A study of disciple making program for the growth of the elim christian reformed church in garden grove, california

parachurch movement has contributed to the growth of church

even though it has often made a few mistakes. In many cases, churches have introduced and used the discipleship training method for their church growth. It has also been successful especially in Korea.

Laypeople mobilization is for sharing ministry. In the light of the Scriptures, the work for the Lord's church must be shared in the ministry because all believers have been the holy priests (1 Pet. 2:5; Patterson 1988, 516), and the members of the body of the church the head of which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:15; 12:12-27; Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 4:25; 5:30; 1:22; Col. 1:18). Especially, Paul, the Apostle says:

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and

some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for

the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the

ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till

we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the

knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto

the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

(Eph. 4:11-12 KJV)

As a result of people participation, the early church prospered and thrived (Hogue 1977, 78). C. Peter Wagner has asserted that pastors must share their ministry with their laity for church growth. He says:

A third price that pastors must pay if they expect

their church to grow is to share their ministry. This

must be done with other program staff as well as with

laity. (Wagner 1984, 55)

Another aspect of the ministry is sharing love with other people. Love must be shared with all people, even sinners. Ministry in its purest form is touching other people's lives with love. In other words, ministry is love in action. Every believer, therefore, has to take part in Christ's ministry (Wagner 1989, 107-109).

Through the lay ministry, every church can grow. Of course, churches can grow by other means, but qualitative growth as well as quantitative growth can be accomplished through the laypeople having been trained.

Lastly, the results of church growth need to be evaluated according to the biblical and theological perspective. Is it truely right for the growth of church to have been done? In other words, is it in accordance with the will of God? Is it satisfactory enough both in quantitative growth and in qualitative growth?

No matter how good it seems, it must have a biblical and theological foundation. On this point, C. Peter Wagner claims seven theological nonnegotiables: (1) the glory of God, (2) the Lord Jesus Christ, (3) preaching the gospel, (4) the authority of the Bible, (5) sin, salvation and eternal death are eschatological realities, (6) God wills all to be saved, and (7) His people's responsibility for saving souls, and the Holy Spirit's work for their accomplishment (Wagner 1987, 39-40).

In conclusion, church growth must comply with the will of God and exist for His glory.

Principles of Church Growth
Many researchers who have made a study of church growth have presented the principles of church growth in their own

ways. Some people have focused on biblical and theological

perspectives, while others on a specific church growth situation. Of course, both of them are very important for church growth. But what is more important is the

relevancy between them, and how both are available for

church growth. Between them there is a co-relationship. In

both cases they have to be supported by a spiritual power on

which they can be operated for church growth. While church

growth needs power as well as principle, nevertheless, the principles do not cause but explain church growth. For

this relationship, C. Peter Wagner explains:

That the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit is

integral to church growth at every phase. The

principles are no substitute for the power, and

experience of the power does not make the principles

superfluous. (Wagner 1989, 190)

Going back to the Bible, there are many principles of church growth in the examples in the Gospels and Acts. The principles of growth for the churches are the principles of growth for the kingdom and through the parables Jesus taught that kingdom would grow (Amberson 1979, 152). There are many examples of the principle of church growth through parables in the Gospels such as: the parable of the light, of the salt (Matt. 5:13), of the sower, of the weeds, of the mustard seed, of yeast, of hidden treasure, of the pearl, of the net (Matt. 13:1-48), of lost sheep (Matt. 18:10-14), of the wedding banquet (Matt. 25:1-13), of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), and of the harvest (Matt. 9:37; Mark 4:29; Luke 10:2; John 4:35). In Acts, Pentecostal growth is shown (Acts 2:1; 2:41; 2:47; 16:5).

In the divine aspect, the good starting points of church growth are God and His sovereignty. God is "not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). And His sovereignty for salvation has been shown in the Scriptures: "this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me" (John 6:39). "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy" (Jam. 4:12). "God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (Rom. 9:18).

And in the human aspect, to act on the phases of church growth such as test and choice of soil, tilling, sowing, and caring are the human responsibility according to the divine principle. In conclusion, the servants of God plant and water the seed, but God makes it grow (1 Cor. 3:6, NIV).

