I’m thinking of starting my own church consultation company. Me and my team will come in, look at your church from the outside in to see where you can improve, where you can change things, add things, delete things to boost attendance, improve your offering, and get more of the things that matter most and get rid of all those things that are a hinderance.

At the end of my time with each church, I will give a detailed analysis of what each and every church can do to improve their house of worship. This will be an all inclusive service offered to every church that desires it. This service will be affordable and well worth the cost. This will be more than a consultation. It will be a life changing experience.

Ok. With that said, let me let you in on the inside trade ‘secret.’ At the end of week-long, month-long, whatever-long consolation, I’m going to stand there, in front of all the church staff, in front of the pastor and hand them all a copy of the report. Then as they all simultaneously open the report, I’ll tell them all what they can do to increase everything – I’ll tell them the only thing written in their “report” – GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY AND ASK GOD WHAT HE WANTS YOU TO DO IN YOUR CHURCH THEN DO IT!

I was listening to the radio the other day and I heard one well known pastor come on the radio (and this was not Christian radio), and talk about how He and his team for years have helped people do this and that. This pastor was not talking about his ministry team or his church. He was talking about him and his business team helping other people, other businesses, and other churches.

This pastor isn’t the only one to do things like that. There’s companies all across America that run ‘Church Consultation’ companies that do exactly what I described above. They come into a church and nitpick, pick apart, analyze, scrutinize, look about, seek out, and find everything in your church that you can change or do different so that, in their opinion, you can have more attendance, more donations, more of what you want. The only problem is that every single one of these companies have no clue what they are doing. Ok, that’s a far stretch, but 99.9% of them don’t know what they’re doing. That .1% probably trips into the truth every now and then.

I know what you’re thinking – how can you say that? Well, I’ve read my Bible and I know the Holy Ghost – that’s how.

These companies, usually comprised of former pastors or ministers, or people with a business sense that think they know, according to statistics and research, what your church needs to grow. The only problem is that the same strategies you use in business will not work in the church. Yes, there are some principles and truths you can apply to the church, to your church, but not every strategy, and definitely not the ways these companies do it.

The problem is that you can’t get your church, or any church for that matter, to grow according to some business strategy (with a lasting impact that is). Now I know what you may say – look at these churches here or there. They’re using business strategies and they’re growing. Well, I can name a few churches within less than 10 miles that are using business strategies to grow their church and they are growing. They’re growing rapidly.

But if you look at the actual church I can tell you that the growth that they have will not last. That growth is a growth of getting people to come to a social club because what they are getting people there with, what they are keeping people there with – is a shallow version of a feel-good Gospel. It is not the uncompromising Word of God. It’s not the life-changing power of God. These churches are social clubs. If you have any spiritual discernment, you can easily spot these churches. With the business strategies at work, they have certain lighting, using catchy songs to open their services that even the world knows, use the latest slangs and terminology of the world, they’ve downgraded the Pastor to a life coach, shed the Sunday best for every day whatever. That and more.

The growth will not last. How do I know? Because the Word of God says so.

“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” – Matthew 16:18

That rock that Jesus was talking about here is Himself. If the church is not built upon Jesus Christ – upon the Word and Spirit of God – it will not last. It will not last being built upon flashy lights and catching songs. It won’t last being built on feel good ‘talks’ (because sermon is an outdated word that might make people feel convicted of their sin). In fact, to blow your mind – it won’t last being built upon the supernatural – upon the power of God itself. No! The power of God is a part of every good Bible-based church, but it is not the foundation. t’s not what it is built on.

These churches and these companies that want to grow the church built on natural, soulical ways are exchanging brass for gold (2 Chronicles 12). Instead of doing things the way that we should do to build the church, we have turned to man’s ideas and man’s plans to build it. And it will not last. Want more proof? Keep on reading.

These plans of man are not the will of God. In fact, the plans of man, the ways of man – how man desires to do church is ‘strange fire’ offered to God (Leviticus 10).  The Lord has told us how to do church, how to grow church, which way to go, which decision to make – if we’d only follow what He has already said.

If you want the secret to church growth, spiritual church, growth in your person life – it can be found in this: Pray and ask God what to do and then do what He says. The secret is to be led by the Spirit of God.

Many are trying to increase church attendance, increase the offering, reach more people with the Gospel, and even though they may have sincere intentions, if they are not following God’s plans, they are wasting their time.

“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” – Psalm 127:1

The only secret to success is to find the plan of God and do it. Dr. Kenneth E Hagin used the above scripture as the basis for his life and ministry. It wasn’t build on a charismatic personality, on flashy this or that. It wasn’t built on the supernatural. It was build upon the Word of God and the plans of God. He rarely left the United States, yet his ministry reached around the world and touched millions upon millions.

But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. – Matthew 15:13

If God does not plan it, if He does not design it, if it is not His plan, it will not last. We cannot take our plans – what some research has said will work and apply it to our church. There have been good, Bible-believing Christians and Pastors that have taken the plan of one church that worked over there and applied it to their church and fallen flat on their face. Well, that plan was for that church over there. Each individual pastor has to get God’s plan for His church, just as every Christian has to get God’s plan for their life. We can’t try to work another man’s plan for his church or his life any more than we can try to live in his house with his family and expect everything to be normal and successful. No. We have to get God’s plan for ourselves and our church.

God only occupies what He designs. God told Moses how to build the Ark of the Covenant. It wasn’t until after it was built according to God’s plans that the Lord filled it. God told David, and then Solomon, how to build the temple and it was not until after it was built – according to God’s plan, that he filled it with His presence.

God has already given us the avenue on how to know His will. It is found in His Word and by His Spirit.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. – Romans 8:14

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. – Galatians 5:16

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. – John 14:26

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. – Proverbs 20:27

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. – Psalm 119:105

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, – 2 Timothy 3:16

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. – Matthew 4:4

All of these scriptures show us that it is the Word of God and the Spirit of God that are our guide – not our plans or any other man and his plans. I urge you, for your church, your life, your family, whatever you are in charge of – stop and get God’s plan for it and don’t rely on a second rate, counterfeit plan of any man. It will not last, it will not succeed, it will not be God’s will for you, and in the end – it will sink in the sand.

Stay with the Word & Spirit of God.