Introduction:
The most important dimension of any world mission vision is the passion to glorify God. The
Bible declares that God is glorifying Himself in the salvation of sinners all
over the world, and He desires to be worshiped among all the peoples of the
earth. Therefore, we have the joyful opportunity to glorify God by preaching the gospel to all the nations of the earth. Christianity is a global faith and our world is increasingly a global community.
A Christian mission is an organized effort to spread Christianity among new converts. Mission involved
sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical
boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities. Christian mission on
earth is to preach and lend credibility to its proclamation through Christians’
witness of a new life. Christian daily life of witness to fulfil callings into
the new life freedom of faith. But this paper mainly deals on the Result
oriented Mission: Numerical growth, Christianization.
Result oriented
Mission:
Result oriented mission
is a term used to describe an individual or organization that focuses on
outcome rather than process to produce a product or deliver a service. Result
oriented target setting and effective leadership of teams has become a tool for
organization effectiveness.[1]
Numerical growth:
I.
Preaching the Word: The seemingly most controversial finding of this study is that a strong belief in the importance of preaching the Word is a predictor of negative growth rates, i.e. declining membership. Not only does this seem to contradict
evangelical theology which upholds the preaching of the Word of God, but it
seems to contradict other studies which clearly indicate that churches that place less emphasis on the Bible are declining, while conservative churches are growing. However, it should be noted that all churches in this
study are conservative evangelical churches.[2]
Preaching and teaching are here the key words. In old Testament usage there was
no distinction between them; in the New Testament they were no less synonymous
for the disciples sent out by Jesus “to preaching the Good News” (Mark 3:14).[3]
There are several possible reasons for
this phenomenon. Too much emphasis on preaching (such as spending 20 or more hours a week preparing for a sermon) can limit pastoral involvement in other activities that are necessary for the congregation to grow. Another possibility is that a high emphasis on preaching is possibly, but not necessarily, a symptom of a limited pastoral skill set; perhaps some of these shepherds are limited in what they can do, so they spend their time doing one of the few things they are well equipped to do. Perhaps some
of the pastors are not aware of other ways to communicate the Gospel
effectively. This lower growth rate may also be related to systemic issues that affect the church rather than the pastor. Perhaps churches that call pastors because of their high commitment to preaching are less attractive to unbelievers or other unchurched people.
II.
Transfer Growth as a Sign of Church
Health: On the average, the more pastors agreed with the
statement “Transfer growth is an indicator of positive congregational health,”
the faster their churches were growing. However, it should be noted, that no
pastor indicated that he “strongly agreed” with the statement, perhaps because
transfer growth is clearly not biblically mandated and because it is easy to imagine unbiblical and even ungodly ways to attract transferable growth. About half of the pastors agreed that growth in turnover is a sign of church health.
Some pastors may believe that people will tend to attend churches that meet their needs and expectations in culturally relevant ways. Because these ministers may believe that it is healthy to structure their church's programs around these needs and expectations, these congregations may attract more referral growth than those who do not share this belief. They may also believe that most Christians would not choose to go to an unhealthy church because they would be led away by God's Spirit, and conclude that transference growth is therefore a sign of God's blessing (cf. I John 2:27).
III.
Personal and Corporate prayer: In all this, of course, believer should understand
the difference between personal prayer and corporate prayer. When one is
praying alone he thinks only of his personal burdens, but in corporate prayer
each one should notice the burden of the meeting instead of praying attention
to one’s own burdens alone. Hence, in a prayer meeting must learn to sense the
feeling of the gathering. So, let us learn to pray over matter by allowing one
person, two persons, three or five persons to pray as necessary. Yet not in the
sense of each praying his own prayer, but a praying with one accord is
something we must learn.
Both positions would support their belief that the church is healthy. At the root of such conflicting beliefs may be confusion about the nature of the church's numerical growth. A pastor does not need to distinguish between transmission and conversion growth. The two may be confounded
in his thinking and be viewed as equally valuable. Not distinguishing between transfer growth and conversion growth may lead to more emphasis on activities that attract Christians from other churches, as transfer growth may be easier to achieve than conversion growth.[4]
IV.