F. J. May has suggested eleven principles for church growth. Of them the power from on high as the top priority

has been suggested for church growth (May 1990, 122). Of

course, the writer totally agrees with his suggestion. But it is important to use human strategies which the Holy Spirit has given as the gifts for His servants to be able to do the will of God. C. Peter Wagner has suggested the six essential phases of the church growth cycle: (1) mobilization, (2) equipping, (3) climate of receptivity, (4) effecting regeneration, (5) incorporation, (6) involvement (Wagner 1989, 190-194).

However the writer believes that the following phases for church growth must be established: (1) motivation (presentation and development of vision), (2) mobilization (climate of receptivity), (3) involvement (participation), (4) training (discipleship), (5) commitment (go and make disciples) compared to: (1) preparation and development of seeds, (2) cultivating the soil, (3) sowing, (4) feeding, and (5) producing the fruits and seeds as the Scripture has described. The Scripture says:

This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man

scatters seed on the ground....the seed sprouts and

grows....All by itself the soil produces grain....first

the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the

head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle

to it, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-29)

The writer thinks that such phases of the growth of the church as Jesus Christ taught by parables to the people may compare to the phases of the growth of a living creature, because the church is not a simple institution but a living organism like a human body. The Church, therefore, may be explained as a human body of which its head is seen as Christ (Eph. 1:22; 4:15; 5:23; Col. 1:18).

The writer has tried to initiate the disciple making program for the growth of his church using the principles of the phases of church growth as mentioned above.

Strategies for Church Growth
Until now, the principles of church growth in the divine and human aspects have been discussed in the light of the Scriptures. As a matter of fact, the principles and the phases of the growth of the church are inseparably related to each other like those of the living creature.

Strategies for church growth have brought together many principles of evangelism (mission) and church revival (ministry) which have proved, through recent research and experience, to be practically effective in implementing the Great Commission (Wagner 1987, 15). Through research and experience good strategies for church growth could have been developed, but the problem is that the human strategies are apt to take over church growth more than the work of the Holy Spirit. Is church growth strategy really incompatible with the work of the Holy Spirit? Even though the principle of harmony between them is very simple, it is very hard for man to harmonize them because he has internal, incompatible dispositions, namely, the sinful nature and the derire of the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out" cried Paul the Apostle (Rom. 7:18).

How does one cope with these factors? The answer is also found in the same Scripture. The solution for the problem is not according to human desire but the desire of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5). In a word, the priority of the Spirit has to be noted.

Nevertheless, human strategy should not be disregarded entirely without reservation. Human strategy is the second avenue to be taken. Of course, as J. Herbert Kane said, "The proponents of church growth, with few exception, have emphasized the human factors and all but overlooked the divine factors," the human factors must not be prior to the divine factors (Kane 1981, 212). Human strategy must absolutely depend upon the work of the Holy Spirit. Only when it depends upon the work of the Spirit can it be successful in the growth of the church. For this matter, Jesus Christ says that no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him (John 6:44).

God's strategy includes the use of the human strategy as the instrumentation for church growth. "God's strategy for winning the world includes the use of disciples (instrumentation: the writer's comment) for multiplying ministry" said Kent R. Hunter (Hunter 1983, 70). God is willing to use the human instrumentality.
Biblical Foundation for the Strategy

As mentioned above, the human and divine aspects of the strategy for church growth harmonize very nicely together in the Bible in spite of their incompatible disposition. In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow." Furthermore, Paul changed his strategy for mission to Bithynia as he had planned, and went to Macedonia according to the vision received through the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:6-10).

Peter the Apostle gave up his strategy that he must not go to the Gentiles, but went to Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment (a Gentile) for preaching the gospel of God according to the word of the Holy Spirit after seeing a vision from heaven (Acts 10:9-48). In this sense, the strategy for church growth has to be a very nice work made by a unique synergy--a coalescence of human effort and divine empowerment. Of course, God the Holy Spirit must have the absolute initiative for church growth strategy.

