The Believers’ Nucleus

Every group of Christians is effectively a church

That church ALWAYS starts with hardcore believers

  • we’re going to omit crap churches and false teachers for this discussion (e.g., JWs, Joel Osteen)

these believers are sincerely committed

  • e.g., 6 believers who start a church plant
  • they will be a concentration of salt and light

eventually they grow and pick up a wide variety of good believers

  • in the process, they’ll pick up a few nonbelievers
  • e.g., 3 years later, 30 people and 4 nonbelievers

the [influence] of believers means that, as salt and light, they’ll grow incrementally, but the nonbelievers will typically grow exponentially (by a comparison factor of ^1.2 to 4, depending on how much accountability everyone has)

  • e.g., 3 more years later, 100 people and 40 believers

as it scales, the political power supplants the [spiritual gifts] (since 100 lazy people can do more than 10 devoted people), and the church has somewhat lost their way

  • e.g., 3 more years later, 500 people and 120 believers

finally, it reaches a point where the “nucleus” is still made of (mostly) believers, but the rest of the church is just a social club

  • e.g., 3 more years later, 2000 people and 200 believers

at this point, growth generally stops

  • the potency of the salt and light is now weak enough that it doesn’t permeate the whole church
  • if you grabbed a person from there completely at random, there’s an >90% chance they’re either not a believer or just going through the motions

the core nucleus is still there, but the church has reached “full maturity”

  • any [persecution] will basically trim the church’s “fat”
  • however, even in a persecuted church, the “dead ratio” will rise from ~10% to ~30% (i.e., still a majority of nonbelievers)
  • any schism will just create another bubble of the same, with the legitimate believers often still staying in fellowship ACROSS the schism while the group re-grows
  • and, over time, everyone forgets the distinctions of that schism (e.g., American Baptist vs. Southern Baptist)

thus, there are clear action items to take if you’re in a “lukewarm” church

  • you’re in a “mature” church, and they will be stuck this way
  • find the in-depth Bible studies, since that’s a “mini-church” of its own
  • look for the church plants

and, if you run a “lukewarm church”, you’re a bit stuck

  • praise the ever-loving heck out of the most unnoticed people living like Christ
  • find ways to “split” the church more, which redistributes [responsibility] back to a smaller number of people
  • spend more time on explicit themes that the church’s [culture] doesn’t like (e.g., in USA God’s view on divorce, gluttony, how Acts people lived)
  • this isn’t meant to antagonize, but the Holy Spirit will naturally antagonize the “club members” to find “fellowship” elsewhere

I am definitely aiming for smaller Bible studies where I can find dialogue and meaningful connection. Beyond personality, there’s a certain “stroad” problem.

I intend to write an essay on this soon. There’s a pattern present in all churches:

A gathering of legitimate believers follows Jesus wholeheartedly, together. Let's say there's 10 of them.
They are known by their love for each other. They attract new people, most of them being believers. We'll say 30 people with 28 being actual believers.
At some point, some nonbelievers infiltrate. They could be friends, family, whatever.
As it grows, the believers' effectiveness diminishes: the salt and light are diluted. Let's say there's 100 people and 80 of them are actual believers.
Through social momentum and the nature of referrals, they keep growing, and the believers continue coming in, but the ratio goes down. Let's say there's 300 people and 200 actual believers.
As the growth happens, the connection goes down due to scale (i.e., in a vast crowd) along with the diminuition of believers (e.g., 1.6:1 in a megachurch versus 15:1 when there were 30).
This ratio is key, and more believers means more growth.
God has a way of making "walls" against the tare-heavy regions, which can come through denominational splits, social estrangement, life circumstances that involve moving, and others.

And, back to the “stroad” reference, a street is quiet enough to let life happen, and a road is where people move fast between places. But, we make a stroad when the street gets too busy: it’s too frantic to let life happen, but has artifacts that prevent unfettered speed. Most churches become stroads by about 150 members.

The answer is to find the good believers wherever you are, and aim for smaller when possible.