The Cost of Church Growth

It’s funny but in church life we often have a few different “Brand New Years”.  The first Sunday in January we celebrate the “New Year” with the rest of Canada often with a sermon on forgetting the past and looking ahead to what God has in store for us.  At Cornerstone as well as other Wesleyan Churches our fiscal year ends the end of April, as a result “May” is the beginning of a brand new church year and it’s then that we have our much anticipated and highly aclaimed “Money Month”. 

But in many ways September is the beginning of the year as well.  It is today that the children move up their various levels, from Nursery to Children’s Church, from Children’s Church to Junior Church, from Junior church to Ignite and from Ignite to the worship service.  It is in September that we often roll out new curriculum for the children and as we move into the fall the Staff is busy planning the preaching series and small groups.  And the planning and work begins for the . . . wait for it. . . Children’s Christmas productions and Christmas Eve Service.

Often times, summer is when you check out a new church if you’ve just moved to the area or if you just feel it’s time for a new church.  Reminds me of the story of the man who had been shipwrecked on a deserted Island for years and finally he is spotted by a ship and a rescue party arrives to take him back home.  Before they leave he’s showing them around the island that has been his home and they come to a clearing with a beautiful view of the ocean and three grass huts.  One of the visitors ask what the huts are and the man replies “The one in the centre is my house and the one on the right is the church I attend.” “Oh “came the reply “what is the other one?”  “that” says the man “Is the church I used to attend.”

A pastor friend of mine told me a number of years ago if I believed that God could call a pastor to a different church then I should also acknowledge that God could call lay people to a different church as well.  And so there are folks at Cornerstone and at other churches who are starting fresh.

And so in many ways September is the beginning of the church year, or at least one of the beginnings.

It was 18 years ago that we actively began to tell people about our vision for what would eventually become Cornerstone Wesleyan Church and within four months we had a group of six meeting in our living room and the neat thing is that five of us are still here.  Can you imagine being in Stan and Karen Wickwire or Ian and Sylvia Richardson’s shoes when I began to cast a vision for a church that only existed in my mind and my heart?   And yet here they are all those years later.

And it seemed that everyone I met in that first year I told them about the church that we were starting.   But not everyone that we cast that vision to bought into the dream, there were some who were looking for a church that was already up and running with a full slate of programs that we just couldn’t offer and there were still others who just didn’t think there was a lot of potential for a brand new church like we were envisioning.  But through the years there have been those who have decided to invest themselves into the dream and help make it a reality.

In the scripture that was read earlier we saw a description of the birth of the church.  Not Cornerstone Church but “The church.”  And it is a great description.  Let’s read it again.

Acts 2:41-47 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

 Sometimes you will hear people talk about how we need to be like the New Testament church, and this is the church that they are talking about.  But when you stop and think about it, today that doesn’t sound as much like a church as it does a cult.  If one of your teenagers came home and told you that they had heard a guy preaching on the street and they had joined his group and they were doing church every day, and they had to sell everything they had to put in a common pot, and they weren’t going to be eating with you anymore that they would be having all their meals with their new friends, you’d be a little concerned.  Just saying.  It was Vance Havner who said “The church is so subnormal that if it ever got back to the New Testament, normal it would seem to people to be abnormal.”

And that may be true of the church described in Acts 2:41-47.  There was certainly a level of commitment there that we very seldom see in believers today.  But it wasn’t indicative of the church of the entire New Testament, it wasn’t even indicative of the church in entire the book of Acts.  Outside of that one description of that church at that particular point in history we never see it look like that again.  There is a small glimpse in Acts 4:32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.  But from there in we see all of the challenges that happens when you get a group of people together, the good the bad and the ugly.  Miracles happen, lives are changed, the poor are feed, God moves, arguments break out, immoral behaviour happens, people get offended and bent out of shape.  Some want to do this and some want to do that. 

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 were willing to say “let’s go” and others’ who would brace their feet and say “Whoa, not on my watch”.  And the goers and the whoaers were there two thousand years ago as well. 

And the reason the church changed and didn’t remain as it 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 group.

For the rest of our time this morning we’re going to look at the cost of church growth.  Let’s be honest with each other and acknowledge that this church cannot and will not grow without some cost on your behalf and some cost on mine.  I was twenty five years old when I was hired as Pastor at Truro Wesleyan Church.   I didn’t realize the price of church growth and so blindly led the church to grow from 124 to close to 200 and in the process we built a half million dollar worship center.  Which in 1988 was some serious change.

Now in the beginning everyone was gung ho for growth, I mean who wouldn’t be?  How could you be against church growth.  But as we began to grow some people began to hesitate and balk and some even left the church to find one they would be more comfortable in.  Not bad people, good people even godly people but people who weren’t willing to pay the price.  And I vowed that I wouldn’t attempt to lead another church without being up front about what it was going to cost them. 

And so this morning we are simply reminding you of what we’ve already told you about the cost of church growth because I truly believe that if we are going to accomplish our mission of introducing people to God that Cornerstone will have to grow.

1) This Church Will Never Be Like This Church Again.  Eighteen years ago we had 6 adults involved in a Sunday Night Bible Study, that was Bedford Community Church, seven years ago we were averaging 45 in our Sunday Morning Service, six years ago we were averaging 135, last year we averaged 270 in our two morning service and afternoon service, and each Sunday we have people from around the world worship with us live online.  Things change.

Some people 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 then a church of 45 which is completely different then a church of 150, which will be different then a church of 250 or 450 or 2000.  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. 

Eighteen 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.  Seven years ago this weekend, our church building looked like this and that Sunday 34 of us worshipped together at the Lebrun Centre.  Three months later, in our third service in our new building 134 of us worshipped together, things had changed.  

Six 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.  And then 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.  An egg is an egg, but with milk it becomes a scrambled egg, a little cheddar and you have a cheese omelet, add some flour and you have a popover, some baking soda, and sugar to your popover and you have a cake.  Now I like eggs, omelets, popovers and cakes but they are all different.

And so the first cost of growth is change, not necessarily bad change or for that matter even good change.  Just change and 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.”

2) You Don’t Get Nothing For Nothing  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 churches 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” is 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.

We maintained a church paying $500.00 a month rent for the community centre and some office space, that’s two days mortgage payment now.    Ten years ago we had Denn part time, 6 years ago we had Denn full time and Jay Part time, and Mike volunteering 20 hours a week for administration and Angela was leading the children’s and women’s ministry as a volunteer. 

Things continue to change, I am still full time, but now we have Jason, Marilyn, Mike, Michael, Ben and Bayley part time.  And if we are going to continue to grow those positions will eventually morph into full time potions. 

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 growth 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.”

The second cost of growth then is sacrifice, of money, or time and of labor or preferences.

3) We Will Have To Lose Our Smallness.  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.  In a small church you have more of the pastor.  One man has more time for each person in a group of forty five then he does in a group of two hundred and seventy.  There are over 400 people who now call Cornerstone their church home.

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 they may seem 75 % of the 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 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.”

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, (although maybe having to grow up was a part of the curse!) 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 the costs that will have to be paid if we are going to grow.

As we stand on the threshold of a new era lets step across it with 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 the HRM? 

Sure there will be problems but none of them so big that they can stop the people of God.

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.