There are many types of strategy for church growth in the Bible. First of all, looking into the Scriptures, there are many kinds of structure for evangelism strategy such as: (1) the man to man strategy, namely face to face strategy (John 3:1-15; 4:7-30), (2) the two or three strategy (Luke 24:13-35; Mark 9:2-8; John 11:1-44), (3) the twelve strategy (Matt.6:12-16), (4) the seventy two strategy (Luke 10:1), (5) the one hundred twenty strategy (Acts 1:15), (6) the five hundred strategy (1 Cor. 15:6), and (7) the masses strategy (Matt. 14:13-21; Acts 2:41).

Eddie Gibbs introduced three group structures for strategy and distinguished between three types of groups which differ in size and function by sociologists: (1) the primary group with twelve members, (2) the secondary group with the members from thirteen to a maximum of 175, (3) the tertiary group with up to 175 members (Gibbs 1981, 276).
The primary group (12 members or less) is the intimate

face to face unit, which provides the possibility of developing in-depth, personal relationships. The secondary group (from thirteen to a maximum of 175) stresses social activity rather than personal interaction. The third group (175 plus with no upper limit) is tertiary group which provides the opportunity for community, celebratory event (Gibbs 1981, 276-277).

Another approach to the types of strategy used in the the New Testament is suggested by Watchman Nee when he describes such strategies as: (1) the net-throwing or net-drawing style of Peter (Hawkins 1993, 9; Matt. 4:18-19; Act.2:40), (2) the net-patching style of John and James, and (3) the tent-making style of Paul (Cho, Yong W. 1985b, 14). This is a very interesting finding. The net-drawing style means a strategy for church growth like an evangelism, the net-patching style like a pastoral care, and the tent-making style like a disciple-making ministry.

Of these types, the writer has been interested in the tent-making strategy because in a symbolic sense, it must be related to the disciple making strategy just as Jesus had made His disciples at first twelve disciples, even though it also means a self-supporting ministry. This is, the writer thinks, a basic strategy for church growth. Jesus had at first trained only twelve for His evangelism strategy to spread the kingdom of God.

In setting some biblical and theological foundations for strategy, several components have to be considered even though it has not been systematized in the Bible. They are (1) a person or people to be chosen, (2) motivation through a vision, (3) mobilization by setting the goal, and (4) the strategy as the means to accomplish a predetermined goal for church growth (Wagner 1987, 25-26).
Preparation for the Strategy
First of all, the best strategy for church growth begins with possession of vision. The strategy for church growth cannot be initiated without vision because a growth goal cannot be determined without that.

First, it must begin with showing a vision for church growth to the people of the church. The vision has always to be shown through the pulpit of the church so that the congregation may watch. The pastor always has to preach a message on the vision. So he must help his people to

orient themselves to the visionary atmosphere.

Second, the people of the church must identify

themselves with the visionary: the church leader who has the

vision. The people must not only understand the vision but

identify themselves with their leader. Without this, the strategy for church growth will meet with failure. The people working together usually have a common vision of who they are (their identity) and what they are supposed to be doing (Christian Reformed Church Home Mission 1990, 1-1).

Third, the vision must be developed and articulated in order for the people of the church to accept it. If the people do not accept the vision, they will lose their way because the church cannot determine its goal. Therefore, the vision must be developed and articulated so that they may understand and accept it.

Fourth, the church must mobilize the people, as a whole to begin to make the vision a reality. Everyone has a role in implementing the vision (Barna 1988, 89).

Fifth, the people of the church as well as their leaders must have been waiting for the vision to be accomplished. With a parable the Scripture says:

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not

your hands be idle, for you do not know which will

succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well. (Eccl. 11:6)

After that, strategy planning has to be established for church growth. Planning a strategy includes an analysis of the data on the state of the church, setting goal,

programming, methodology, review and evaluation. "Strategy planning is a method by which the church can move more responsibly into the future, no matter how unsettled or uncertained that may be" said Waldo J. Werning (Werning 1983, 50).

