Let's Get Back to the Basics (Church Growth) (September 20, 2026)

Over the past few weeks, we have talked about the following as pertaining to Getting Back to the Basics, I urge you to go back and re-watch the services as well:

•     Prayer - Part One and Part Two

•     Giving

•     Fasting

This morning we are going to talk about Church Growth. The first thing people think about when we say the word growth, as pertaining to church, people tend to think about numbers. How many are sitting on the pews? How much tithes/offering did we receive?

However, there is more important aspects to growth than those numbers. Let’s take a look at an Authentic Church and the Genuine Growth of that church from the Bible.

1 Thessalonians 1:1–10 “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

In order for a church to have authentic, genuine, spiritual growth - the church must be a REAL church:

•     R - Righteous Lifestyle

•     E - Evangelical Passion

•     A - Authentic Walk

•     L - Loving our Brother/Sister in Christ; our Neighbor

As we look at the Thessalonica church, we see that this church was authentic, genuine and had spiritual growth due to being authentic in their:

•     Spiritual Evaluation

•     Work of faith for saving

•     Labor of love for serving

•     Patience of hope for sustaining

•     Soul Election

•     Public Testimony

•     Peaceful Trust

•     Positional Truth

•     Supernatural Endorsement

•     The Message of God and its Powerful Truth (Convicting, Converting, Changing, Cleansing)

•     Personal Evidence of the Holy Spirit (Joy)

•     Fiery Nature of the Holy Spirit (Compels, Controls, Comfort)

•     Fervent Need of the Holy Spirit (Presence, Prompting, Power)

•     Supreme Example - Their Walk

•     Consider their Public Exposure (Walk, Word, Witness)

•     Consider their Proven Excellence

•     Consider their Prompting Encouragement

•     Sincere Evangelism - Their Word

•     Sincere Service (Importance, Indifference, Intolerance of Soul Winning)

•     Sincere Sowers (Embraced, Emphasized, Embodied of Soul Winning)

•     Sincere Specialist

•     Sincere Stand (Expressed Remarks, Eternal Rewards, Evangelized Region, Emotional Remembrance)

•     Salvation Experience

•     Converted and Changed

•     Enthusiasm of the Second Coming

Just so that we don’t overlook a very important factor in this letter, the letter was written by the Pastor of the church to the people of the church. Without the people who are committed to the Lord there is no church. Every believer was and is important and it takes every one of them to make up the church. A Strong Growing church is a church of the people, a church ...

•     that is comprised of all the people

•     that is built upon all the people

•     that acknowledges the importance of all the people

•     that involves and uses the gifts of all the people

•     that recognizes and esteems the presence and contribution of all the people

A Strong and Growing church must be built upon God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the distinctive belief upon which an authentic church is built. Many will say they believe in God, believe in the Son, but do they?

•     We believe that God so loved the word, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

•     We believe that God the Father sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to save us from perishing and to give us eternal life.

•     We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

•     We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord sent from heaven, that He is God, the eternal Son embodied in human flesh and sent to earth by God the Father.

•     We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is Jesus the Carpenter from Nazareth.

•     We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Christ, the Messiah and Savior who had been promised from the very beginning of history.

An Authentic, Strong, Growing church must also be possess God’s supreme gifts - grace and peace:

•     Grace means the undeserved favor and blessing of God. No church can be Authentic, Strong or Growing ...

•     without the favor of God

•     without the blessings of God

•     Peace means to be bound, joined and woven together. It means to be assured, confident and secure in the love and care of God. It means to sense and know that God will ...

•     guide

•     provide

•     strengthen

•     sustain

•     deliver

•     encourage

•     empower

•     bless

The last thought this morning, an Authentic, Strong, Growing church is a church that is stirred up and aroused to serve and work.

•     Faith stirs the church to serve and work. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, truly believes, he is stirred to work and serve the Lord Jesus. The same is true with a body of believers, the church. The stronger the belief of the people in Christ, the stronger they will work for the Lord. A strong faith stirs, arouses, activates, and energizes believers to work and carry out the mission of Christ.

•     Love stirs the church to labor. The word labor means to toil; to labor to the point of exhaustion; to arduously labor. When a person truly loves Christ, he is prompted and driven to arduously labor for Christ.

•     Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ stirs the church to endure in its work and labor. The word patience means endurance, steadfastness, perseverance. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ: we know He will …

•     guide

•     provide

•     deliver

•     strengthen

•     sustain

•     bless

We want Coosa Valley to be an Authentic, Strong, Growing Church for God.