Growing the natural way

How do we grow? How do we grow ministries, and how do we grow the church? We search for ways to help people know God better, and so many are fake and phony and never work. Last night, I got a glimpse of how to grow the natural way.

Every night at Prayer & Meditation someone presents a spiritual topic for us to use as an anchor. Last night, the topic was inviting others to this spiritual experience we have every Tuesday. Now, I've been in churches long enough that I've had this conversation a lot. I mean A LOT. "What should we do to get people to come?" The answers I've heard in the past have varied widely- festivals, service projects, special events, all kinds of stuff. Last night, I heard something I'd never heard before. It went like this:

"Hey, you know that new movie '300'? Lets each invite some friends to go see it and then go out for some food after."

Brilliant! That's a natural way to get to know people in our culture, and that's how we grow the church. I've seen so many church members try to grow the church by attracting people to stuff. Instead, we're inviting friends from other places to get to know our friends in Christ, and vice versa. And when they all become friends, it will only seem natural that we all gather for this Tuesday night event. It'll just happen, and everyone will be comfortable with it, because it's natural.

Do what comes naturally, but do it for Jesus. That's the best growth strategy I've ever heard.