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


Table 1 Number of Total and Attending Membership of



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Table 1
Number of Total and Attending Membership of

the Elim Christian Reformed Church

July, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim CRC
Number of Total and Membership Attendance at Services

Congregation

Sunday Sunday Sunday Total

Period Early morning Morning Afternoon Membership


Jul. '92 10 52 20 70

Dec. '92 15 72 25 101


# Increase 5 20 5 31

% Increase 50 38 25 44



At any rate, it is very significant that the membership increase of the Elim Christian Reformed Church (quantitative growth presupposed in the Hypothesis One) was obtained through the disciple making program in six months (from July, 1992 to December, 1992).
Hypothesis Two
Hypothesis Two says, "Use of the disciple making program in the Elim Christian Reformed Church for a period of six months will cause members to gain greater maturity in the Christian life." This means that the qualitative (spiritual) growth of the church membership will increase. This hypothesis was supported by the data which was collected.

The increase number and rate of attendance, prayer, Bible study, giving, service, and evangelism must show the qualitative (spiritual) growth of the church. Through this project the church obtained good results for spiritual growth of the church. It is based on the church documents (Appendix C-1 to C-3) and the questionnaires (Appendix A-1 to A-5).




To measure Christian maturity is very difficult and in some cases impossible because it is difficult to observe. Nevertheless, it may be measured through the deeds of the Christians as Jesus said in the parable of a tree: "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit" (Matt. 12:33).

In order to measure the qualitative growth of the church, the questionnaires (Appendix A-1 to A-5) were designed and administered. These questionnaires along with the church diary and the church directory was used to measure the qualitative growth of the church.




First, in order to show the qualitative growth of the church membership, the number and rate of participation of the congregation in the worship services such as Sunday early morning prayer meeting, Sunday morning worship service, and Sunday afternoon praising service were counted. From Table 1 (p. 119) based on the church diary (Appendix C-1) the qualitative growth of the church membership can be seen. The increased rate of the membership attendance is high in the Sunday morning worship service (38%). This increased rate of the membership participation in worship is a significant indication of spiritual growth of the congregation in the Christian life. Second, in order to show the qualitative growth of the congregation of the church, it was possible to count the number and rate of participation of the congregation in the special meetings for spiritual exercise such as the Sunday early morning and the Tuesday night special prayer meetings. At those times the congregation of the church received many blessings through the Holy Spirit. Table 2 (p. 122) shows the numberical increase in their participantion in the special prayer meetings.

Table 2 presents the number of the praying people of the congregation who participated in the special meetings along with periodical prayer. In July, 1992 there was no special prayer meeting, but four people began to take part in a Tuesday night special prayer meeting. At that time, the participatants used to, first of all, pray for the disciple making program and for the growth of the church. It is significant that members began a special meeting to pray for the growth of the church.





Table 2
Number and Increase Rate of the Membership

Participants in the Special Meetings

July, 1992 and December, 1992

Elim CRC
Periodical Special Prayer Meetings

Period Sunday Early Morning Tuesday Night Special
Jul. '1992 10 0

Dec. '1992 15 16


# Increase 5 16

% Increase 50 -

The participants in the Sunday early morning prayer meeting increased from 10 people to 15 people (a 50% increase). And the special prayer meeting (Tuesday night) started with only four people in the begining of the project. It had 16 people after the project. As a matter of fact, the early morning prayer and special prayer meeting must have had an important effect upon the spiritual growth of the church as well as individuals.




The fact that the number of the praying people taking part in the special prayer meetings increased shows the spiritual or qualititative growth of the church as well as individuals because only more mature believers ordinarily take part in special prayer meetings, otherwise immature members in faith are not so.

Third, in order to show the qualitative growth, it was necessary to measure the number and increase rate of their participation in the Bible study programs. This was a measurement of interest in knowledge of the Bible. To measure it, the Bible Study Record (Appendix A-3) was tabulated into Table 3 below.




Table 3
Number and Increase Rate of Participation

in the Bibile Study Program

July, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim Disciple College
Individual Statistics of the Students on the Bible Study

Period Student

(Month)

A B C D E F G H I J Total


Jul. 7 3 3 5 4 5 5 3 4 5 44

Aug. 9 - 5 6 5 6 - 5 5 5 46

Sep. 6 12 6 10 8 5 7 4 7 10 71

Oct. 6 15 3 5 7 6 4 4 3 6 59

Nov. 10 12 3 6 6 6 1 3 8 6 61

Dec. 5 4 2 6 3 3 3 2 6 2 36


Total 43 46 22 38 33 31 20 21 33 34 321
Jul., 1992 44 Jul., 1992 44

Dec., 1992 36 Ave., 1992 55 (Ave=Average)





# Decrease 12 # Increase 11

% Decrease 27 % Increase 25

Table 3 presents the number and rate of participation of the Disciple College students in formal and private Bible study programs which were held either inside or outside of the church. As shown in Table 3, the rate of their participation in the Bible study on December, 1992 decreased by 27% in contrast with that of July, 1992. Probably the cause of the decrease is because their strained mind relaxed at once on the last month. Taking the average, none the less, the average rate of their participation in the Bible study increased by 25%.

