Grow or Go

For someone who has ever been part of a stagnant church, attending a healthy, aggressive church can be very challenging.  In stagnant churches people are not properly challenged towards spiritual growth and maturity.  They also have tendency to attend programs, events, and activities for reasons that often smack of minimum duty rather than earnest desire or interest.

In contrast, people who belong to healthy, aggressive churches view their attendance at events, programs, and activities as compelling.  They freely commit their time because they believe they will emerge as better people.  Such churches do not have to beg their people to turn out for upcoming events.  People come because they believe they will miss something valuable if they do not attend.  When filling out their personal calendars, these people tend to schedule church activities first, and then fill in the gaps with other, outside interests. 

The strategies for personal growth (found in aggressive, healthy churches) make some adults uncomfortable.  Some even choose to leave the church when confronted with the expectation of consistent personal growth.  And that’s fine.  There’s plenty of churches where people can attend as spectators, hide in the pew without contributing, and ignore personal spiritual disciplines.

At Pace Community Church, Christianity is not a spectator sport.  It’s an active life-style.  Stand still and you lose ground.  Remain stagnant and you get left behind.  Fail to grow and you’ll wither at the root.