Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

Let me introduce to you two words from Christian theology. If you’ve gone to church for any length of time, I’d hope you have heard these before, but as a lot of churches shy away from theological terms, you may not have a firm grasp on the meaning and implication involved.

By now, I’m sure you’re all tired of reading about church growth. I know I’m tired of writing about it . . . ☺ This will be the last blog (I hope). In the first three blogs, “Concerning Practical Evangelism,” I raised the question, “What is the secret to successful church growth?” Then I said that I don’t believe there is just one secret, but rather several pieces that all must be in place and fit together for successful growth to be achieved.

We’re on the third blog entry about this topic of evangelism. In the first two, I identified two important pieces in the puzzle of church growth, (1) each of us must passionately live our faith, and (2) we have to build relationships with the unsaved people around us. In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20), Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples.

In my previous blog entry, I started a conversation about how to grow our church. I suggested that there is no single key to growing our church. Rather, there are many pieces which must all be in place for successful growth to occur. The first piece is for each of us, as Christians, to passionately live our faith (notice, I did not say, “perfectly live our faith”). Once we reach the point where we are living our faith, what’s next?

How can our church grow? What’s the key? What do we need to do to grow our church? Well, first let’s define what we mean by church growth. Actually, what we don’t mean. Church growth is not recruiting Christians from other churches. If we take 25 people from Cherry Hills, our church has not grown. We’ve gained nothing for the Kingdom. Church growth is reaching the lost. As Jesus said, “making disciples” out of those who are not.

We’re singing a hymn this Sunday. What?!? Why is a contemporary service singing anything older than 3 years? Don’t get me started . . .

David said in Psalm 14,

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

When a guy and girl fall in love, get married, and go on their honeymoon, they are riding on cloud nine. Their hearts are exploding with feelings of love and they think, “This will never end; I’ll feel this way forever!” I know because I felt that when I got married. But at some point, the honeymoon does end. (Corinne, sweetheart, if you’re reading this, we haven’t reached that point, yet . . .) There comes a point in time when being “in love” must be supplanted by love.

iTunes is one of my favorite toys. It’s easy to use, fast, and offers so many different things - music, movies, podcasts, to name a few. One other really cool feature iTunes has to offer is something called iTunes U. Basically, a bunch of colleges, universities, and seminaries have been recording class lectures and posting entire classes on iTunes . . . free of charge!

I had a conversation recently with a friend about the Bible. My friend’s question was, “How can I understand what the Bible says?” What an excellent question . . . I ask that all the time! From the perspective of an amateur Bible reader, that is, I’m not professionally trained to interpret Scripture, I’ve compiled a short list of the things I do as I approach the Word of God.

1.        Decide in your heart and mind that the Bible is absolutely true.