Why is the Church Not Growing?

Recently some have expressed tremendous concern about what appears to be the "stagnation" of the Lord's church today. Some reports say that the churches of Christ are now only growing at 1.6%. What is happening?

Evangelism is the lifeblood of the church. When we stop evangelizing, we start dying. Too many have bought into the "quick fix" of the church growth movement believing that we can make cosmetic changes to the church and "attract" large numbers. What good is it to have a church building full of unrepentant sinners? Still others try to grow their church by recruiting members from other congregations, effectively "stealing sheep." Heaven's population is not increased at all by such tactics. Too many of us want to find a quick way to grow the church without putting in the time to have personal studies with people about the Bible and their soul.

The approach of many seems to be to try and "multiply the audience in the pews" and then they will grow in their knowledge of the word of God. This is directly the opposite of the biblical example of the first Christians. Notice Acts 6:7, "The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly...." The number of disciples grew only after the word of God was spread.

Let us quit playing church and making the church into a social gathering place. Rather, let's restore the practice of personal studies with people converting them to Christ.

"I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house...." (Acts 20:20).