Gospel Growth

I've been doing training once a month for all our group leaders. We have been talking a lot about "gospel growth". This idea of gospel growth was inspired by a workshop I recently attended called "The Trellis and Vine Workshop" by Mattias Media. Great stuff.

The Scriptures are clear that God has called us to gospel growth. Colossians 1 talks about the gospel that is ever growing inside us "since the day we received it". Paul is saying here that the gospel has a life of its own. Of course, that "life" is the very life of Jesus imparted to us through the Holy Spirit. If the goal of a congregation is gospel growth, a great question to ask is "what conditions promote gospel growth in a church and in an individual life?"

We have been focusing on the "3P's" that promote gospel growth:

1. Proclamation of the Gospel-As we proclaim the gospel with the help of the Spirit the Scriptures say that it is received or rejected by men. When received, that gospel is the power of God germinating inside a heart, and it begins to grows, grow, grow. Are we proclaiming the full truth of gospel in clear and compelling ways?

2. Personal Relationships-God's main "method" grow the gospel is person to person. Like a highly contagious virus, the gospel is transmitted through intimacy and close proximity. Programs, processes, and presentations are all good...but God's main means of growing the gospel in another is YOU! Are we building personal relationships with those whom God leads into our lives?

3. Prayer- Prayer grows the gospel in others. Look at Ephesians or Colossians...Paul is constantly bathing those congregations in prayer in his epistles. He prays for their eyes, their hearts, their ears, their lives to all be showered by God's power and love so that the gospel permeates their lives. We must pray that the kingdom of God advances in the lives of people! Are we daily in prayer for those personal relationships that God has placed in our lives?