Any effort to explain away God's command for spiritual or numerical growth is disastrous for the church. The mainline Protestant denominations have learned this the hard way. They discarded the biblical call for evangelism and numerical growth, and over the past two decades have experienced incredible decline and membership demoralization. This reminds me of the principle that God is not mocked; we reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7).

John Mark Hicks' article presents an in-depth look at numerical growth as it's described in Acts. If anyone could accurately understand the mission given by Jesus, it surely would have been the early church. John Mark shows that Luke's frequent use of numbers was by theological design and his analysis affirms God's desire for his church to grow numerically. Therefore, to have the mind of Christ, we too must desire and be motivated to work for numerical growth.

Biblically grounded desire and motivation are the start. Next, it requires effective efforts or methods that are productive. Stan Freitas presents a case study where his congregation developed the right combination of efforts for them that produced outstanding growth. However, it all started by refocusing on their God-given mission for the church. When churches are driven by mission rather than tradition, they can evaluate their ministries. Efforts that fail to contribute to the mission can be replaced with ones that are effective.

After ten years consulting with churches of Christ, I am firmly convinced that most congregations want to grow. However, some churches that are plateaued or declining are not sure that they can grow. Well, Roger Weems has brought us some more good news. Roger studied eleven churches of Christ that were in numerical decline but were able to reverse that trend and began growing. He shares with us what these congregations had in common to help them generate growth. These are areas where all churches can plant and water, always realizing that it's God who gives the increase.