It is important to know the present condition of the church through an exact analysis. On the basis of this analysis, the church can set the goal, and determine the method of programming fitting the goal. Lastly, the results of the process must be reviewed and evaluated.
Methodology of the Strategy

There are many kinds of tactics in the strategy for church growth just as in the military strategy science. Strategy is the overall process, while tactics are the various activities which contribute to the strategy (Wagner 1987, 26). The strategy and tactics are open to change according to the context. The best method for the strategy,

therefore, has to be chosen according to the situation. On this changeable strategy, C. Peter Wagner says as follows:

Once a goal is set there is never only one simple way to accomplish it. Before making a strategy decision, it is advisable to think through as many alternative ways of accomplishing the goal as possible, then choose the one that appears to be the best. (Wagner 1988, 27)

When this view has been admitted, it will meet a pragmatic attitude. In this case it will meet a problem of conflicting moral obligations. Although Joseph Fletcher tried to give the answer to this problem in his work, Situation Ethics, his effort has failed. John Jefferson Davis says, "One unsuccessful answer to problem of conflicting moral obligation is known as situation ethics (Davis 1985, 12). Joseph Fletcher has insisted that Christian ethics is not in true and cannot long remain in appearance a systematized scheme of codified conduct (Fletcher 1966, 75), but in its very marrow Christian ethics is a situation ethics (Fletcher 1966, 77) of which its principle, namely the ruling norm of Christian decision, is love, nothing else (Fletcher 1966, 86).

In a sense, this is a sort of non-Christian, pragmatic ethics. Of course, Christians should not take the pragmatic attitude which may harm others or offend God. This is not Christian ethics. But sometimes the pragmatism may be of use for the strategy for church growth if it does not offend the doctrinal and ethical principles revealed in the Bible.

In this case, C. Peter Wagner has boldly called it "consecrated pragmatism" (Wagner 1988, 29).

What then does the Bible say about this? The Bible includes several precedents for planning strategies by using consecrated pragmatism. In the Old Testament, a remarkable precedent be found: the case of Moses. When Moses was burning himself out because of his heavy responsibilities, his father-in-law, Jethro, came up with a pragmatic solution: appoint rulers of thousand, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. Moses changed his strategy, and he used the Jethro's way (Ex. 18:13-27). This is an example for using pragmatic strategy planning as a flexible method.

Also, in the New Testament it can be found, namely the case of Paul. Paul used pragmatic strategy in his choice of evangelistic methodologies. Paul became like a Jew to the Jews, like one under the law to those under the law, and like the weak to the weak for the purpose of winning some of them (1 Cor. 9:19-23). This is an example of the pragmatic strategy for evangelism. In this sense Paul also was very pragmatic (Huffard 1983, 92).

Another example of the pragmatic strategy for ministry is shown in 2 Corinthians 1:23-24, 2:1-11. In these chapters Paul changed his schedule to visit the Corinthian church because it would be advantageous to that church: "I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth" (2 Cor. 1:23). On this verse Dr. Yune Sun Park commented:

Paul did not return to Corinth, but it was helpful to them. Because they had repented before he returned to them, he might not discipline them for their behalf. (Park 1985, 31:31)

It is necessary for a pastor to make an effective strategy for church growth considering the situation of his church. The writer has found an effective method of ministry co-working with laypeople, and it is his belief that lay ministry is the best method of ministries.

The laypeople of the New Testament period played a vital role in church growth. Paul Benjamin said:

What is often overlooked during the New Testament

period of trememdous growth is the vital part played by

the congregation in helping to increase the number of

believers. (Benjamin 1972, 5)

Ralph H. Elliott suggests that the church growth emphasis is more on the use of laity (Elliott 1982, 39).

In order to use laity for church growth the pastor should train the laity and make them disciples. In many cases pastors fail to minister to their church because they do not make their disciples in the church. To be sure, one of the causes for persistent lack of church growth is that the church does not have a program of disciple making. Dr. Robert E. Maner stated:

We come now to one of the most critical issues in the present day small church. Certainly it is the biggest cause for that church remaining small year after year. If we have one failure that is greater than any other, it is in the matter of making disciples out of church members. (Maner 1982, 62)

A disciple making program, the writer believes, is a better strategy for church growth. Through this program the church must grow in number (quantitative growth), in maturity (qualitative growth) and in giving (financial growth) in the church. Accordingly the church will be healthy, stable, and powerful. This will enable them to spread the Gospel throughout the world owing to the whole growth of the church: quantitatively, qualitatively, and financially.

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