How Do Christians Grow in a Local Church?

This is a question that church leaders should be asking themselves. Yes, we want to see our people grow but sometimes we see them growing outside the church. There is nothing wrong if some of your growth as a Christian takes place there, but there should always be room for growth in your church. I am not just referring to numerical growth, I am also talking about spiritual growth.

What are some ways Christians can grow in the context of their local church. I will be referring to Mark Dever's book, 9 Marks of a Healthy Church to answer that question in a series of posts. The first thing we want to look at is expositional preaching. Expositional preaching is basically taking "the point of sermon the point of a particular passage of Scripture...The preacher opens the Word and unfolds it for the people of God...Expositional preaching is preaching in service to the Word."

How do expositional preaching contribute to Christian growth? Dever said that a church that preaches expositionally "will be a church that encourages Christian growth-as we listen to God speaking from His Word into our lives. God's Word is what we need if we are to grow...To learn what we most need in our lives, we finally need to turn to God Himself. We need to hear His Word-all of it-preached expositionally, so that we don't just hear selective themes."

Expositional preaching covers all of scripture where topical seems to grow through themes of the Bible. Granted there are times where some preachers do topical sermons but most are not centered on the Bible. Some topical sermon are centered around a catchy phrase and they preach based on it. Expositional preaching is not only a challenge for those who listen to the Word being preached but also to the preacher. When I was at my last church as youth pastor, the first study I did was a verse-by-verse study of Galatians. It was rewarding but also challenging. There were passages of scripture that I was not to familiar with even though I have read through Galatians quite a bit. From what I gathered, some of the youth I taught also benefited from going through Galatians.

Expositional preaching will benefit the church as a whole because they will know what's in the Bible. Yes, there are some Christians that know what's in it already, yet there a few who don't because they read a daily devotional that only has one verse to go with it. I am not against daily devotionals as along they do not take the place for daily Bible reading Christians need as they walk with Jesus.

Dever gives a word of warning when either joining a church or calling a preacher:

Be very careful before you join a church that does not stress expositional preaching, or help calling a preacher who is not an expositional preacher, who is not committed to preaching all of God's Word, regardless of how uncomfortable parts of it may be.

Recommended Reading:

Expositional Preaching: How We Speak God's Word Today by David R. Helm

Preaching: A Biblical Theology by Jason Meyer

Preaching and Preachers by Martyn Lloyd-Jones