Seven Principles of Church Growth (Part 2)

by Dr. David Yonggi Cho

Did you miss part 1? Read it here: http://wp.me/p8fWJl-2u

Principle #1

Start in your heart instead of outside of your heart

When I start a Church, I always start in my own heart instead of outside of my heart. The Church starts to grow in my heart.

The Holy Spirit comes and first puts visions and dreams into my heart.

Everything starts by visions and dreams.

People can't see your visions and dreams in your heart.

The Spirit of the Lord comes and gives visions to the young and dreams to the old. Those days I was young so God gave me visions, now I am 66 years old- old man- and now God gives me dreams.

But at the beginning, God put the vision into my heart in the slum area to have a Church with 300 members; that was all I could accommodate. I couldn't think of a Church which had more than 300 members.

That was the vision that God gave me but I only had five persons at first but day in day out I was living in that vision.

I was saturated with that vision and when I embraced the vision the vision embraced me and led me and guided me to that goal. So, by the series of God's intervention and miracle, by 1961 [we noticed that in the previous post, it was stated that Dr. Cho started in 1968; he actually started in 1958] I had 500 members in my Church far beyond my visions and dreams and then I said to God, "Father, where should I go from this point?"

Then the Holy Spirit began to put another vision in my heart; "You must believe for 3,000 members." I could hardly believe my ears. 3,000?! How can I handle 3,000?! I can hardly now handle 500 members but how can I handle 3,000? 

But still the vision came into my soul and I embraced that vision in 1961. Then the vision also embraced me and the Holy Spirit began to work through the vision. 

I usually say that visions and dreams are the language of the Holy Spirit. If you want to communicate with the Holy Spirit, you must have that vision which the Holy Spirit puts into your heart because the Bible says in Romans 4:17 that God raises the dead and calls those things which be not as though they were, so vision is the thing through which you can call those things which be not as if they were.

So I embraced 3,000 members into my heart and by 1964 I was preaching to 3,000. Then I said from here where should I go? Then God said, "If you believe for 6,000 I may give you 6,000."

Those days the One Presbyterian Church was the largest Presbyterian Church in the world. So I embraced the vision of 6,000 and I was living in that vision day in day out.

So many people thought I was losing my mind because I was living in that vision still. I had only 3,000 but I was acting as if I were having 6,000. I walked as if I was the pastor of 6,000. I preached as if I were having 6,000. I was completely engulfed by that 6,000-member vision. Then, in 1969 I had 8,000 active members and things were going on and on by 30,000, 60,000, 100,000...then 300,000, half a million...then God said, "If you could believe I could give you a million..." So I am pregnant with one million people right now in my heart. Have you ever seen any man pregnant with one million people? I am!

Presently, we have 750,000 members and we are marching on towards the million members. Of course, if I add all my branch works, we are far surpassing the one million members. I usually send out my associates with 3,000 members and two million dollars to start their own work. So I have asked dozens of my associates to start their own work with my members so if I add all of these people up, we would have passed the one million mark.

Visions and dreams are the foundation of the beginning of Church Growth. The Bible says where there is no vision the people perish and if you don't start Church Growth right now in your heart then you'll not have real Church Growth in your reality or your circumstances.

So Church Growth starts in visions and dreams. When you pray, then the Holy Spirit puts the visions and dreams into your heart!

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Dr. David Yonggi Cho is the senior pastor of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea. He shared the seven.principles of Church Growth at a Church Growth Conference in London some years ago.

God wants to reach more people with the Gospel, and retain them.

You will learn, as you follow this series, these seven principles of Church Growth.

Dr. Yonggi Cho also has to his credit several bestselling books including Successful Home Cells and Holy Spirit, Senior Partner.

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