1 Corinthians 3:5-10a

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about church growth. One of the areas I was most interested in studying during seminary was the organization know as the “Church.” I loved studying and reading how different churches got their start and sustained their growth. I found it fascinating how many of these churches started with a few people meeting in someone’s basement and now X years later they are ministering to thousands of people each week and touching lives all over the world. Subsequently, I also found it beneficial reading about churches that “failed.” (These stories are obviously harder to find because nobody wants to buy a book about a church that didn’t succeed.) However, we can learn a lot not only from our own mistakes, but also others’.

When reading about these churches I wasn’t just looking for a nice “pick me up” story that would make me feel good and inspire to be just like Pastor (insert name here) or Church (insert name here). I was looking for common denominators. I was (and still am) convinced there has to be things in common with churches that make it and those that do not. Now obviously I don’t have all the answers nor do I have a formula for a church to succeed based off of my research, but I am convinced of two things. First, churches that have kingdom success have a clear VISION. (Flip side is true for those churches that ended up closing shop.) Secondly, a passive approach to outreach doesn’t work.

The passage above I believe supports my conclusions. “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” The phrase “have one purpose” tells me Paul and Apollos had a clear vision they were working toward. They weren’t just aimlessly spreading the Gospel. No, they had one purpose in mind. One vision they were working toward. They knew what they were doing but more importantly they knew why they were doing it.

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” Notice it doesn’t say they just sat back, prayed, and had faith God would cause their ministry to grow. Paul and Apollos had an active approach to reaching their target market. Now it is clear that God made it grow and God deserves all the credit, so I am not arguing that if we just try harder we will be successful. What I am arguing is that God wants us to work toward advancing the kingdom. He wants us to take an intentional and an active approach to outreach.

Ultimately I am pleading for us to have a clear vision. What do we want to accomplish in 3 months, 1 year, and 5 years? And I am convinced we will never achieve our vision with a passive approach to outreach.