s ministry as a volunteer. 

Things change, Now I’m full time and so are Stefan and Marilyn. Mike is paid as part time but he’s always here and Deborah and Mike White aren’t paid at all but they serve as Missions Pastor and Pastoral Care.    

By staffing for growth we are acting instead of reacting.  Whatever the dollar costs are they will not be found immediately with new growth.  It takes about two years for giving to catch up with numerical growth.  If our growth is coming through conversions it can take that long for people to accept the concept of tithing, and if we are picking up transfer growth then might need that time to build loyalties and trust. 

Now understand that doesn’t mean that you have to wait for two years to start giving, you can jump in anytime. 

The same goes for time and service.  As the church grows there will be a lag between getting people in and getting people to the place where they are willing to serve.  During the transition period it stretches our people as they have to teach more children, lead larger youth groups, take on the responsibilities of more Life Groups and begin new ministries to cater to all these “new people”.

One of the greatest sacrifices that will need to be made is the giving up of preferences. As the church grows it sometimes grows away from the area that we are comfortable in and yet unless those changes are clearly wrong in light of the Scriptures we may have to surrender them in order to see continued kingdom growth. 

Twenty-Five years ago I read “The Moncton Wesleyan Church Manifesto”. I don’t know if they still use it but I still quote it and part of it says, “We might have our personal preferences about a big church or a small church, a formal service or an informal service, a long service or a short service, gospel music or liturgical music, fiery preaching or quiet preaching.  However, if those preference dictate which church we attend and support, then we can never experience God’s greatest blessings, because our motives are selfish.”

And so a Growing Church will experience the pain of sacrifice.  The sacrifice of money, of time of serving and most importantly of preferences.

3) There was Pain Involved in Growing Now when you think of it, this is a really obvious statement and to a certain degree goes back to the idea of our church changing but it is different. 

One of the major reasons why some churches are small is because they like being small.  Whether we are willing to admit it or not there are a lot of nice things about being a small church.  Probably the most obvious advantage of a small church is that you know everyone. 

You don’t have to guess at names or occupations, and everyone knows you.  As the church gets bigger you start to notice there are people that you can’t quite put a name to, and there are people who don’t know who you are. 

When a church is small each person has a fair amount of control over what goes on.  After all, one vote in twenty has a lot more sway then one vote in two hundred.  There is an intimacy in a small worship service that is difficult but not impossible to capture in a larger service.  In a small church you usually know what is going on at any given time. 

I was thinking about this the other day, 10 years ago I would suspect that Angela and I had been in the home of every family that made up Cornerstone and probably had had every family from Cornerstone in our home, at least once.  Today that would be impossible.

 In a small church you have more of the pastor.  One pastor has more time for each person in a group of forty-five then he does in a group of two hundred and ninety five.  There are close to 500 people who now call Cornerstone their church home.

There were probably those in the early church who remembered when the Apostles knew everybody’s name and knew all the widows and were always there to help them out, and probably wondered why it had to change. 

I am the chair of the Kingswood Ratepayers and one of the things we are always struggling with is development and I have discovered that for most people the community was just the right size the week they moved in.  And at that point it should have stopped growing.  In the same way most folks think the church was the perfect size right after they started attending. 

And size is relative, Cornerstone Wesleyan is one of the larger churches in the Maritimes, as sad as that may seem 75 % of churches have a smaller Sunday Morning attendance then we do, but there are some here who don’t want to lose our intimate feeling.  

The problem remains that if we stay the same size because it appeals to us, then our decision is based on selfishness.  We cannot see people won to Jesus Christ and discipled without this church growing. 

The only way we cannot grow is by not leading people into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and so we would have to make a conscious decision to exclude people from the Kingdom of God in an attempt to make sure that our church remains comfortable for some people. 

But listen to the command, not the suggestion but the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”   He was telling them to grow the church.

It is a rule of nature that everything in nature is either growing, dying or dead.

Peter Pan never wanted to grow up and I think that as children we are often content to remain children.  But that isn’t what God had in His plan when he created us, even though childhood can be a blast.

We can’t be a Peter Pan Church.  God has some great things in store for us as we grow and mature, but let’s not ignore that there will be growing pains as we grow.

As we stand on the threshold of a new era lets step across it with our eyes open, not ignoring the problems but realizing that our God is bigger than any problem we will encounter. 

Can I count on you, no let’s change that it’s not my church and it never has been, can God count on you to do what needs being done to reach our community for Christ? 

Sure there will be problems and some pain but none of them so big that they can stop the people of God.  As we grow we need to remember the words of Benjamin Franklin who said “There are no gains without pains.”

And the promise from Joshua 1:9  This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Many things have changed about the church over the past two thousand years but we still pause for the sacrament of communion to remember what Jesus did for us. We are the church, the bride of Christ, part of the Family of God and this morning we are going to take the time to remember what that means for us today.