I write this article with trepidation that it might be misunderstood and appear as trying to correct The Body of Christ. For that very reason I have maintained a public silence since coming to the understanding that I personally had been guilty of falling victim to the sin of measuring success of a church along side success of the world. For the past six years I have confined instruction on this subject within the walls of the local church that I pastor. I would also not allow myself to use friendships and associations as a forum to preach to others what I knew for certain Our Lord had been showing me. I am convinced that even the purest of hearts would have misjudged my intentions. At the same time, however, I had become consumed with a Divinely orchestrated paradigm shift concerning the growth, development, and mission of the Christian Church. I don’t do well with balancing passion and sensitivity, so rather than be a thorn in the side of others, I chose to disengage from activities in the Youngstown Christian Community until such a time as this. I ask that you indulge me the reading of the following article. I hope it explains my absence.
I attended my first church growth conference in 1991. It would be my first of many over the next 10 years. It never occurred to me that God wanted anything less for the local church than a continual numerical increase in people. Other pastors, I reasoned, must believe the same thing. Rarely do two pastors meet for only a few moments before one will ask the other something like this, “how many are you running, brother?” It was common to refer to additional people coming to church as a way in which God was blessing the church. If God blessed churches with numbers of people, then the church holding the conference was indeed being blessed. At that point in time it was one of the fastest growing churches in America. If I were going to learn, why not learn from the best of the blessed.
I carefully put into practice the church growth principles that I learned over those ten years. While there are too many to list in a brief letter, I will mention three that had a particular impact on myself, and our church. It is important to note that one or more of these three principles will always be found interwoven into the modern counterfeit gospel of which Paul cautions Timothy. “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desire.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4, NASB):
1) Bigger is always better. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of growth. He is about addition and multiplication. Subtraction is not of God.
2) Make everyone feel like they own a little piece of the pie. Encourage people to find needs within the church, and fill those needs with their own gifts, abilities, time, and financial resources. When people take ownership of their church they are more apt to be involved.
3) Use the pulpit as a tool of relevant preaching. In this respect, relevant has come to mean, making the Gospel message a constant source of motivation in someone’s secular life; i.e.: family, job, finances, physical & emotional well - being.
The deceiving elements found in the three mentioned growth principles may not be readily apparent. However, closer observation will reveal that they appeal to the sinful nature of both the preacher and the people. Therein lies the deception, as all three satisfy our desire for prestige, lust for power, and greed for money. They form the basis of the counterfeit gospel by subtly changing the message from God focused to people centered.
The church that I pastored, although larger than most, never rose to the status of a mega church. The problem never was the actual size; it was the condition of my heart. Bigger is what I was striving for. Whether a church has 30 members or 30,000 members, as long as we believe that bigger is better, as long as we judge our performance by any form of physical growth, as long as we consciously or unconsciously strive toward that intent, we become victimized by the spirit of worldly success, which in turn leads to false teaching.
Somewhere along the line, I had lost sight of God’s original intent for the church. Growth had become focused on numbers and ways to increase those numbers. Sadly, I had been deceived into settling on ways that seems right to man. I no longer believed that simply lifting up Jesus would draw all men to Him. In order to expedite success and draw people to church, I tried to determine and meet the physical and emotional needs of sinners. Trying to accommodate the sin nature of people always results in ignoring the sins of people. True, Biblical repentance is no longer preached in the modern, success-oriented church. The proclamation of the Word of God has been reduced to motivational and sensational public speaking. The sharp sword of God’s Word has been exchanged for inspirational speeches. Captivating orators spew messages that leave their listeners emotionally charged, feeling good about themselves, and most importantly, wanting to come back next week.
These systems of so-called church growth and development, are motivated by selfish and worldly desires to succeed. They have led to the preaching of another gospel, lifting up another Jesus, and resulting in another church.
Six years ago, The Holy Spirit of God used the Word of God to reveal the sin of our church in general, and my sin in particular. God began to bring us to our knees through the means of a financial crisis, followed by the loss of several key people who had the means to solve the financial problem. We had been deceived into believing that success in the Church is the same as success in the world. As a result, mega crowds, thunderous worship, numerous services, many ministries, multiple programs, non-stop activity, large budgets, and a sprawling campus had replaced true revival, and other legitimate moves of God. We had been lulled to sleep, but God was awakening our hearts. To make a real long story short, we were called to repentance. Repentance is not just an acknowledgement of sin, but also a complete change of mind, evidenced by a change of behavior.
At that time we were performing mega dramas that attracted thousands of people from the tri-county and several states. We also had numerous social service programs and outreach ministries. These activities involved hundreds of workers who reached out to thousands of people. To demonstrate true repentance, we stopped all activity with the exception of Bible studies and prayer meetings. Our pastoral staff volunteered significant reductions in salaries and benefits. I went before the church and confessed the sin of pride and following after the world’s formula for success. During this cleansing process we continued to lose people to other churches. I cannot stand in judgment of anyone who left. Their decisions were personal between themselves and God. I do know that many left because they did not agree that we should have taken such radical steps. They questioned if we were not, in effect, dooming ourselves to failure. The answer of course, is that failure, like success, should not be measured by the standards of the world. We have come to understand that in the things of the Kingdom of God, it is not about success or failure; but faithfulness to the Word of God.
The same call of repentance that God directed toward our church is similarly being directed toward each modern local church that has fallen victim to seeking after success as defined by the world.
God is calling His unfaithful Bride to repentance. We are, at one and the same time, the Church of Ephesus, who lost its first love; the Church of Pergamum, who embraced false teaching; the Church of Thyatira, who failed to judge sin in it’s midst; the Church of Sardis, who was invaded by a spirit of slumber and complacency, and the Church of Laodicia, who settled for spiritual mediocrity. “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.”
In the years following our step of obedience, we have experienced, and continue to experience, a spiritual growth that is new and refreshing. We have eliminated any self- effort or promotion to bring new people to the church. We have stopped trying to be successful, and are simply trusting that if the Name of Jesus be lifted up, He will draw all people to Himself.
Rev. Fred A Mayhew, Pastor, Founder, 1984-present,
Trinity Fellowship Church
