Pastor shares recipe for church success

By Aaron Saenz
Associate Pastor, First UMC, Harlingen
I thought in this article I would take the opportunity to go a little old school and share a “how to” with you. I still remember showing my classmates how to make “capirotada.” You take some bread, cheese, raisins, cinnamon sticks, brown sugar and water, and you’re ready to begin. You layer the bread, top it with cheese and raisins, and then drench it with water made from boiling the cinnamon sticks and brown sugar. Add another couple of layers and pop it in the oven until the cheese melts. Pull it out, let it cool, and top it with cool whip! Bam! You get my grandma’s simple yet awesome dish.
Valley Praise celebrated “The Big Day.” We had 362 people in worship, which nearly required us to overflow into the hallways of Gutierrez Middle School. It was amazing to picture in my mind, the cafetorium with 60 people as it was when I first arrived, and then to see the crowd of people gathered to celebrate worship. How did we do it? Simple.
We took some people with passion. We added a vision and a plan. We made a couple of mobile signs to be moved around town for two weeks. We sent out some enthusiastic e-mails. We empowered the congregation to invite someone to worship with them. We drenched that with prayer and Bam!
It is no secret how we made way for God to move in such a big way. We just dreamt it, believed it, prayed for it, and watched it unfold. And by the way, we couldn’t have done it without our design and volunteer teams that helped to bring all of the ingredients together. These people worked tirelessly in order to present the best that we had to offer.
I have come to realize that when it comes to church growth, we need not to complicate things. We can just keep it simple and focus on empowering people as Jesus empowered his disciples. “Go and make fishers of men,” “come follow me,” are words that Jesus still voices to us today. Since we love Jesus, then we should “feed his sheep”. It is hard for me to admit, but even more filling than my grandmother’s sweet bread dish is Jesus the bread of life. All we have to do is prepare the meal.
So what next? Build disciples! Now that we have had The Big Day, we are to take those whom God has brought to us and build them up to continue to spread the Good News. Those who have now been fed, now in turn prepare to feed others. Simple!