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Church Growth -- Three Ingredients

It was not too long ago that I heard a pastor say that there are three main ingredients which are needed for a church to experience growth. I would like to post them here for our reflection:

1) Prayer
I would like to elaborate on this for a moment. It is imperative, I believe, that a church be founded upon the spiritual discipline of prayer. Unless a church is communing with God in prayer, they will have no impact. For a church function without complete reliance upon the grace of God is pure speculation and pride, at best. May be be pastors, churches and members who are firmly committed to the necessary doctrine of prayer. May we spend much time communing with God in prayer as we labor and lift our shepherds, ministries, members, services and such up to the Lord in fervent and frequent prayer.

2) Holiness

Little needs to be said here. Unless the church is pure, there is little hope that the church will have a great impact for our Savior. Is it any wonder why churches have little impact in some communities. For when a visitor attends a church, he sees no difference in the conduct of people than if he were in his secular environment which he finds himself throughout the week. When people come to our churches, do they see a difference? I mean, a radical difference? They ought to. May we be holy in our own personal lives. May we zealously and passionately strive to be Christlike in every single aspect of life - excluding nothing. May we strive to "Be Holy for our God is Holy" (Lev 19:2).

3) Testimonies

What is simply meant here is the personal testimony that we as individuals can have in the community. The life-changing testimony of God's grace in how He took our broken, dead, spiritually helpless and wretched state and has transformed (and it is still in process!) our lives to be conformed to the image of His Son is powerful! People watch the way we live. People see if our testimony matches our walk. May we be leaders that are so eager to give our testimony of God's life-changing grace that has saved us from our sins, washed us by the blood of the perfect and spotless Lamb and given us a new hope and a lasting joy in our future glorification.

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