I’ve never met a church that didn’t want to grow. You talk to any eldership, any member in any local congregation and they’ll tell you they want to see their church grow. You look at any “preacher search” ad, talk to any search committee and you’ll find out quickly that churches want people who can help them grow. Growth is always in Christians’ minds. Perhaps sometimes that pursuit for growth is a product of vanity, but most often it’s not. It comes as a realization that every number represents a soul and greater growth represents a greater eternal impact for God. But even though every church wants to grow not every church is growing. In fact, statistically very few churches are really growing. Why? Because most churches aren’t equipped to grow.
When I started planning Phillips Street’s lecture series for this year I asked our elders if they had any thoughts about a general theme we could plan all of the lessons around. One thought kept coming up and that was how we could equip this congregation and other congregations to grow, to be built up. That took my mind to the book of Nehemiah, perhaps an unlikely choice because it’s not a book about church growth, but it is most definitely a book about rebuilding something that has fallen to the wayside.
When Nehemiah got back to Jerusalem he found it in deplorable condition. So he did the only thing he knew to do. He collected all of the information he would need, he garnered the enthusiasm of the people, he fought back against any and all opposition, and he rolled back his sleeves and he got to work. But while Nehemiah’s story is about the rebuilding of a wall and a nation there are amazing principles that can be easily applied to the rebuilding of the church. But it will take the same mentality that the people expressed to Nehemiah in Nehemiah 2:18 – “Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work.”
This year’s lecture series at Phillips Street is devoted to helping equip churches with the information needed to rise up and build, to have the tools in place to grow. Starting tonight we will be exposed to a series of lessons that are designed to take some principles from the book of Nehemiah and his efforts to rebuild among God’s people of the past and apply them to how we can rebuild among God’s people today. Among those topics are the following:
- “The Church Needs Leaders Like Nehemiah”
- “Taking the Midnight Ride – What’s the Challenge Ahead” (Nehemiah 2:12ff)
- “Having a Mind to Work – Being an ‘All In’ Church” (Nehemiah 3)
- “Dealing With the Opposition – How to Handle the Critics of Progress” (Nehemiah 4)
- “And They All Stood Up – God’s Law and Restoration” (Nehemiah 8)
- “Putting First Things First – Developing Holy Habits” (Nehemiah 10:38-39)
- “Building Up the Kingdom by Keeping the Next Generation in Mind”
Our schedule for the weekend is posted below, all lessons will be both live broadcasted and archived on our website, and you will not want to miss this opportunity to be built up and equipped to be personally engaged in the great effort of church growth. Whether in person or online, please plan on joining us. You won’t want to miss it!
-Andy
