How to Grow Your Church Part 1

If anyone can give direction on how to grow a church it would be the author of the Divine Principle.  Since he was visited at 18 by Jesus, Reverend Sun Myung Moon has walked a bloody path, been persecuted, imprisoned for spreading truth in North Korea and nearly killed time after time to bring this truth and grow a foundation of people ready to bring the Completed Testament to the world.  World Peace will happen when the individual can master themselves centered on God's words.

1) Clear Up Your Past Wrongdoing

We cannot expect a revolutionary progress by continuing to use the methods of operation that the leaders have relied upon up to now. We cannot continue to employ the way of life-style, witnessing methods, or the perspectives on life of faith of the past without any change. 

Why is this is? We have not been able to bring great results by using these means. It's a different story if there have been great results, but since we cannot deny that this is not how it has been, we must take up new attitudes and reform our life of faith, attitude toward life, and methods of witnessing. Therefore, without coming up with a new style of life of faith, attitude toward life-style, and witnessing methods, we cannot bring about new developments. 

In the past, we were able to carry on our life casually . . . However, you must realize that through this casual life-style, we cannot bring historical victory.

With innovative conviction to get rid of all the habitual vices of the past, we must lay the secure foundation for a new enlightened self, and attaining the character of a strong subject, we must strive forward resolutely with God on the side. When this can be realized, a new history of creation will dawn upon us. You should know that in any era in history, a new dispensation of creation appeared under these circumstances.

Thus, you have to eradicate all evil habits of the past, firmly be linked with the internal content of subject that has new meaning, and as a subjective pioneer become a creator and sacrifice for the cause of demolishing the environment. I strongly feel that this is the time for such a move.

Progress is the thing that we need the most. But the question more crucial than seeking progress is that of how to nurture purity within one's self first. So you need time for prayer and devotion. Devotion must be undertaken with great care and deep reflection.

You must clear up the past. If there still remains the mentality of the past, then I must seriously reflect where it would lead me. You must critically examine how pure your past has been and deeply reflect over how strongly I am bound by the past mentality. If you have been pure and genuine, you must critically examine whether or not you have been good, whether or not you are in the same state of mind right now. Moreover, you must critically reflect whether or not the wishes you hold are pure.

Then what is the state of having genuine goodness? Genuine goodness cannot abide where one is living selfishly. Goodness does not dwell where one is strengthening oneself. Why? Goodness is one of the bases for serving God. Attending God in the midst of goodness is the same as serving God as the master of goodness. The master of goodness is God, and not fallen man. [36-106]

2) Progress of the Church Depends Upon the Minister

When you are witnessing in the frontier, first you must become one with the internal aspects of the people of that village. Internal oneness means unity of heart. Then, you must lay the basis for the unity of lifestyle and ideology.

You must realize the necessity of uniting mind and body centering on God on the actual stage of action. At the moment when God and mind become one, the body must be made to submit. Only in such a way we can link the three points of formation, growth, and completion. Not only is this true on the individual level, but also people must be led in this way.

You should understand the will of God toward this era, and should not think that your responsibility does not extend beyond the village that you are in charge of, but realize that your responsibility extends to a level higher than that.

If you are in charge of a county, then you should extend yourself toward the state, and if you are in charge of a state then you should extend yourself toward the nation. You must extend yourself to one level higher. The battlefield is on the individual level, but your mind and faith must reach higher centering on the nation. You must take up this attitude, if you are to be in preparation for the future course of heaven. You can establish relative conditions on the foundation that God has prepared.

For this reason, whether or not you make progress depends entirely upon you. When you are involved in a fight on the individual level, you must think about the family, when in a fight on the individual level think about the clan, and when in a fight on the level of the clan, then think about the people. Similarly, your thinking must expand out toward national and worldwide fight. A person who places the fight in the front and prepares for the battlefield at the next level will never tire. We must cultivate this type of mentality.

If you were to complain despite your position as a pioneering missionary, then there will be no end to your complaints. If you were to be dissatisfied, there will be no end to your dissatisfaction. If you were to believe half way and doubt half the dispensation, then there is no end to that. If you were to rebel, there will be no end.

