Pastor's Blog

     Welcome to the Montrose Baptist Church Pastor’s Blog!  We are excited about this new venture into the blogosphere.  We pray that you will find these postings encouraging, inspiring, and instructive for your discipleship and spiritual growth.  The ultimate goal of this blog is to glorify God through concise writings on what the Scriptures teach about the Christian Gospel, the Church, and Christian life in the 21st century.  The Apostle Paul eloquently states the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 ’Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures.’   We believe the Gospel is the power of God to save and to sanctify all who believe (Romans 1:16).

Dr. Ken Fentress
Senior Pastor

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Have you read what ____ says your church should do? 

Did you hear what that church did??  They’ve gone from two members to 200,000 in one year!

What’s your vision?  Does your church strategy “work”?

What are you doing to get your church to grow?

We have all heard these kinds of things said time and again, read them in church magazines and leadership materials.  Some have even paid top-dollar to go to a conference to be told what their church should do.  The Bible says virtually nothing about how to grow a church, but it does say something about how to make disciples.  And what the Bible does say is quite surprising…

What is interesting to me is how little the bible says about how to “make disciples” (see Matthew 28:18-20).  That is, the Bible doesn’t say much about the technique or means of making disciples as we understand it today.  Jesus’ last words in the gospel of Matthew simply says to “make disciples” as one goes out, preaching and teaching and baptizing the peoples of the world.  James, the half-brother of Jesus and leader at the church in Jerusalem, says that “good religion” is to remember the orphans & widows (James 1:27), to practice what you preach.  Christians should persevere despite life’s circumstances (1:2-18) and live a life that exhibits faith in Jesus Christ (2:14-26).  Peter simply says to be holy, just like God (I Peter 1:13-16), and to respect those around you (see I Peter 2-4).  John talks about a tree bearing good fruit (John 15), echoing Jesus’ sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:15-23; compare to 21:18-22), and that you can’t say you love God when you hate His children, who are your siblings in Christ (I John 2). Paul talks about having “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5) and putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6). 

Notice that the Bible never says that we are to “grow the church,” nor to do “whatever works” to accomplish such a goal.  Nor does the Bible say what a church (i.e., a constituted local community of believers) should do to in these passages.  Many at this point say, “Aha!  So there’s liberty to do whatever works to grow the church!”  Wrong.  The Bible actually says that a disciple-making church is successful when it does very little. 

Notice what Paul writes to Timothy under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “Preach the Word…” (2 Timothy 4:2-5).  And then to Titus under the same inspiration: “You must teach was is in accord with sound doctrine…” (Titus 2:2-3:11).  And then to the church at Corinth, Paul again says the unthinkable, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest  the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (I Corinthians 1:10-17).

There is only one strategy for making disciples, for “growing a church”: preach and teach the gospel.  This does not mean be “seeker sensitive” and focus solely on evangelizing the lost, nor does it mean to focus only on helping the saints be more holy.  “Preach the gospel” simply means “preach the gospel” to everyone—it saves the unbeliever and sanctifies the believer.  One person cannot “save” another—only God saves.  There is no person or book that can make you holy—only God can do that.  How?  Through the preaching and teaching of the gospel.  This is the essence of what Paul says in Titus 2:11-13.  It is not a person or a book or a great strategy, nor is it even a strong self-discipline that saves us and teaches us and makes us holy.  It is God’s grace that does these things.  

To put it into contemporary church-talk, “you can maximize your potential for a deeper relationship with God in one easy step,” by submitting yourself to God’s grace, the teaching and preaching of the gospel.  And this is precisely what the church is supposed to do: make disciples by teaching and preaching the gospel.  In so doing, unbelievers will hear the good news, receive Christ and be baptized, while believers will be confronted with God’s grace that teaches them to live holy lives.  There are many other good things a church can do, but making people holy is technically something only God can do.  In this regard, then, all a church can do is simply preach and teach the gospel.

What about blogs, magazines, books, Sunday School, Bible Studies, community outreaches, evangelism… all that stuff.  Indeed, much of it is good, but if it is done in place of preached and teaching the gospel, said church is far from it’s Biblical mandate.  A church that does not preach and teach the gospel, the good news that fallen man can be made right before a righteous and holy God, is doing too much.  Simply preach and teach the gospel.  That is what this blog seeks to do and that is what I seek to do as I serve Christ at MBC: to make disciples by preaching and teaching the gospel, letting the grace of God work in the life of every believer to make them right in God’s sight.

 And so, by the standards of some, yes, a disciple-making church should do almost nothing.

In Christ Jesus Alone,

TIMM

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