Fourth, it is possible to show qualitaitive (spiritual) growth another way by observing the giving of the congregation as shown in Table 4.
Table 4

Amount and increase Rate of the Church Finances Given by the Whole Congregation

January, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim CRC
Amount of the Givings to the Church

Year Month




1992 Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Total

(1-6) 2,588 2,773 4,825 4,964 3,137 2,947 23,712


1992 Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Total

(7-12) 4,300 4,211 3,670 4,121 6,480 4,738 27,528

Jul. 1992 2,947 Total (Jan.-Jun.) 23,712

Dec. 1992 4,738 Total (Jul.-Dec.) 27,528


# Increase (difference between June and Decemgwr) 1,791 % Increase (the rate between June and December ) 61

# Increase (between the 1st half and 2nd half year) 3,816



% Increase (between the 1st half and 2nd half year) 16
The above tabulation (Table 4) was taken from the
Church Financial records (Appendix C-3). This shows the monthly amount of the offering which was contributed by the church members. Table 4 presents the monthly amount and the increase rate of the church finances given by the congregation for the period of twelve months from January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1992.

The table shows a comparison of the church finances between the first half year (January through June) and the second half year (July through December) in the Table 4.




The church income of the second half year passed that of the first half year each month except for March. In December it passed that of June with a 61% increase. The total increase for six months was $3,816 or 16%. This was short of the financial goal of a 30% increase (pp. 101, 103). This rate of increase in giving by the congregation indicates some spiritual growth, but it is not as significant as was expected.

Fifth, in order to show the qualitative growth of the church, the number of categorized ministries of the Elim Disciple College students in the church, the family, and the society for the period of six months was tabulated into Table 5 (p. 126) from the questionare (Appendix A-4).

Service for the family was very strong (448 times), and next to that was service for the church (93 times). Something was lacking in services to other people (27 times). The total number of participation in ministries was 616 times. Before the begining of the disicple making program, they had a little experience on these services.

Table 5

Measurement of Categorized Services by Students of the Elim Disciple College

July, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim Disciple College
Number of Givings and Services of the Students at Random

Category Period




Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Total


Services for

Church 9 13 20 15 16 20 93 Family 34 58 71 145 120 20 448

Society 10 0 9 10 7 12 48

Others 0 0 1 6 8 12 27


# Total 53 71 101 176 151 64 616
In fact, the students had not been concerned about these services before this project. After this project they were concerned about these, and started to do them. On the whole, the service record indicates there was qualitative growth for the college students.

Sixth, in order to show the qualitative growth of the church, the zeal for evangelism by the Disciple College students was checked by making a comparision between the number of contacts and the rate of success. To measure this, Table 6 (p 127) was taken from the Evangelism Records (Appendix A-5). Table 6 presents the membership increase of the church through the direct evangelism of the Disciple College students for the period of the six months. The table reflects the monthly evangelistic contacts with people and their effectiveness.




In August they won four people (a 36% success) in spite of contact with fewer people (11 people), while in December they won only four people (a 11% success) in spite of contact with many people (38 people). They won 16 people (11% success) through their contact with the people overall. This shows that the disciple making program had an important effect upon the numerical growth of the church.
Table 6
Evangelistic Contact and Effectiveness

by the Disciple College Students

July, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim Disciple College
Evangelistic Contact and Winning of the Students

Period (Month)


Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. TotalContact/

Winning C/w C/W C/W C/W C/W C/W C/W


Category
By Students

themselves 15/0 11/4 24/3 33/1 32/4 38/4 153/16


# Contact(C) 15 11 24 33 32 38 153

# Fail(F) 15 7 21 32 28 34 137


# Won(W) 0 4 3 1 4 4 16

% Sucess 0 36 13 3 13 11 11



Moreover, it is important that the men zealously devoted themselves to the evangelistic effort for the growth of the church. In order to show the qualitative growth of the church membership, the Evangelism Record in Table 6 (p. 127) was used.


