God Gives the Growth—but Pastors Still Plant and Water - Week 7
Week 7 of the Small Church Guys series: Healthy Things Grow—A Biblical and Global Approach to Natural Church Development
Pastors live with a tension that can become exhausting. On one hand, Scripture is clear: God alone produces spiritual life. On the other hand, Scripture is equally clear: pastors and churches still have work to do.
We are called to preach, Teach, Pray, Disciple, Equip, Organize, Serve, Evangelize, Develop leaders, Care for people, Evaluate fruit, and sometimes make difficult changes. So which is it? Do we trust God to grow His Church? Or do we work intentionally to make the church healthier?
The biblical answer is both.
Paul captured this tension beautifully:
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
—1 Corinthians 3:6
Paul did not say:
“I planted, Apollos watered, and together we figured out how to make the church grow.”
Neither did he say:
“God gives the growth, so planting and watering are unnecessary.”
Paul planted, Apollos watered, God gave the growth.
This distinction lies near the heart of Natural Church Development.
The NCD training describes its “All By Itself” principle as a recognition that growth belongs to God alone. Human beings nurture life, but they cannot force it. Our responsibility is to cooperate with God, remove unnecessary barriers, and cultivate healthy conditions rather than attempt to manufacture growth through human effort.
For pastors, this can be enormously freeing.
You are responsible for faithfulness.
You are responsible for stewardship.
You are responsible for planting and watering.
But you are not God.
You cannot create life.
Two Dangerous Extremes
Church leaders often drift toward one of two extremes.
The first believes that everything depends upon human strategy.
The second believes that because everything depends upon God, strategy does not matter.
Both contain part of the truth.
Neither gives us the whole biblical picture.
For the purposes of this discussion, we can describe them as control-driven ministry and passive spirituality.
Natural Church Development calls pastors toward something healthier: responsible cooperation with the God who gives growth.
Extreme #1: “If We Do the Right Things, We Can Produce Growth”
This approach places enormous confidence in human technique.
Find the correct strategy.
Develop the right program.
Improve the service.
Fix the branding.
Hire the right staff.
Follow the successful model.
Improve the systems.
Increase the advertising.
Then growth will happen.
Planning, leadership, organization, communication, and wise strategy are not wrong. Scripture repeatedly affirms wisdom, stewardship, diligence, and careful planning.
But ministry becomes unhealthy when tools designed to serve the mission begin to carry expectations that belong only to God.
A pastor may unconsciously begin to believe:
“If I can just figure out the right combination of leadership and strategy, I can make this church grow.”
That belief is dangerous because it places the pastor in a role Scripture reserves for God.
The NCD training explicitly warns against over-controlling ministry habits and contrasts mere human effort with divine cooperation. Its emphasis is not on forcing growth but on removing barriers to what God is already doing.
We can build systems.
We cannot regenerate a heart.
We can create opportunities for discipleship.
We cannot force spiritual hunger.
We can train leaders.
We cannot manufacture calling.
We can share the gospel.
We cannot make a person believe.
We can cultivate soil.
We cannot create life inside the seed.
The Pastor Is Not the Savior of the Church
This is particularly important for pastors of small churches.
In a smaller congregation, the pastor may become the center of nearly everything.
When attendance declines, the pastor feels responsible.
When giving decreases, the pastor feels responsible.
When volunteers resign, the pastor feels responsible.
When visitors do not return, the pastor feels responsible.
When people fail to mature spiritually, the pastor feels responsible.
When the church does not grow, the pastor may privately conclude:
“I must be doing something wrong.”
Sometimes leadership changes are necessary.
Sometimes pastors do need to grow.
Sometimes ineffective structures, unclear vision, poor communication, unresolved conflict, or leadership habits are restricting health.
A pastor should be willing to examine those honestly.
But responsibility is not the same as sovereignty.
The pastor is a shepherd.
Christ is the Head of the Church.
Paul refused to allow the Corinthian believers to elevate human leaders beyond their proper role:
“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.”
—1 Corinthians 3:5
Paul called himself a servant.
