By God’s perfect design, faithful Christians play an essential role in growing the Lord’s church. Jesus taught His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37), which means that for the church to grow, workers (you and me) are needed. To succeed, we must have the following:
Compassion – We need to have a heart that cares for others. We need to love the lost enough to share the gospel that can save their souls.
Conviction – We must believe in God’s word enough to obey it. We need to be so dedicated and motivated by the word of God that nothing will slow us down.
Courage – It can be scary to bring up religion, sin, or eternity. We need to overcome the fear of an awkward interaction.
Conversation – We need to be willing to talk about the gospel. We will never share the good news if we never have a discussion.
As exciting and spiritually encouraging as church growth can be, it rarely happens. Why not? We might try to blame our culture or generational differences, but perhaps it is because we lack one or more of the above. The church will never grow by accident and will only grow if we are willing to do our part.
Matt Langfield