TEACHING MINISTRY AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR CHURCH GROWTH

1.1 Introduction

Church Growth is a movement within evangelical Christianity which focuses on developing methods to grow churches based on business marketing strategies. It cannot be disputed that youths play a vital role in the life of a Church as they are the leaders of tomorrow and future of the church. The elderly stands out but youth's contributions have been shinning and have always been flag bearers of every Church. For any tangible growth to take place in any Christian community, the youth must be significant in that process of growth. The importance of teaching the undiluted Word of God in the right perspective in the Church today, can never be over-emphasized. This is the basic tool that is required to enhancing the general well-being and individual growth of Christians, which would ultimately culminate into the overall growth of the Church.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research questions and hypothesis, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Teaching ministry in the Sunday school has come under fire. The Sunday School is dead as a church growth tool in Nigeria today. The author has heard comments similar to this one made at a number of conferences and meetings with pastors and church leaders in recent years. Many pastors and denominational leaders today are convinced that the Sunday school is no longer an effective method or program for reaching the lost for Jesus Christ and church membership. Many have drawn what the author believes to be an inaccurate and inappropriate conclusion, that the Sunday school is antiquated and irrelevant. Some feel it is no longer a viable means of ministry or worthy of church priority. Others claim that Sunday School was a giant in its heyday but it has become a non-effective program for the twenty-first century.

The Church growth in this context is not primarily numerical rather, spiritual and self-development in the Word of God. Meaningful growth is achieved through a carefully worked out scheme of learning processes for a reasonable period of time. It is expedient for Christians to be spiritually educated about some basic facts in their relationship with God, not just basking in the euphoria of being important members of a church. They must not attach or equate their spiritual growth to church activities; instead, it should be measures on the basis of their obedience to the truth and practice of God’s commands.

Therefore, spiritual growth which is meant to bring about genuine transformation in the life of a Christian is not a crisis event; it takes place over time. That is, it takes more than a lesson to accomplish all that God desires in a Christian’s life. It is therefore, imperative for Church leaders or Christian educators to always bear in mind that Christian maturity is a life-long process which requires their patience and faithfulness in ministry, as they are engaged week-after-week to see lives forming and conforming into the image of Christ.

The importance of teaching the undiluted Word of God in the right perspective in the Church today can never be over-emphasized. This is the basic tool that is required to enhancing the general well-being and individual growth of Christians, which would ultimately culminate into the overall growth of the Church. The Church growth in this context is not primarily numerical rather, spiritual and self-development in the Word of God. Meaningful growth is achieved through a carefully worked out scheme of learning processes for a reasonable period of time. It is expedient for Christians to be spiritually educated about some basic facts in their relationship with God, not just basking in the euphoria of being an important member of a church. They must not attach or equate their spiritual growth to church activities; instead, it should be measures on the basis of their obedience to the truth and practice of God’s commands.

The teaching ministry of the church is a vital ministry that needs much more attention. The church, in Matthew 28:18-20, was asked to make disciples and teach them to observe or to obey all that Jesus has commanded us to do. This in essence reveals that, the church exists for ‘a supreme being’ and all that the church can teach or stand for should be what the triune God teaches and instructs.

Matthew 28:20 also reveals something special about the teaching ministry of the church; it says, “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”. This means the teaching ministry of the church is not one that is only informed about something, but one that causes a transformation in the person. The teaching ministry affects and influences one's life and whole personality and that is what Christian education seeks to do. Also, we can see in the verse that, we are teaching what we have been commanded, hence, what we are teaching is not from us but from someone Greater than us.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed the one key problem which is the inability to examine the Teaching Ministry as an Effective Tool for Church Growth. Another problem is how best to measure numerical growth. A variety of indicators for attendance and occasional offices are available, but all are affected to some degree by measurement error and random fluctuations. Such variability poses particular problems with small churches, where the addition or subtraction of just a few people produces large proportional changes in the totals.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of this study is to examine the Teaching Ministry as an Effective Tool for Church Growth. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were set as follows:

1. To examine the relationship between teaching ministry and church growth;
2. To examine the Teaching Ministry as an Effective Tool for Church Growth;
3. To examine the impact of lack of teaching ministry on church growth; and
4. To demonstrate the importance and effects of the qualities and qualifications of Christian teachers.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Is there any significant relationship between teaching ministry and church growth?
• What are the relationship between teaching ministry and church growth?
• What is the Teaching Ministry as an Effective Tool for Church Growth?
• What is the impact of lack of teaching ministry on church growth?
• What are the importance and effects of the qualities and qualifications of Christian teachers?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant relationship between teaching ministry and church growth
• H1: There is a significant relationship between teaching ministry and church growth

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There are no significant effects of the qualities and qualifications of Christian teachers
• H1: There are significant effects of the qualities and qualifications of Christian teachers

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1.7 Significance of Study

The findings of the research work will assist churches, ministries, pastors, etc in discovering the vital roles youths play in the life of a Church as they are the leaders of tomorrow and future of every church. From this research, we will discover what a healthy church is like and how youth life style can boost church growth.

This research is very significant because youths are the future of every organization especially the Church. Many, if not all church denominations in Nigeria have been affected by the change in the lifestyles of their youths. The researcher aims at digging the root cause, the effect and the appropriate way of solving the worldly lifestyles affecting our youth so that organizations, parents and youth will benefit from the research findings.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Teaching Ministry as an Effective Tool for Church Growth using the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) as a cases study. This research will discuss the whole concept of Church Growth and Teaching Ministry. Its concern is basically to establish the essence of teaching to Church growth.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Many terms have been used in this work but few uncommon English terms are defined below. These definitions should be understood in their utility for our purpose:

Church Growth: Is the science that investigates the nature, function and health of Christian churches as they relate specifically to the effective implementation of God’s commission to “make disciples of all nations (people)” (Matthew 28:19).

Teaching: This involves processes and activities geared towards achieving a meaning impartation of knowledge on an individual or group.