Healthy Churches Reproduce
Not long ago I was having a conversation where someone made the statement, “Healthy churches are growing churches.” That is correct but there is another factor in defining what it means to be healthy. While it is true that most things in life that are healthy grow – it is usually only up to the point of its design. I think of myself as relatively healthy, but I quit growing a long time ago. If I am growing at my age it is probably because I am eating more than I should. Another sign of health is reproduction. When someone reaches maturity they then have the capacity to reproduce. This is applicable for churches as well. Many churches focus on addition rather than multiplication. We should be concerned about adding to the number of those who come to faith in Jesus and become a part of our local church. We should also be concerned about reproducing as well. As I look at my heritage, my mom and dad had four children. Each of us married adding four more, who then had children and added twelve more to our family. They married which added twelve more, who then added twenty-four more children – so far. Now for our Christmas gathering we need a place that can hold 58 people. This has implication for churches. One of our objectives as an association is to help strategize and support church planting. As we look at our growing counties the latest census revealed that our population grew by 10.2 percent or 31,937 people from 2010 to 2020. If we hope to simply keep up with the population growth it will be necessary to think reproduction of churches as well as growing through addition. Both are positive and both are needed. I look forward to seeing how the Lord will continue to use our current church plants and ones yet to come. What will be your part in this effort of multiplication? – Dr. Gary Mathes