Because it does not have an end, it is bad. Thus, if you were to not complain, doubt, or rebel, then you must believe absolutely and follow absolutely. This is the way that you can continue to do much work for God.

Going this path will bring revival and multiplication; this is the Principle point of view. I believe that it is when one can live for the sake of greater things under difficult circumstances that one can do a lot for God.

What is the cause of a church's progress? Moreover, what is the fundamental standard for laying the foundation during the course of God's dispensation on the earth? If that depended on the church leader, then what should he do?

He must go through the sacrificial course. If you have objects who have become one with you and they are willing to toil and sacrifice on your behalf, then you can make offering through them.


3) Practice Divine Principle Lecturing


What is another reason? It is lack of your capability. In other words, you were not able to live an organized lifestyle. If there are 10 counties under your region, then you must have separate plans centering on each county.

Then, you must have separate plans for smaller units of organization under them. You must have plans to increase membership through witnessing, centering on counties that can influence the state and on cities that can influence the county. Having done this, you must try hard to materialize the plans.

Then what are the ways of making the plans materialize? First is Divine Principle lectures. We must proclaim our word. However, when I look at the way that you lecture, the majority of you do only a little bit at a time in the village, and the scope of lecture is very limited. In other words, the way you lecture is first do a little bit on the principles of creation and then a bit on the principles of last days and the Second Coming.

This is not acceptable. In order to carry out your strategy, you should plan ahead what kind of lecture content is suitable for which place, and then try to do both the first and second part of the principle. You must make this type of plans and carry them out. Most of you are not doing it this way.

In a year there are twelve months, in one month 30 days, in that 30 days ten places, or if that is not possible then seven places is all right. Whatever the case, you must go to the place that you planned on and lecture the Principle there. While lecturing, you should change lecture topics among yourselves.

Then, you do not have to do the same lecture in the same place twelve months of the year, and you can do lecturing at other places. If you do lecturing while switching around and taking turns, then you can soon be able to lecture the whole of the Principle. Accordingly, you should make plans by dividing the first and second part of Principle into, say, 12 parts, and continue to lecture. Then, your lecturing skill will improve tremendously.

However, you are lecturing according to your own habitual methods and attitude. You could not develop comprehensively because you only focused on the area that you were well versed in and neglected to connect with other parts.

Then, in order to make up for such insufficient areas, you must make plans centering on specific areas, whether a county or some other, and do the lecturing. Even in proclaiming the Divine Principle, we have to make strategies. We should look for ways to lecture on one topic and apply to the whole. In order to do this, you must become fully knowledgeable about the first and second parts of the Principle. There is no other way but to do a lot of lecturing.

You should not say the same thing over and over. While lecturing, you must decide the topic according to the object and the place, and change the content of your speech. In order to do this, you should find all relevant materials and research them.

Then, if you make plans centering on the question of how to increase the depth, width, and height of the content, you will naturally make progress. Because most people do not use this method of making plans and giving lectures, they cannot take a step forward, but remain at the status quo. Didn't you stay this way for several years or several tens of years?

When you go back this time, you must make fresh changes to your activity methods and perspectives. The regional leader should study the map of his region and find out how many villages he must visit. In general, there will be 200, at most 300 villages. After that, make plans to go to each village to spread the word.

If you do that, there will surely be someone in the village that God prepared in advance, someone who, based on the foundation of his ancestors' merit, can be connected to our work. So, being responsible for bringing them before God, you should at least visit him three times while you are staying there. With this strategy, no matter how difficult the circumstances, you should take the time out to make a lecture tour.

After the first lecture tour, then the second tour does not require more time than the first. From the second lecture tour you need specific content. You must build organization. In other words, if there is someone who displayed a good reaction during the lecture, then you should write to him after you come back.

After connecting to him through the letter, you should make a request to him that since you are going back there to return his hospitality from the last time, you would like him to gather more people around. Then, when you lecture again, you should not repeat the same material as the last time, but lecture on some new content.



4) Be a Leader Who Raises Members
What is another reason that our church could not develop? It is because we could not follow through in taking care of those who joined. Despite the fact that we should pay increasingly more attention to the people whom we have witnessed to, we neglect them after they join the movement. This amounts to killing the new members. At least for three years, you must continue to take good care of them under any difficulty.

