Debunking the purpose driven church growth heresies that are far too common these days...

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And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. -- Acts 2:42-47 (ESV)

https://careynieuwhof.com/3-questions-to-expand-the-front-door-of-your-church/

They help churches get unstuck. That is the business motto for The Unstuck Group, yet another in a long line of carnal, worldly consultants disguised as Christian leadership experts. Their goals are all the same -- pack as many bodies into your building as possible and convince them to give you a minimum of 10 percent of their income. They are derived from the Purpose Driven Church model that demands a cult of personality, vision casting, CEO-Pastor-Dude. They are always devoid of true biblical understanding when it comes to growing the kingdom of God because they are neck deep in the logic and solutions of the world.

Amidst the din of the modern machine of churchianity the truth is drowned out by the cacophony of carnal pursuits. The foundational deep theology of the day is this -- the church does not exist for the lost. I know, calm down. Read the key verses above and see the true model of the New Testament church. The church devotes themselves to the word of God, prayer, fellowship and the breaking of bread. They are to be shepherded by a pastor whose responsibility is to vertically grow His sheep to become mature Christians, not blown about by every wave of new doctrine. They took care of each other's needs. The body helped the body, praising God all the way. Who was responsible then for the horizontal growth of the church? The Lord added to their number day by day, those being saved. In this world of usurping God, we have grown accustomed to think that we play a pivotal role in the salvation of others. We do not. We have a cameo role, so to speak. Salvation is a supernatural act of God and God alone and only through the preaching of the uncompromised Gospel of Jesus Christ. Do we want the lost to visit our churches then? Of course because while the shepherd feeds the sheep through the preaching of the cross, the Holy Spirit can draw the goats to the foot of Calvary. So as we go through the above linked article just remember that what The Unstuck Group founder, Tony Morgan, views as being stuck just might be exactly where God wants a particular church.

"Nearly every church leader I know is concerned with "closing the back door" at his or her church. But I've found the "front door" is usually the bigger issue. A few years ago, Connexus Church invited me to lead the team through the Unstuck Process. Carey was in the middle of handing off the lead pastor role to Jeff Brodie and working through a well-prepared succession plan. There was a light bulb moment during our time together I can't get out of my mind. The Connexus team was sharing the number of new guests they were seeing on average, and it became clear: There weren't enough. The church was seeing growth, but not at the pace they wanted. Jeff said they came into that planning time thinking they had a "back door" problem. One simple metric helped them see it was the opposite: To see growth, you'll need more new guests each year than your total average attendance on a Sunday. Jeff says they probably needed twice as many new guests as they were seeing. The reason this interaction sticks with me isn't about that metric. I've had a similar conversation with many pastors. It's about what Jeff and the team at Connexus did next. They went all-in on becoming a church that's passionate about seeing their friends, neighbors, and colleagues experience the regeneration and redemption Jesus brings. Few are willing to do the heart work they did to cast a new vision for loving their neighbor--and a few years later, they've seen their number of new guests sky-rocket. It takes intentionality to reach people outside the church and outside the faith. The natural tendency of every church is to become inward-focused over time. Does your church have a front door problem? If so, I'd encourage you to process these three questions together with your leadership team." -- Tony Morgan

We see right away the unbiblical disconnect that pins the foundations of these alleged church growth experts. That not achieving a certain level of numerical growth is a bad thing. Dear pastor hear me well -- you will be judged based on the quality of the vertical growth you provided to the sheep that were entrusted to you. When Paul says good bye to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 we do not see him address numerical growth at all! He does however address vertical growth:

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. -- Acts 20:26-27 (ESV)

Was Paul innocent of the Ephesians' blood because he had grown the church by a certain percentage point? Not at all! He had one duty -- to proclaim the whole Gospel and because he did he knew he had done his pastoral duty. If you want to love your neighbors -- preach the Gospel! It alone has the power of God unto the salvation of men. Do not get in the way of it either with your speech-craft or personality -- lest you empty the cross of its power. Morgan continues:

"1. WHO SHOULD WE BE REACHING? You need a clear picture in your mind of who in your community God has called you to reach. You may find it helpful to liken this process to becoming an overseas missionary. Who is in your mission field? If we entered a foreign land, we would want to determine who is in the region, their needs and then design a ministry strategy to reach those people with the Gospel. With this in mind, I'd encourage you to engage a conversation with your leadership team to identify who your church should be focused on reaching. To navigate this conversation, you can ask these key questions:

Who is in our community? Use available demographic information to identify who lives in your region and what trends are shaping your community.

Of those people, who are we trying to reach? How old are they? What's their spiritual background? What's their current life stage? You can also gain focus by identifying their primary occupation, ethnicity or education level.

What's important to them? Put yourselves in their shoes. What are the key questions they're asking? What are their primary needs? What do they value?

How does our strategy approach address what's most important to them? Does what your church offers help address these priorities?

