The church grows slowly

We all like the miraculous.

We love to hear about powerful moments, huge crusades, the “wow,” the “sizzle.”

Rodney Stark, in Cities of God, reveals something very important: miracles and powerful moments, although they were present in the early church, did not fuel the church’s advance.

America, he tells us in The Churching of America, was Christianized slowly over time (it was not that Christian to begin with).

The church mostly grows through “network growth” – relationships, parents-to-children, social growth – not through “wow” events.

It is less an industrial moment and more like a seed that takes root in the ground, dies, brings forth fruit, which dies, and brings forth fruit, until the entire field is covered.

We want the wow.

We want the feeding of the 5,000 – or the power of Resurrection Morning – but not the cross in between.

But Jesus says that if anyone wants to follow him, they must count the cost, pick up their cross, and hurry after.

Adoniram Judson had very few converts at his death, but look at the church in Burma now.