What does it take for the church to grow?

By Phill Pearson, St. Peter’s Fireside Church

I began wrestling with this question in my early 20’s when I became a campus pastor. The question re-emerged years later as I began helping to lead a church that was returning from COVID-19, and also going through a challenging season filled with staff change and uncertainty.

So, what does it take for the church to grow?

Do you need an eye-catching website, great branding, an incredible social media presence, or a smoke machine? Do you need wonderful, happy people that are incredibly welcoming? Do you need highly intellectual, thought-provoking, witty sermons?

I have read many books and blogs that promised the key to healthy, fast, incredible church growth. I’ve even gone to conferences that told the Ten Keys to church growth. Over the years, I have tried and experimented with different models, yet none has given the return they promise. Some have been good, and led people to exploring faith, or diving deeper into church life, but most gave almost the opposite of what they promised.

Throughout the years of experimenting with different models, trying and stumbling, what I have come to believe is the answer to this question, is that we need good leaders. Both good leaders as pastors and good leaders in the laity. What has and will help The Church grow is men and women who are so filled with a love for the Gospel that they can’t help but share it. It is embarrassing how long it took me to realize and learn this answer, and maybe more embarrassing how often it is overlooked.

But again and again in scripture, what we see is that the church needs good leaders who love God and want to serve him in the church.

Discovering this answer began to change my approach to how I try to lead and pastor the church that God has placed me in. I don’t want to follow trends or try to make church cool. Instead, I have sought to make space to teach people the gospel and give opportunity for people to exercise their skills and gifts as leaders. This desire is what led us to become an Artizo Training church.

A few years ago, St. Peter’s Fireside was going through a time of great change. In the span of one year, we said goodbye to three wonderful and gifted pastors who felt God was calling them to other places. Both our curates were about to graduate from learning with us, and we were searching for a new Lead Pastor. As the only full-time Pastor on staff, I feared that what we lacked was leaders – leaders who loved God and wanted to proclaim his good news. But we didn’t have the budget to just bring on more people, and many of our volunteers were burnt out from a long, hard season. I knew that for us to grow we needed leaders, and I prayed again and again that God would send us men and woman who could help shepherd our church in ways big and small.

Then, two wonderful people (Hosea and Sarah) asked to meet with me. They had just started attending our church and they wanted to apprentice at St. Peter’s through Artizo! They wanted to learn to be leaders at our church! They wanted to serve God at St. Pete’s! I was beyond excited. I had so many questions: What is Artizo? How do you pronounce Artizo? What would it take to be a training base?

Soon, I met with Ben Roberts to discern if this would be a good partnership. Thanks be to God, it was.

In the fall of last year, we brought in Hosea and Sarah as Artizo apprentices. I have had the gift and joy to serve as a mentor and co-labourer. They have brought with them joy and life to our community, they have been what every growing church needs: leaders who love God and want to make him known.

As Hosea and Sarah have faithfully served in these roles they have also done another amazing thing that great leaders do, they made more leaders. Hosea and Sarah spoke joyfully and passionately about their experiences in Artizo and St. Pete’s. They told many of their friends and encouraged them to also pursue an Artizo apprenticeship. Soon I was introduced to Xue-Ting and Sungtaek. Two more wonderful people who wanted to be apprentices at our church.

Our staff and council was so excited about this opportunity, and believed so much in the mission of helping develop future leaders, that we shifted some of my responsibilities as an associate pastor so that I could prioritize on the development of these new leaders. We believe that in order for God’s church to grow it needs leaders who love God and want to make him known.

As a church we are so thankful to join alongside the Artizo Institute in the mission to fill Canada with the sound of the gospel. We believe it is more than an important mission, we believe it is necessary for the future of the church in Canada. And so we are dedicated to help teach, develop and cultivate leaders who love God and want to make his gospel known.