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{"id":31180,"date":"2015-07-29T09:19:27","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T13:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=31180"},"modified":"2015-07-29T09:19:27","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T13:19:27","slug":"how-to-grow-a-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/07\/how-to-grow-a-church.html","title":{"rendered":"How To Grow A Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"tree-church-1-685x515\"$ <\/p>\n

I was struck by the headline that a man had \u201cgrown a church\u201d \u2013 entirely from trees \u2013 in four years<\/a>. Apparently he had some high-tech help. But I soon thought that it would be interesting to compare what is involved in growing what many people call a \u201cchurch\u201d today \u2013 i.e. a\u00a0building<\/em> \u2013 with what growing a church really ought to mean, i.e. growth of a congregation.<\/p>\n

Often the aim of churches is to have lots of people convert and begin attending. But that involves either transplanting (=\u00a0\u201csheep-stealing\u201d) or planting seeds and waiting a very long time.<\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t what \u201cgrowth\u201d normally means. Shouldn\u2019t the focus be on the actual growth \u2013 the development towards spiritual maturity, increasing in knowledge and understanding \u2013 of whoever attends?<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest issue is not that we have forgotten what \u201cchurch\u201d means, but that we have also forgotten what\u00a0growth<\/em> means.<\/p>\n

But back to the article for just a second. Would you attend the \u201cTree Church\u201d mentioned in the article? Why or why not?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"