Table 6 demonstrates concern about the growth of the church. Students showed their love to the Lord and others by going out and contacting many people. They contacted 153 people, and won 16. This shows their evangelistic zeal which comes from the heart of people who have grown spiritually.

Through evangelism they have been obedient to the Great Commission which Jesus Christ gave. This was Christ's last stage of discipleship training and may be a good barometer of the spiritual maturity of Christians.

Putting these various investigation together, it is

clear that the congregation as well as the students gained greater maturity in their Christian lives.




Through the Christian lives of the Disciple College students such as church attendance, prayer, Bible study, giving, service, and evangelism, the qualitative growth of the church was demonstrated.
Hypothesis Three

Hypothesis Three says "Use of the disciple making program in the Elim Christian Reformed Church for a period of six months will result in an increase of giving in the church." This hypothesis was supported by the data which was collected. There was a 16% increase in the church finances (p. 124) after the project even if it was short of the financial goal of a 30% increase (p. 101). It was fortunate that the writer had the good fortune to succeed in regard to the financial growth of the church in spite of a serious economic depression.

In order to calculate the amount which the congregation contributed to the church from January, 1992 through December, 1992, the financial records of the church were tabulated as shown in Table 4 and explained (pp. 124, 125).


Table 4 (p 124) shows a 16% increase after the implementation of the disciple making program for the period of six months. Although the financial goal has not been attained as much as that of the number of the church membership (30%), the financial increase is helpful to the growth of the church. All months but one (March) showed an increase. For more explanation on the financial increase in detail, see Table 4 and the explanation of that (pp. 124, 125).
Other Findings

Having completed this project, the writer found some things that were not mentioned in the Hypotheses. These include additional measurements of quantaitive growth, membership stabilization, and emotional mobilization (p. 139) of the Elim Christian Reformed Church.

Additional Measurements of Quantitative Growth

There were five additional measurements of qualitative growth made in connection with this project. Of course, these are by-products which have come from the result of implementing the disciple making program.


Total Membership Increase by Sex



Table 7 presents the number and rate of total membership growth of the church broken down by sex. There was a greater increase in the female membership than in the male membership as shown in the table. There are many more female students than male students at the Elim Disciple

College.

In percentage, however, the increase rate of the males (45%) is ahead of that for the females (44%). This shows that the male members were more zealous than the female members from the Disciple College.

Table 7
Number and Rate of Total Membership Increase by Sex between July, 1992 and December, 1992

Elim Christian Reformed Church



Number and Rate of Total Membership

Sex
Period Male Female Total


Jul. '92 31 39 70

Dec. '92 45 56 101


# Increase 14 17 31

% Increase 45 44 44
There is little difference between total increase rate of the church membership and the increased rate in male and femal members (total:44%, male:45%, female:44%). Looking into Table 7 (p. 130), this is easily seen.



Monthly Increase in the Number of Members And the Growth Rate of the Membership

In order to measure the monthly increase and the rate of total membership of the church, Table 8 below was taken from the church directory (Appendix C-2) from July, 1992, to December, 1992. During the implementation of the disciple making program (July, 1992 to December, 1992), the

congregation increased every month without exception.

As shown in Table 8, the membership increase between July and August (17%) was very striking. It seems to be due to the zeal of the members for making disciples. After that there was little increase each month (average 4.2%).



Table 8
Number and Rate of the Monthly Increase of Total Membership of the Church

July, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim CRC
Monthly Increase of Total Membership by Sex

Period (Month)

Sex Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Total

Male/


Female 31/39 36/46 38/49 39/50 42/52 45/56 45/56
# Total 70 aw 82 87 89 94 101 101

# Increase 0 12 5 2 5 7 31



% Increase 0 17 6 2 6 7 44




This may be considered steady growth, but the total membership of the church between July, 1992 and December, 1992 increased 31 people or 44%.

Membership Increase Through Indirect Evangelism

In order to measure the indirect membership increase through students' encouragement of the members of the church, Table 9 was tabulated from the Evangelism Record (Appendix A-5).



Table 9
Number of the Increased Membership of the

Church through the Evangelism

July, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim CRC & DC

Monthly Increase Number of total membership

How to's Period (Month)

Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Total

Through


Students 1 4 3 1 4 4 16
Through

Members 0 6 2 1 1 3 13


Natural

Increase 0 2 0 0 0 0 2


# Total 1 12 5 2 5 7 31


% Total Increased rate 44

Table 9 presents the increase in membership of the church through evangelism during the six months. Looking into this tabulation (Table 9), it is easily seen how greatly the Disciple College students contributed to the growth of the church through their indirect evangelism.

At first, this table shows the membership increase of 31 people or 44% for the period of the six months.


