Grow the Church

I've been thinking a lot lately about how the church grows.

For the last few years, I've been focusing on the opposite - the reasons why the church in America is shrinking. I could go on and on about that, and I have, in several of these blog posts. But recently, I've shifted my focus.

And I've been thinking about how the church grows.

When we lived in Chicago, we attended a church called New Life Covenant. New Life is an Assemblies of God church - and not just any Assemblies of God church - but the largest Assemblies of God church in the country. New Life has tens of thousands of members spread out over nine different campuses. Unlike some mega-churches who are known for their big, posh buildings and super tech heavy worship sessions and suspiciously wealthy pastors, New Life is known for their service to the community. They run well over a hundred separate outreach programs out of the church. They do so much for their neighborhoods they've won awards and been recognized multiple times by the mayor!

But it wasn't always that way.

If I remember the story correctly, Pastor Wilfredo "Choco" de Jesus took over a church with a small, aging congregation from his in-laws a few decades ago. And even though the church didn't have much money, he knew what they had needed to go back into their community. The initial church sat in Humboldt Park, an impoverished Hispanic neighborhood with many single-parent households and people on fixed incomes. The church worked outwards - instead of inwards - sharing whatever they could, loving on people, and... they grew. And as they grew, meeting the needs of the people on a day-to-day basis, they began championing for better systems of care for the people, too. Not only addressing their immediate physical need, but the systems which had created the need in the first place.

This model is not unique. 

One could argue quite effectively that this model is based on Jesus' own ministry while on Earth.

Jesus loved people. He met their needs wherever He went. Whether it was providing more wine for a party (His very first documented miracle), or feeding the hungry, or healing the sick, or calming a storm, or bringing a loved one back to life - Jesus consistently met the needs of the people. He didn't stop to question if they were worthy or if they deserved it. In many cases, He helped those the religious of the time felt were quite unworthy and undeserving! Jesus merely... loved.

He also challenged the systems of the day which kept people in poverty. He challenged systems of oppression and of religious rules and rites which kept people from God. Not in the way the people wanted - not by violence or by overthrowing Rome - but by challenging the cultural norms of their society. He turned everything they thought they knew upside down.

As "little Christs", should we not be doing likewise? Should we not be seeking to love others and to meet their needs? Should we not be challenging the systems of oppression keeping people in need? Should we not be turning everything upside down? We are so quick to recognize oppression and corruption in other countries, but so blind to see it in our own. The poor keep getting poorer while the rich keep getting richer, and yet somehow, we Christians rationalize it away, bowing to the gods of individualism and independence rather than seeking the way of the cross.

Do we perhaps make the same mistake of the religious leaders, by judging others and deciding we do not need to love them, because of one thing or another? Because they are "sinners" or they are "not like us" or because they've wronged us in some way. Or maybe, simply because it is too inconvenient.

Pastor Choco wrote a book about his experience early on at New Life, called, "Amazing Faith." In it, he writes, "Today many Christians don't stand up against injustice for two primary reasons: inconvenience and the risk of ridicule. Caring for the poor, the addicts, the sick, the homeless, immigrants, and every other category of needy people requires time and effort. Many Christians are happy to give a few dollars and devote an hour or two, but they aren't willing to forego their normal pleasures and comforts for very long."

We hold tightly to our privilege and our blessings, not wanting to share. Thinking we don't need to share, because somehow, we believe we've "earned" them, and they have not, not realizing this fallacy of thinking comes from American ideology, not anything Biblical. If we actually turned to the Bible, we would realize it's full from start to finish of commands to care for and provide for the poor and the vulnerable and the needy. God is on their side - why aren't we?

In the famous, "Letters from Birmingham Jail", quoted in Pastor Choco's book, Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."

Silence... while red lining and racist policies still keep people of color from equal housing, as well as financial and educational opportunities.

Silence... while women still make less than men for doing the same job and are regularly passed over for promotions in favor of their male colleagues (not to mention the widespread sexual harassment in the workplace).

Silence... while children are being torn from their mother's arms or drowning in the river while seeking safety at our border.

Silence... while a mental health crisis wrecks our nation's young people.

Silence... while kids with guns are killing other kids, all in the name of our "rights".

Silence... while we are destroying the world God created for us.

Silence.

Maybe it's time to make some noise, stir up some good trouble, and make a difference in the world around us.

You could be the miracle someone else is waiting for.

Love others, as He first loved us.

Fight oppression and corruption.

Bring His kingdom come here on Earth.

This is the work He has given us to do.

It's time we go and do it.

I suspect if we did, a crazy thing would happen:

The church would grow.