Friday, April 07, 2006

Church Growth & Persecution

Wolfgang Simson wrote something in his book Houses that Change the World that I found very interesting (actually there are a lot of interesting things in his book, but this one really stood out today).

"Where do we look for inspiration? Many insights, lesssons and advice for church growth or church-planting on the market today come from the non-persecuted churches rather than the persecuted church . . . But statistical evidence and missionary research . . . shows the church grew and still grows most vigorously under a certain level of persecution and affliction."

This should really make us think about how we are going about trying to "grow" our church and to question whether we truely want to grow our church. When we talk about church growth are we looking for God's will in how we grow or are we looking for the world's idea of growth. Are we ready for what God may allow us to go through in order to grow in the way He wants us to grow?

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