An Introduction to Understanding Church Growth

By Robb Brunansky

Published January 26, 2026

What does it take to become a growing church?

This question has been asked countless times around the world as churches seek to effectively attract new attendees and members. Just as many times as it has been asked, it has been answered.

In 1995, a blockbuster on church growth was published, entitled, The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Mission. Rick Warren wrote this book to encapsulate what he believed were the key ingredients causing his church to grow to megachurch status. The key to growth, according to Warren, is for the church to focus on “the five biblical purposes of the church.” This book argues that when churches strip away distractions and unnecessary activities and become driven by a purpose, they will inevitably grow.

Several years earlier, the seeker sensitive church growth movement gained a foothold across the evangelical landscape. This movement argued that for the church to grow, it had to reach out to, what are often referred to as “unchurched” people, in such a way that would interest them. According to this theory, most activity in the church should be focused outwardly on those who are not part of the church in the community, with the goal to grow the church by attracting these naturally minded men, women, and children with things that appeal to them.

Around 2011, another book on growth was published, entitled, Simple Church, which took its cue from the world of technology in discerning how a church can best grow. This key to successful growth was to examine the church’s clarity, movement, alignment, and focus, making sure everything was simple and straightforward for attendees.

All these strategies and theories, while different and open to a variety of criticisms, share one commonality: a recognition of the importance and desirability of church growth.

Church growth is a biblical concept, and we find throughout the New Testament that growth is immensely important to our Lord.

In Matthew 16:18, we have Jesus’ definitive declaration that He will build His church. Nothing in creation or hell will stop our Lord from building or growing His church. He will build it on the confession that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Before Jesus ascended into heaven after His resurrection, He gave the apostles, and the church by extension, the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20. This direction cannot be understood any other way than as Jesus’ command for the disciples to become the instruments He would use to build His church. However, the way Christ builds His Church would be by His disciples making disciples who would also obey His commands, trusting in His sovereign omnipotence to fulfill this monumental and humanly impossible task.

As we see in Scripture, church growth was very important to the apostles. These men were not content to remain a small band of followers; they wanted the church to grow all over the world. For example, in 1 Corinthians 14:23, Paul expressed concern about what an unbeliever would think about the gospel if Christians spoke in tongues without any interpreters because he knew it would needlessly confuse the church’s mission to make disciples. While an unbeliever might be offended by the gospel when he attends a worship service, the church should desire that the unbeliever would hear the truth, be convicted of his sin, and believe in Christ – and so become His worshiper.

Additionally, in Ephesians 4, Paul expressed strong concern about the growth of the church. For Paul, a church that was not growing was instead malfunctioning. God designed the church to grow and to build itself up in the power of the Spirit through the proclamation of the truth.

Whenever we look in the New Testament, we find that growth is important to the Lord of the church, and that Christ desires His church to grow. Church growth, however, must be properly understood.

Many times, growth is thought of primarily in terms of church attendance. Church growth should be numerical, because no congregation should be content to have only the same group of people coming weekly without ever seeing individuals outside the membership and walls of the church impacted by the gospel. We should pray that God would bring new people to hear His Word, growing the church as unbelievers are saved and baby Christians find faithful preaching of the Word and opportunities to be discipled.

However, church growth is not merely numerical in nature, but it is also spiritual. When Paul talked about church growth in Ephesians 4, he was primarily focused on the spiritual growth of the body. Just as a church should not be content never to see anyone come to know Christ through its ministry, a church should never be content if the people who do know Christ are not growing to be more like Him.

Unfortunately, the temptation for many churches is to emphasize one aspect over the other. Some churches are laser focused on numerical growth and winning people to Christ, but they are disastrous at discipling the people who already know Christ. Other churches very rarely see anyone come to know the Lord, but they intently train, educate, and edify those who are already part of the body.

Biblically speaking, neither approach is correct. If we want to grow as God designed, churches must reach unbelievers with the gospel and build up those within the body and those coming into the body.

The great question, then, is how to accomplish this mission. Thankfully the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 3, gives us clear instructions on how the church is to grow.

Now, it might seem strange at this point in the letter that we are suddenly talking about church growth – especially since we’ve focused on the problem of divisions in the Corinthian church since 1:10. Paul had been rebuking these Christians for their infatuation with worldly wisdom, status, and prestige. He outlined the true wisdom of God found in the gospel, the message of the cross. He also told them they have the mind of Christ and so should all be of the same mind, conforming their thinking to the Word by the power of the Spirit.

So why does Paul suddenly seem focused on church growth, where he spends most of this new chapter talking about how God causes growth, how the Corinthians have not grown, and how the church is to grow and be built on the foundation of Christ?

One reason why Paul is so concerned about the divisions in Corinth is because a divided church cannot be a growing church. God’s plan is for the church to grow, but if the church is full of strife, pride, and division, it will not – and cannot – grow. Paul was clearly motivated by seeing the church to grow to what Christ desires it to be because he traveled over land and sea to preach the gospel and see people saved and the church built up.

However, the Corinthians, because of their divisions, were not growing! This was a serious problem, and it was one that Paul needed to address in this context to show them they were a stagnant church because they were a sinful church.

Paul, then, helps the Corinthians – and us, by extension – understand church growth in this section by showing us several things about church growth, which we will unpack throughout the next few posts.