Why is this so? That person's faith grows gradually. The time that he first encountered the Divine Principle and one-year afterwards are totally different. After one year, new members will be able to understand more its three-dimensional content, both internal and external.

The more they understand, the more desperate they become in wanting to know the Principle. So, they would want to approach one who can guide them. When you reflect on this process through which one becomes a new member, you should spend more time to make more specific plans and satisfy their hearts craving for truth.

You should not take the opposite attitude that since they have already become members, you need do no more than just telling them, "You should study on your on from now." You should attend to their well being for at least three years after they joined.

Comparing a year old member and a two-year old member in their normal path of faith, the latter will become involved more deeply and more concretely. He becomes more enthusiastic in more concrete ways, and desires to become involved in all areas. You should try to take care and raise these people.

The one who is doing the lecturing must put them under the wings and raise them. After about one year, their scope of understanding in Principle will broaden. The scope of their experience and realization will also broaden and deepen gradually.

Thus, they increasingly want to learn more about the Principle, but since they cannot find a subject who can teach them further about the Principle, they become aware of the inattentive attitude of the older members toward them.

So when they face difficulty in their environment or have some doubts, you must provide an explanation with the Principle, and make them understand that the formula of progress is that way.

If you do this, then they will come to realize that the Principle has deep meaning and is great and gigantic. However, because you did not pay enough attention to them, they completely lost the environment to have a stimulating experience.

Therefore, they were first inspired by the Principle, but such feelings could not last. So you must continually guide them. If you can no longer be responsible, then you must find a replacement who is connected to the foundation of heart on which you have been raising the member, and let him inherit the responsibility.

Because a new leader goes to this region with public authority, if there are about thirty members there, he uses the excuse that he wants to solidify the system, and employs dominating methods based on his own concepts.

If you act this way, you will lose all members. You won't be able to fulfill the responsibility of inheriting from the predecessor. Until now, all regional leaders made this mistake. You should not order members around when you have not even made all the plans about the heartistic and internal things and inherit them, or when you have not even created the environment for the members to voluntarily request that orders be given, more so when they do not desire nor understand the changes you want to make.

A new leader should be receiving criticisms from the members at least for the first three months. You should not tell members to do this or do that according to you own opinion while members are still observing you.

Even for someone you have been raising for three years, there can be side-effects if you become too commanding, so it will create more problems for the new member if you tell them to do this and do that as a stranger who has not even established a heartistic relationship. At least for three months, you must devote yourself.

In the method of transferring leadership, there has been this type of mistake, and there was also a failure to make introduction to the new leader about the person that you have witnessed to. Because the leader behaved in this way, they felt disappointed.

Even worse, the new leader disappointed them further, instead of resolving their dissatisfaction, embracing and caring for them, providing solutions to their difficulties, or giving them hope for the future that will give them power to move on.

When this happens, members simply have no choice but to fall away. If they miss church three times, some accidents will occur, and if they do not come for one, two, and three weeks, they will become much more distant.

They will be worried that when they meet the leader, the leader will certainly ask them why they are not coming to the church. If they are questioned, then although the actual reason is due to disappointment, they cannot give an honest answer but tell some ties. If this pattern is repeated several times, they become increasingly distant, and eventually leave completely.

Even though you have brought in members in such way, you sacrificed many people because of bad policy in taking care of members after they joined. So, what should the leader always be concerned about?

The mission of the leader is not spreading and conveying the word, but reaping the harvest. 

You must understand this. Proclaiming the word is planting seed, and reaping harvest afterwards is the mission of the leader. In other words, you must give water to the young bud, and uproot the weeds and help the blossoming of flowers in order to produce fruits.

The mission of the leader will be completed only after the fruit matures after some time and he is able to reap the harvest. A new leader should not try to implant again from scratch what the predecessor has already done.

Rather, he must take a good care in raising what is already there. Although someone else planted the seeds, if he can raise them well and bring in harvest, then they will go into the storage of heaven. However, because he does not have such an attitude, because he does not try to first understand the personality and leadership style of the past leader, but plants his own seeds, they will die. You should never make such mistakes.

