13 Characteristics of a Growing Church: Hope

Hopes and dreams...our lives are full of them. We dream about the person that we are going to marry. We hope we will have children. We dream about the job that is going to make us happy and hopefully pay us well. We dream about going on the vacation of a lifetime. We hope to get that new car that is going to be oh so perfect for us.

These dreams push us to reach for something that is better and further than we are right now. They give us hope for the future, and they keep us going. If our hopes and dreams can do that for our personal lives then why can't they do the same for our churches?

So here's a quick recap of the Characteristics of a Growing Church:
1st Love Genuinely
2nd Hate What is Evil
3rd Cling to What is Good
4th Devoted to One Another
5th Humility
6th Excitement
7th Stability
8th Service

The 9th characteristic of a growing Church is Hope.
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12 NIV

The lack of joyful hope in our churches makes me more than a little heartsick. Without joy and hope our churches die. They stop dreaming and making plans for the future. Without hope you begin to think that things can never be any better than they are right now so why bother. We stop dreaming about creating new programs, reaching new people, and bringing Christ to new areas. We get stagnant.

My wife, Christiana, works at a local baptist children's home. She works in their Public Relations department and works with the churches all the time. One of her main responsibility is managing promotional materials sent to the churches and the mailing list for those supplies. The other day she was telling me how depressing it was that she had just received phone calls from three separate churches who asked to be removed from the mailing list because the churches were closing their doors. What went wrong? Why are our churches dying?

I think it is in part because we have lost hope. We are too stuck in our rut of how we have always done things and we worry so much about our finances that we forget what is really important. We stop focusing on God. We stop reaching people and we start losing hope and getting depressed. Finally, we decide that it's just not worth the trouble anymore and people aren't coming anymore anyway so we close the doors. That's why our churches are dying.

It's time that we stopped worrying and started to hope and dream again! Something new is bound to surface. Something great is on the horizon. God can do anything in our churches! We have hope. We should be joyful in that. But it's a conscious choice that we have to choose to make everday. It isn't easy. It's going to be hard work, but I think it's going to be worth it. Don't you?

More Resources:

• "Love the LORD, all his faithful people! The LORD preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD." Psalm 31:23-24
• "We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name." Psalm 33:20-21
• "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:30-31
• "We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized." Hebrews 6:11

Is Organization Your Best Friend?

When I was in college, I did an internship in youth ministry. I learned many things that semester, but there was one thing that my youth minister mentor beat into me. Over and over I would hear it and in this ministry there was no way to ignore it. “God blesses organization!” So either I was going to embrace this creed and it was going to be my best friend for the semester or I was going to ignore it and it was going to become my worst enemy. Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like confrontation so I decide it would be better to make organization my friend than my enemy.

1 Thing I have learned about organization: God Blesses It!
At first, I thought that this was just the gung-ho ravings of a ministry that was way to controlling and up-tight, but I was wrong. As I began to willing practice organization under God’s direction and guidance, I found it was true. God does bless organization! Now, I realize that is why Jesus taught on such passages as Luke 14:28-30.

”For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'”

This passage is about counting the cost and planning ahead and in the end leaving it all to follow Christ. That’s just what God wants us to do in life and ministry.

1 Tip for improving your organizational skills:
I offered you one thing that I learned about organization so I will offer you one tip to improve your organizational skills. If you want to be more organized learn to be an effective communicator. This can help you to get organized and stay organized by reducing confusion between you and the people you work with or live with or minister too. A person who learns to communicate thinks to ask if the gym is already occupied before they plan a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. A person who communicates remembers to tell their youth sponsors about the team meeting planned for next month. The list can go on…and on…and on. Okay. You get the picture.

1 Question for you:
Now I have one question for you. Do you want to be blessed? If the answer is yes then I hope you will start learning how to be organized because I firmly believe that God blesses organization!