Growing the Church and Growing the Kingdom Are Not The Same

Posted on | July 23, 2008 |

David Watson taught me an important question all Christians should ask:

“Are you interested in growing your church, or in growing the Kingdom?”

He explained

“If you seek to grow your church, you won’t necessarily engage in activities that grow the Kingdom. If you focus on growing the Kingdom, however, your church will grow. I’ve seen it over and over again.”

This is an essential principle. Christians must consider it. Why? Because the answer to the question reveals your motive for ministry. Your motive defines your understanding of success. Your understanding of success defines what you measure. And what you measure, ultimately, determines what you and your team do.

Look at it this way: When faced with a new opportunity do you ask, “How is this going to bring people into the doors of my church?” or do you ask, “How is this going to impact Lostness in my city or mission field?” Sometime activities that impact lostness in a community actually drive people to a different church than yours. Are you ok with that?

This principle gets really important when you look at missions, church planting, and reaching the Online Generation. How can you expect someone in China to fly thousands of miles to attend your church? How can you expect someone on their computer in Maine to attend an offline weekly worship gathering in Texas? Why would we work in that community to promote that church?

Yet churches that put everything they have into building the Kingdom will grow. Doesn’t seem to make sense, but that is the way it works.

I’m definately biased, but I would say that reaching the Online Generation is one of the cheapest ways for churches to do things that grow the Kingdom rather than grow the church. I suspect, however, that once Christians of the Online Generation see you focus on impacting their generation that they will look for a place with you.

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