Church Growth

I still find it hard to believe what I heard about another church in another town. The church, which I will not name, has impressive facilities. Multi million dollar buildings. At one time they were a mega church. They were one of the fastest growing churches in their state. Thousands flocked to this church. 

Today they are a mere shell of what they used to be. A former pastor was so focused on growth he did things I'd never heard of before. He required any person who joined the church to be re-baptized whether they were already saved and had already been baptized. This bolstered their baptism statistics at the end of the year and made the church appear to be evangelistic. It was a sham. 

That pastor is no longer there. The mega facilities they built are not even half filled weekly now. They  have about ten% of the attendance they used to have.  Sadly what I heard from one member is the preaching of the word is so watered down she can no longer attend there though she has been a faithful worker in that church for close to five decades. 

Have churches really stooped to the shenanigans of tricks and gimmicks to grow a church? Sadly, the answer is an emphatic yes. They have and do. 

I have heard about pastors padding the attendance record books counting people who never attend, people who cut out lowly attended services such as holidays and bad weather days so as not bring the average attendance. I even heard about one pastor who put mirrors up in the sanctuary to give the appearance of more people in attendance than who were actually there. 

The Bible has something to say about church growth. Read it for yourself in Acts 2:47. That is the kind of church growth I'd like to see across the land.