This, however, is not the norm.  Most churches in America are much smaller.  As a matter of fact, the average church size in the U.S. is about 100 people.  There are pastors who have faithfully served congregations for 20, 30, even 40 years and have never experienced the kind of growth that Tim Keller has seen at his church in New York.  Granted, it’s New York, but Keller was recently interviewed in World Magazine, and he said something about this amazing growth that resonated with me…and hopefully will resonate with other pastors who are faithfully leading congregations and not seeing the type of growth he has.  Here’s what he said…

We paddled out on our board and a wave came in.  You can do all the same paddling and standing and then if the wave does not come in there is no surfing.  We could have easily come here, done everything that we have done, and have very, very little to show for it.  I know other people who have been every bit as faithful, if not more faithful than me, and do not have anything like the same amount of success.  I do not look at myself as being more effective than them, but I am more successful and therefore blessed, for only reasons that God in His sovereignty would know.

I’m a pastor of a church that regardless of what I and the other leaders are doing, we are not currently seeing any significant numerical growth.  New people come through the front doors, but just as many go out through the back.  We seem to have plateaued, and most of the time, I’m OK with this.  But, there are times when I read about other church growth stories or remember the first church I served at where we went from 300 to 1000 in the course of two years, I begin to wonder what’s wrong with me.  Does a lack of significant numerical growth mean that I’m doing something wrong?  If I were more faithful, more dynamic, more relational, cooler, deeper, better looking (etc), would I then see the church I’m serving grow?  Church growth “experts” might say so, but I will now throw what Tim Keller says into the mix of voices I listen to about church growth.

There definitely is the intangible “wave” that must come in if a church is going to see growth.  At my first church in Dayton, OH we did many of the things then that I’m doing now, and for whatever reason, the church exploded.  On some Sundays, we’d see 40-50 new people, and these people ended up staying.  The church grew so fast that our staff meetings each week were spent just trying to put names with faces.  There were just three of us on staff, and we could barely keep our heads above the water.  It was both exciting and overwhelming.  The wave had come in, but after peaking at 1000 people in the mid 90′s, the church is now back to about 400 people.  The wave has hit elsewhere, and other churches in town are now experiencing massive growth.

So, I’m a pastor of a church of 300 people today, and I love it.  It’s been this number for quite a few years, and most of the time, I don’t worry about numbers.  I love the people God has brought to our fellowship, and I’m honored to serve them as their pastor.  Occasionally though, I get hung up on our lack of explosive growth, but it’s usually only when I begin comparing my church to other bigger, exploding churches or when I read an “expert’s” critical take on why churches like mine aren’t growing.

Tim Keller’s words are encouraging to me.  He’s a man overseeing a church that is experiencing explosive growth, yet he’s willing to say what many in his position won’t say: he’s seeing massive growth right now because the wave has come in for him.  May he remain faithful to the Lord as his church grows in the same way that pastors like me remain faithful when the waters of growth are calm.

Last Thursday and Friday, I took Jesse and Peter (the guys on staff at my church) and attended the Summit at the Albuquerque satellite location.  We were inspired, challenged, and encouraged in our leadership by leaders like Bill Hybels (founder and pastor of Willow Creek), David Gergen (CNN’s senior political analyst), Bono (lead singer of U2 and humanitarian), Tony Blair (former Prime Minister of England), Wess Stafford (President and CEO of Compassion International) and others.

One of the sessions was lead by Tim Keller, the Founder and Senior Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY, which has been named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Churches in America as it not only ministers to 6,000 New Yorkers every week but also has planted more than 100 churches as well.  Tim is in his 60′s but his congregation is made up mostly of 25-40 year olds, many of whom were once very skeptical of the Christian faith.

In his session, he addressed the epidemic of spiritual deadness in American churches, gave the symptoms of it, and offered a couple of prescriptions for it.  This was all based on his study and preaching on the parable of the prodigal son found in the Gospels and spelled out in his book, The Prodigal God.  Since this epidemic exists in so many churches, I thought I would share some of his insights with you.

How to tell if you’ve fallen prey to spiritual deadness:

1. You express strong and lasting anger when things go wrong. Anger is a natural response to pain and injustice, but if you stay angry and refuse to let things go, you’re well on your way to spiritual deadness.

2. You viciously counter-attack others or you experience devastation when you’re criticized. This shows that you’re not trusting the Lord to sort things out and deal with the one who has offended you.

3. Your prayers are petitionary only. There’s no intimacy and enjoyment of God. A person who is spiritually dead – if he does pray – only asks things of God and doesn’t worship and enjoy Him.

4. You’re constantly loathing people. Because you’re not content in the Lord and enjoying His provisions for you, you are constantly looking at others with envy, coveteousness, and loathing.

5. You can’t forgive others. A spiritually dead person is completely out of touch with how much he’s been forgiven by the Lord, and so he feels superior to others and is unable to forgive others.

If you recognize that you may be spirutally dead, here are some things you must do:

1. You must experience a new level of repentance. This is not just an acknowledgment of your wrong-doing, but it’s engaging in the act of making an all-out effort to turn from the wrong-doing.  It involves doing whatever it takes to leave the sinful behavior or attitude behind in order to run the opposite way toward the Lord.

2. You must experience a new level of rejoicing. This is what the prodigal son experienced.  He returned to His Father and finally understood what it cost to bring him back into the home.  Half of the estate was gone.  Therefore, the robe and the ring that the Father gave him actually belonged to the elder brother.  This is why the elder brother was so upset about the party and the gift-giving.  The money to finance all of this came from his half of the estate!

The lesson for us is this: A Father needs the resources of an elder brother in order to bring a wayward son back. The prodigal son’s elder brother was resistant to using his resources to bring his younger brother back, but in Christ, we have a loving elder brother!   We have a robe because Jesus hung naked on the cross. We have a festival cup because Jesus drank the cup of judgment and wrath.  Jesus was willing to give up a portion of His inheritance in order to welcome us (the prodigals) back into the Father’s Kingdom!  And in this, we can (and must) experience a new level of rejoicing!