This is the same exercise any missionary of Jesus would engage. I'm challenging you to become that missionary in your community. At The Unstuck Group, we've learned that the more clarity churches have about who they are trying to reach, and the more intentionality in ministry strategy churches have to reach them, the more likely the church is to reach a broad cross-section of their community. The reverse is not true. When there's no intentionality or, in some cases, total disregard for who the church should be reaching, the church struggles to reach its community and very few people are saved." -- Tony Morgan

Use demographic information to determine who you want to target? What do they value? The answer is sin. Their primary need is the Gospel. Are you serious here? You must understand that Morgan is not speaking about eternal needs but rather what carnal needs can the church meet. I read an article by Rick Warren once to pastors advising them tips to ensure their Easter visitors returned the following week. Here is a frightening glimpse into the depraved purpose driven mind:

"Let them know about your next sermon series. Always either begin a sermon series on Easter or the next week -- and make sure it's a series that meets the felt needs of an unchurched person. Yes, they need the Gospel and a relationship with Christ. You and I both know that's their foundational need, but most people will come to your church because they have a need for friendship, want a better marriage, want to be a better parent, want to feel they're living a life of significance or there may be some other need. When you do a series like that, let Easter visitors know in your letter. It'll give them a reason to come back to your church." -- Rick Warren 2014

So to the man considered the preeminent voice on church growth says you should not preach the Gospel so the unsaved have a reason to come back to your church. That sums up the state of the apostate church today. Chasing goats with carnal nonsense while sticking the Gospel on the shelf. This is not rocket science beloved. We want to reach the sheep that God has given us and if the lost are within earshot, hallelujah because they will have heard the only thing that can save them.

"2. HOW DO WE REACH THEM? I wish there were an easy answer to that question. What I've learned, though, is that you can't program your way to health and the ability to reach new people. In other words, starting an evangelism program and conducting evangelism training won't fix this issue. Instead, the church must focus its entire ministry strategy on reaching people outside the church and then helping people become disciples of Jesus. If, for example, you want to reach a diverse group of dechurched, millennial, young adults in your community, then everything you do must reflect that focus.

Your worship services must be designed with that person in mind.

Your discipleship strategy must be designed with that person in mind.

Your nursery environment must be designed with that person in mind.

Your physical space and your online strategy have to be designed with that person in mind.

In other words, you have to become a church for diverse, dechurched, millennial young adults to reach diverse, dechurched, millennial young adults. You can't create a program or a separate class or separate worship service, especially if it's not at a prime-time hour, and expect to reach them. Most people don't like to be segregated like that. By the way, I do think a compelling weekend service is critical to reaching whoever you identify in your community. The primary way people will end up connected to your church is if those in your church invite their friends and family members. Creating compelling environments, including worship services, will help fuel those invites." -- Tony Morgan

Watch what he is advocating very carefully. According to this expert, the church must focus its entire ministry strategy on reaching people outside of the church and making them disciples. How is that even possible? Didn't you skip salivation in that process? Realize the damage that this will wreak within the actual body of Christ! Modern day worship services already do focus on the lost. That is why we have seen an increase in secular songs during worship. Even Highway to Hell and I like to Move It Move It. If not outright carnality then we see the world disguised in faux-Christian songs that worship the created instead of the Creator. That is why we refer to the apostate church as the "Friend of God" generation. A church's worship should be focused on and designed with God alone in mind. Despite what Victoria Osteen thinks, worship is supposed to be for God! Discipleship should be designed with God in mind or else what are you modeling? I am not even going to address something as vacuous as the "nursery environment" or the "physical space." The bottom line is catering everything to the goats may draw more goats but it saves no one because you left out the only thing that can save them. There is nothing compelling about gathering untold numbers of people to your church only to ensure they are twice the sons of hell that you are. I didn't say that -- Jesus did. Morgan goes on to his final point:

"3. ARE WE WINNING OR NOT? Let me share some data from Gary McIntosh and Charles Arn in their book What Every Pastor Should Know: 101 Indispensable Rules of Thumb for Leading Your Church. These are some key metrics you can track to determine whether or not you have a healthy front door: If the church is growing, you'll need more first-time guests each year than you have people in your total average attendance. In other words, a growing church of 500 will need more than 500 first-time guests in a year. The typical growing church sees 20% of first-time guests become part of the church. Growing churches see nearly 40% of second-time guests become part of the church. Close to 60% of people will become part of the church after their third visit. As you can see, the odds of someone becoming part of the church increase dramatically if we can encourage them to come back for a second and third visit. The first thing we should be inviting every first-time guest to do is to come back next Sunday. One of the reasons why you may have a front-door problem is that you've never tracked the number of first-time guests to know if you're winning or not. Setting a target and then monitoring your progress will challenge your team to become more intentional about developing a comprehensive strategy for reaching people outside the church and outside the faith. After getting clear about the front door problem at Connexus Church and rolling out a compelling vision and engaging the congregation, Jeff and team have seen the number of new guests grow by 70% several years in a row." -- Tony Morgan

Wow, talk about pressure. We wonder when we see so many pastors fall from grace or even commit suicide recently what spirit is behind it all. This is the answer beloved. It is the spirit of this world demanding shepherds not shepherd their sheep but instead engage in the age-old Luciferin sin of usurping that which belongs to God. Engaging 70% more goats means absolutely nothing. While some of this may seem obvious, realize this is a million-dollar business. Tony Morgan does this for a living and who knows how many churches and pastors he poisons with these worldly pursuits. I have written before about a local pastor I was speaking to one day who has had a congregation of about 200 folks for 20 years. He was feeling the pressure of seeing mega churches around him grow and grow. The one in particular he was admiring however was sick. It was desperately sick and the sheep were being driven out of the sheep pen for daring to expect to be fed. Rick Warren and the Purpose Driven Church call this "blessed subtraction." I tried to encourage him simply and biblically. I said when he stands before Christ and discovers the vast majority of his sheep are there, he will hear well done my good and faithful servant. When the mega church pastor with 85% of the blood of thousands upon his head? Not so much. That is what we are dealing with here. Carnal minded people trying to apply carnal solutions and grow a business. God simply says, preach the Gospel, tend to the sheep and let God, be God.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- October 1, 2019

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.