THE HEART OF CHURCH GROWTH

By Gary McDade

God has the church of Christ close to His heart as may be realized by the giving of the Son of His love to purchase it (John 3:16; Ephesians 5:25; Acts 20:28). The church growing in influence and numerically is the essence of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:45-47; John 17:18-23). And, “the heart of church growth” is seen in the child nestled in his and her mother’s arms who from the cradle to her grave has her darling child’s eternal destiny to be with God in heaven for ever as her indelible desire and longing. As such an important person in the scheme of salvation, this mother will unhesitatingly bring up her child “in the nurture [teaching] and admonition [discipline] of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). She knows she will leave a legacy likened to that of the great women of the Bible such as Lois and Eunice, young Timothy’s grandmother and mother, of whom the aged apostle to the Gentiles wrote, “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned [genuine] faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” (2 Timothy 1:5). What a genuine and great compliment to those women it is for the inspired apostle Paul to write to their son Timothy of them, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14-15).

In order for the church to grow in this generation and to carry the good news of salvation to a future world—if so be there is one—Christian mothers who unceasingly teach and train their children and grandchildren the Holy Scriptures are essential for that eventuality to become a reality. May those children now in adulthood who have left their first love rest assured their mother, who nestled them in her arms and told them the old, old story of Jesus and His love, who sang with them the well-versed songs of the church, and prayed daily for God’s care and protection over their lives, still and forever has hope for the soul they brought into this world to return to the sheltering fold of love and safety known so fittingly as the church of the Firstborn (Hebrews 12:23). Her godly living and her prayers for their salvation will only dwindle down and gradually fade away when her hands lie folded across her body in the restful sleep of death and her “spirit returns unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).