Is the Church Growing?

Not long ago, someone asked me if the Church of the Nazarene in Romania was growing. I answered the only way I thank about -- by giving them examples of how people are growing in their knowledge of Jesus as Savior, what it means to live as a Christian, and learning from the Bible. The person interrupted me and asked, "But is the church growing?" They clearly wanted a numerical answer.

What use is a church if it is filled with people but not one of them lives like a Christian, if not one of them has any knowledge of the Bible? Can they be a light to the world?

Last week, 3 young men from the Tigmandru Church of the Nazarene took a CLT exam over the Pentateuch - the first 5 books of the Bible. At the beginning of this year, these three could not have told you much about the contents of the Old Testament. Now they can tell the whole story from Genesis to Deuteronomy. They're learning how to apply the Bible to their lives, how to be leaders in the church, in the community, in their families. The church needs strong lay leaders who are grounded in God's Word and are dedicated to Him.

Is this church growing? I'd say it most definitely is.

Pictured: My three students and I in Tigmandru, holding their Old Testament workbooks.