“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (ESV)

Church growth is an outflow not the aim. Our aim must always be planting and watering. Visible growth is sometimes God’s gift to faithful stewards. Other times visible growth is a gift to lousy stewards. And confusingly, visible growth sometimes comes in bizarre places under strange ministries. Regardless, growth is God’s to give and not ours to pursue.

Kingdom growth is our goal, but not our aim. Our goal or desire is for God to expand His rule and reign on earth. Our aim, however, is to fulfill our calling and to practice stewardship over our gifts. In other words, we focus on doing what we’re told for the purpose of seeing God accomplish this goal. We do not focus on manufacturing results.

This distinction, which rises from 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, is very important.

The call of God has never been to produce results.

• He didn’t ask Abraham to make a baby.
• He didn’t ask Moses to perform miracles or defeat Pharaoh or plan an escape.
• He didn’t ask Joshua to study military strategy or fight harder.
• He didn’t ask David to establish an empire.
• He didn’t ask Nehemiah to reestablish Jerusalem.
• He didn’t ask Isaiah to change people’s hearts.
• He didn’t ask the disciples to build the church.
• He didn’t ask the church to start a movement.
• He never commanded the church to grow.

Instead…

• He calls men and women to trust Him when the future is bleak.
• He calls men and women to obey His simple command even when it’s scary.
• He calls men and women to walk humbly down paths of power and prestige.
• He calls men and women to stay the course when opposition is strong.
• He calls men and women to preach faithfully when no one responds.
• He calls men and women to spread the good news to all people everywhere.
• He calls men and women to reflect Him in dark places.
• He invites men and women to live by faith and follow His voice.

Many people and churches have traded in their rightful calling for the pursuit of “successful ministry.” Whenever our decisions about ministry are based more on what is working than on faithfulness to the explicit call from Scripture, we have forsaken our aim in the name of our goal.

The tricky part is… the goal is not bad. It’s just not a very good aim. And we must maintain the distinction between our goal and our aim. God is responsible for meeting the goal of expanding His Kingdom. We are responsible for fulfilling our call to obedience by faith.

Which drives you:  growth or faithfulness?

Let’s make faithfulness our aim because pursuing growth will always eventually lead to forsaking our calling.