“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”” (Numbers 5:1-3, ESV)
For the past couple devotions, we have been looking at Numbers 5:1-3, discussing purity in the church. We must understand that impurity threatens the power of the church and believers in their pursuit of God’s purposes and plans. The first devotions on this passage dealt with the threats of moral degradation and heresy. This devotion looks at the threat of worldly methods.
The problem with the adoption of worldly methodologies is that we can begin trusting and following methods rather than the Lord Jesus who is the head of the church.
I made this error early on in my time of pastoral ministry. I read books and went to seminars that dealt with church growth. Every time I read something or learned something new, I tried the new thing, often taking the church on a complete reversal of the previous direction. The result was not growth, but confusion for the congregation. This is a very subtle trap. I was not alone in falling into this trap as I discussed this problem with other pastors.
Often churches will read a book on church growth and believe that by following all the things written in the book, they will see numerical growth. While they may see growth by trusting a methodology presented in a book, the problem is that this can result in a misdirected focus and a misdirected trust. In fact, by trusting in a method rather than the Lord, the method will become a powerless idle for the church. Even if there is growth, the idle will produce shallow and unhealthy growth as it is born in human effort rather than by the power of the Almighty.
Sometimes numbers can become the sole focus of the church rather than God and His people. Thus, goal of seeking numbers can also become an idol to the church which leads to a form of godliness which denies the power of God (2 Timothy 3:5). It is not to say that numbers are unimportant or that we should not read books, but we must remember that our trust is in the Lord to grow His church and that we must seek His direction in our mission. The church must be vigilant to seek the Lord and His direction, obeying him and trusting Him to bring the fruitfulness of the ministry.
Renewing the Heart 