Thursday – Radical Love: The Secret Ingredient to Explosive Church Growth

Have you ever wondered why some corps and churches explode with growth while others, despite perfect programmes and polished presentations, slowly dwindle? I’ve visited corps with state-of-the-art buildings that felt cold and empty, and I’ve also worshipped in leaky halls packed with people radiating joy. The difference? It’s love. Simple, radical, costly love.

Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. John 13:35

Jesus didn’t say the world would know we’re his followers by our doctrine, by our worship style, or by our community programmes. He said they’d know by our love. Full stop.

Think about the early church in Acts for a moment. They saw phenomenal growth – three thousand in one day! What was their church growth strategy? All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had... There were no needy people among them. Acts 4:32,34

They loved each other so radically that they shared everything. Not just spiritual blessings or encouraging words, but actual possessions. Can you imagine saying, “Your car broke down? Take mine”. Or “You lost your job? Here’s half my savings”. Or even, “You’re alone for Christmas? Come and eat with us”.

That kind of love is magnetic. In a world where people ghost their friends, cancel relationships by text, and unfriend family members over political disagreements, genuine love stands out like a beacon in the darkness.

But here’s what we’ve done in many cases: we’ve formalised love. We’ve created programmes to show care, groups to organise compassion, rotas to schedule relationships. We’ve systematised what should be spontaneous. And people can tell the difference between genuine love and religious duty from miles away.

God save us from corps and churches where everyone’s very polite. They shake each other’s hands, ask each other how they are, but then move on to the next person. There are people in their congregation who eat Sunday lunch alone every week. They haven’t been inside anyone’s home. No one really knows them.

I’d rather be in a small corps or church that’s bursting at the seams because when someone’s sick, meals appear. When someone’s struggling, bills get mysteriously paid. When someone’s celebrating, the whole corps or church shows up. They do life together – the messy, the beautiful, and the costly reality of it.

People love being around those who love them. It’s that simple. We can have the best preaching, the finest music, the best-pressed uniforms, the most relevant programmes, but without love, we’re just making noise. We might attract a crowd, but we won’t build a family.

Love isn’t a feeling or a theory. It’s a choice, repeated daily. It’s inconvenient. It costs time, it costs money, and it costs emotional energy. It means opening your home when you’d rather rest. It means listening to the same story for the hundredth time. It means forgiving when you’d rather hold a grudge.

But when a church genuinely loves – when people experience the costly, consistent, radical love of Christ through his body – growth isn’t a problem to solve. It’s a natural consequence. Because everyone’s looking for somewhere to belong, and nothing creates belonging like being genuinely loved.

Prayer: Lord, we confess we’ve often substituted programmes for presence, and politeness for passion. Teach us to love like you loved – sacrificially, consistently, and without conditions. Make our churches irresistible through the magnetism of genuine love. Amen.

Reflection Question: Are you the kind of Christian that attracts people to Jesus through love, or have you settled for religious politeness?