Through the direct evangelism, called the first stage of making disciples, they won 16 new members, while 13 new ones were won through indirect evangelism, called evangelism through the church members. On the whole, the numerical growth of the church seems to depend upon the disciple making program, while the natural increase in number for this period was not more than two new members as showed in Table 9 (p. 132).

Comparative Measurement of Total Membership


In order to make a comparative measurement of the total membership (quantitative growth) between pre-discipleship training and post-discipleship training. Table 10 (p. 134) tabulated from the church directory (Appendix C-2).
The Table 10 presents the monthly statistics of the
number and rate of total membership of the church. It also shows the increase rate of the total membership between July, 1992 and December, 1992. The increase for the period of the six months was 31 people, and its rate was 44% for the same period. After all, this shows a good example of numerical increase of the church, called the quantitative growth of the church. It shows an attainment of Hypothesis 1 presupposed in Chapter One in this project.

Table 10
Comparative Measurement of the Total Membership between Pre-discipleship and Post-discipleship Training July, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim CRC
Monthly Total Membership Increase



Period (Month)

Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.

Membership 70 82 87 89 94 101
Jul., 1992 70 (before the discipleship training)

Dec., 1992 101 (after the discipleship training)


# Increase 31 (the number between before and after)

% Increase 44 (the rate between before and after)




Factors of the Growth of the Elim CRC
In order to know what the most important factors of the growth of the Elim Christian Reformed Church for the period of the six months during the implementation of the disciple making program were, Table 11 was tabulated from the evangelism record of the Disciple College students
(Appendix A-5).
Table 11 (p. 135) presents the increase in number and rate of the membership of the church by some factors for the period of six months after July, 1992. It shows two factors affecting the increase: evangelism and natural causes. It is significant that the church grew up through evangelism except for a few by a natural causes because evangelism had been engaged by the students of the Elim Disciple College directly and indirectly.
Table 11

Number and Increase Rate of Total Membership of the Church by some Factors

July, 1992 to December, 1992

Elim CRC
Factors of the Membership Increase of the Church

Period (Month)

Factor Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Total


Disciple making

evangelism 0 4 3 1 4 4 16


Church Member's

evangelism 0 6 2 1 1 3 13


Natural

Increase 0 2 0 0 0 0 2


Total Number 0 12 5 2 5 7 31

# Increase 0 12 -7 -3 3 3 31



% Increase 0 100 -58 -6 150 7 100

The membership increase between July and August (12 people) is remakable. It seems to be because of their first zealous devotion to evangelism in which the disciple making program urged the students to engage. After that the growth in members from September through December averaged five people. Nevertheless, the total increase in the church membership from July to December reached a high degree (31 peope for a 44% increase).


Membership Stabilization


Church stability may basically be defined in two dimensions: doctrinal and membership. In this project the writer intends to skip doctrinal stabilization and make membership stabilization a subject of discussion in relation to other findings because it is closely connected with the growth of the church. The more church members are stable in relationship with God and with each other, the more the church can grow.

Membership stabilization may basically be viewed from two perspectives: stationary and active. Through the disciple making program, Elim Christian Reformed Church discovered many stationary and active members among the Disciple College students. The stationary members were the members who fixed themselves permanently in the church. This is a new finding which the writer was not far-sighted enough to think about before the project.

First, in order to know the stability of their membership identification, the writer considered the church members as well as the students. Many of the Disciple College students had pride in belonging to this church and they did not intend to leave the church. They identified themselves with the members of the Elim Christian Reformed Church. In order to see this, it is necessary to go back to the Tables.


On the basis of Table 8 (p. 131) and Table 10 (p. 134), total members constantly increased and they attended their church regurarly every month after the disciple making training.

Second, in order to know the stability of their membership in the church, it is necessary to measure how many times the members of the church took an active part in the activities of the church. In order to see this, it is necessary to go back to the Tables.

Table 5 (p. 126) shows that the number of their services or ministries in the church constantly increased every month from July, 1993 to December, 1993. This means that the members of the church stabilized because no one can take part in such service without stability.

The students of the Elim Disciple College were deeply concerned and prayed much for the church. Table 12 (p. 138) shows the number of times they prayed for the church, and this constantly increased every month. This shows the stability of these members.

Also, the number of times they participated in the Bible study did not change as shown on Table 3 (p. 123). This shows certainly that the students and members of the church were stationary.


The number of their evangelistic contacts steadly increased every month as shown on Table 6 (p. 127). This also shows that the members were stabilized.

Before the implementation of the disciple making program, they did not taken part in the evangelism as well as the Bible study.



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