Providing Outreach to the
Community: A negative predictor of one-year church growth rate is the belief that it is important to provide outreach to the local community. This goes against the intuitive belief that more outreach is needed to bring more people to Christ. However, it should be noted that there is a difference between promotion and evangelism. Outreach is simply developing relationships with people outside the organization; it is a common goal and practice of non-Christian organizations. Outreach in itself does not
necessarily communicate the Gospel nor make disciples. If done well, outreach will lead to evangelism and disciple making from a biblical perspective. However, outreach can simply drain time and energy from the congregation's program and the pastor's schedule. If this is the case, such use of limited resources could
easily reduce the potential for church growth.[5]
Nevertheless, a local church is called
to be a blessing to all (Phil. 2:15-16). The goal of much community outreach is
to make the lives of those living around the church better by making education,
social services, or physical resources available to those who need them. A
local church should also have the same primary mission as Jesus, “to seek and
to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This mission should motivate the Church to combine its activity with evangelization, which will respond to the most important human need, the need for eternal life through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Another possible reason for the negative relationship between outreach and growth has to do with how a dying church might respond to its decline. A church that is declining for any number of reasons (congregation with death rate higher than birth rate, program that is no longer responsive to community needs, membership that is not socially attractive, etc.) might feel the need to develop relationships with outsiders more than churches that are already growing. In this case, outreach
might be beneficial to the church and slow its decline, if it leads to
effective evangelism and disciple making.[6]
Christianization:
Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire nations at once. Various strategies and techniques were employed in Christianization
campaigns from Late Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages: ancient holy
sites were destroyed of converted to Christian churches, indigenous pagan gods
were demonized – sometimes upon were of death. A notable strategy for
Christianization was interpretation Christian the practice of converting native
pagan practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan
calendar to Christian uses, due to the Christian at proselytism based on the
great commission.[7]
Pre-Christian religions
and the rise of contacts with Christianity: Christianization
and the rise of Christian monarchies in a comparative perspective, it is clear
that striking similarities and equally conspicuous differences cut across the
boundaries of polities. Christianization of polity most of the populations
under investigation encountered Christianity and sometimes other monotheistic
religions as well sometimes before the conversion.[8]
Conclusion:
The church is based on
Result Oriented, as the church involved in evaluating result and seeking better
result. It also involves trying new things, being creative, thinking beyond
what worked. Church may increase its members and may lure souls to the church
and to the fellowship of God. Numerical growth is not just one task among many;
it must have high priority as God is glorified when new members are added to
the church. Christianization is the final aim of the Church of Christ in the
world. It also acts as the main base of bringing people to Christ.
Bibliography:
Thomas k. Carroll, Preaching the Word. Eugene: Wipf and
Stock Publishers 199 W 8th Ave, Suite 3. 2007.
Jaykumar, A. History
of Christianity in India. Major Themes. Kolkata: ESPACE, 2013.
K.S Imchen, Issues in Contemporary Christian Mission. Kolkata: ESPACE, 2013.
Net
Source:
http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/mec1-3.ht.
https://firescholars.seu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=seu_papers.
[1]
http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/mec1-3.ht. Retrieved on
17.04.2021, 06:00 pm.
[2]
https://firescholars.seu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=seu_papers.Retrieved
on 17.04.2021, 06:00 pm.
[3]
Thomas k. Carroll, Preaching the Word (Eugene:
Wipf and Stock Publishers 199 W 8th Ave, Suite 3. 2007),32.
[4]
Thomas k. Carroll, Preaching the Word (Eugene:
Wipf and Stock Publishers 199 W 8th Ave, Suite 3. 2007), 56.
[5]
A. Jaykumar, History of Christianity in
India. Major Themes (Kolkata: ESPACE, 2013), 119.
[6]
K.S Imchen, Issues in Contemporary
Christian Mission (Kolkata: ESPACE, 2013), 217.
[7]
http//www.definitions.net/definition/christianization. 26-04-2021- 08-06 pm.
[8]
Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity
(ISBN: 0060677015, Harper Collins, 1997), 107.
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