I believe that because the leadership transfer and inheriting responsibility did not go smooth, many people were sacrificed. Looking from this point of view, more than the spreading of words, leaders must be able to reap the harvest. You should not be a leader who implants seeds, but a leader who collects the harvest after implanting seeds. It takes more than three years in order to make a harvest. You should not try to reap right away. For this reason, Jesus wandered for three years in order to find the twelve disciples. This is the principle. Therefore, you must devote yourself for three years.


5) You Should Become a Leader Who Lives for the Sake of Others.

Who enters the highest realm of spirit world? If you live for the sake of others, you will penetrate deep into God's heart. If you go to the spirit world after leading a life of faith according to my teachings, even if I tell you not to come near me, the universe will automatically lead you toward me.

I told the church leaders to gather here today. Why did our church not develop? That is because the leader did not have this heartistic content. That is absolutely true. When God puts on that pair of glasses and looks, He cannot find anyone qualified.

So, the spirit world cannot cooperate, and thus, there cannot be progress. Leaders know how to order members around, but do not know how to run errands on their behalf. This is where the problem is. There cannot be a progress so far because there is no leader who can live 95% for the sake of others.

If you change your attitude from now and live 95% for others as I have asked you, but there is still no progress, then I am a false one. I am a liar. If there are just three people who are living for the sake of others, then they can expand out to the four directions. Do you understand what this means?

Even Jesus wiped the feet of disciples with the towel on his head. He said that he came to serve, not to be served. Whey they refused, he made the last proclamation that "if I do not wash your feet, then I have nothing to do with you."

Do you understand these words? Even Jesus led this type of life. What I mean is that although his scale in numeric terms was not so big, he lived 95% for the sake of others. Do you understand clearly? [Yes] When you talk about 95% living for others, you should be able to do so with a clear and sincere mind. Then, all will be O.K. Do you understand? [Yes]

So, you should sleep less, overcome eating, be efficient with time to do more activities for the sake of others, become examples for others, and at times you should even hold their hands to cry in tears, to pray and struggle, pleading with them to protect the nation and inspire patriotic and God-centered ideology. This is linked with the love of parents, of filial son, of patriot, of saints, and of sages.

If someone really leads this type of life-style, then after he passes away there will be a foundation on the earth, for all whom he cared for will shed tears from the deepest part of their heart and really lament his death. He will have comrades. The branches will be spreading out.

So his sons and daughters can be proud of him. You should become ancestors who will be praised as true father, and become such husbands, citizens of the nation, humanity of the world, and citizens of heaven. If you want to become someone whom others can refer to as "a loving saint that represented heaven," then you must possess altruistic love and must shed tears while struggling hard.

Ladies and gentlemen! If you want to witness, then you cannot remain insensitive after spending one and two years in the village. You must weep while clinging on to a rock or holding on to a tree. Since you were supposed to have just met a person but you could not, you do not have the qualifications to even appeal to the rock and tree.

However, when you still tell them your story and lament in tears, if the mountains and rivers can sympathetically support you, then those who grow up eating plants and grains that were harvested from there will naturally follow you.

Wherever you go in your region, it should be that you feel the strong urge to cry, and the feeling that your devotion is so deep that even heaven cannot forget it should remain as a treasure in your heart.

"Just as God has cared for you, you should live for his sake, and after meeting me, just as I have lived for you, you should live for the sake of members." 

All will return to you. Isn't that true? Concerning this, many of you are actually like thieves, taking things away. There are too many of those who claim for themselves. You snatch away God's things as well as members' things . . . This is the scariest position to be in. If you do that, then your lineage will be cut off before the seventh generation of descendants is over.

Have you become one who is indebted to others, or one to whom others are indebted? Have you become one who adds a burden to others or shares the burden of others? [We became those who added burdens.] Is that true? [Yes]

Then, you must make an improvement. God does not help you, and why does He not help you? If you look at how He helps me, it is clear that He should be able to help you. But why does He not help you? Because the fundamental rule is different, because your way of thinking is wrong, because the direction you are heading is wrong, so He cannot help you. [70-149]


Please Return for Tomorrow's Post: How to Grow Your Church Part 2