Not the source.
Not the Savior.
Not the giver of growth.
Pastors need that distinction deeply embedded in their theology.
Extreme #2: “God Gives the Growth, So We Just Need to Pray”
The opposite extreme sounds more spiritual.
If God gives growth, why talk about strategy?
Why evaluate ministries?
Why measure anything?
Why create systems?
Why develop leaders?
Why change structures?
Why conduct assessments?
Why think about church health?
Should we not simply preach the Bible, pray, and trust God?
Certainly we should preach Scripture.
Certainly we should pray.
Certainly we must depend upon God.
But Scripture never presents dependence upon God as an excuse for neglecting human responsibility.
The farmer in Jesus’ parables trusts processes he cannot control, but he still scatters seed.
Paul trusted God but still planted churches, trained leaders, wrote letters, resolved theological conflicts, developed teams, and established leadership.
Nehemiah prayed—and organized workers.
Moses sought God—and implemented Jethro’s leadership counsel.
The apostles prayed—and reorganized the church’s care system in Acts 6.
Faith and responsible action are not enemies.
Prayer Should Produce Faithfulness, Not Passivity
There is a kind of spirituality that can unintentionally become avoidance.
A church has a serious leadership problem.
“We just need to pray.”
The congregation is losing younger generations.
“We just need to pray.”
Volunteers are exhausted because the church operates too many programs.
“We just need to pray.”
Conflict has remained unresolved for years.
“We just need to pray.”
The church has little relationship with its surrounding community.
“We just need to pray.”
Yes, pray.
But prayer may lead us directly into action.
James wrote:
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.”
—James 1:22
Sometimes the answer to prayer is the courage to change.
Sometimes it is the humility to admit that a ministry is not working.
Sometimes it is developing another leader.
Sometimes it is ending a program.
Sometimes it is apologizing.
Sometimes it is listening to the community.
Sometimes it is reorganizing how ministry happens.
Sometimes it is confronting an unhealthy culture.
Dependence upon the Spirit should make churches more responsive to truth, not less willing to act.
The Farmer Gives Us the Better Picture
Jesus repeatedly used agriculture to describe the kingdom of God.
One of the most important passages for understanding NCD is Mark 4:
“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”
—Mark 4:26–28
Notice both sides.
The farmer does something.
He scatters seed.
But something also happens that he cannot produce.
The seed sprouts.
It develops.
The crop matures.
Jesus points toward a life process beyond the farmer’s control.
The NCD training calls attention to this “All By Itself” dynamic and teaches that healthy ministry cooperates with God-given processes rather than trying to force them.
The farmer is neither controlling nor passive.
He is a cultivator.
That may be one of the best descriptions of healthy pastoral leadership.
Pastors are cultivators of environments in which God-given life can flourish.
Planting Still Matters
Paul said, “I planted.”
Planting represents intentional action.
Churches plant when they:
- Preach the gospel
- Teach Scripture
- Build relationships
- Share Christ
- Invite people into community
- Develop leaders
- Create discipleship opportunities
- Establish ministries
- Start new groups
- Serve real needs
- Make room for people to use their gifts
Seeds do not plant themselves.
Pastors and believers must engage the mission.
Paul asked in Romans 10:
“How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”
—Romans 10:14
God gives growth, but He chooses to work through people.
This protects NCD from becoming passive.
Healthy church development is not simply watching for God to do something.
It is participating faithfully in what He has called the Church to do.
Watering Still Matters
Apollos watered.
Watering represents nurture.
New believers need discipleship.
Emerging leaders need development.
Relationships need care.
Spiritual gifts need opportunities.
Ministries need evaluation.
Structures need adjustment.
People need encouragement.
Watering is often less dramatic than planting.
Planting can feel exciting.
A new ministry launches.
A new believer responds.
A new group begins.
Watering is the slower work of helping life mature.
Paul understood that planting and watering were different roles but part of the same process.
The church needs both.
A congregation that constantly launches new activity without nurturing what it has planted may create beginnings without maturity.
Healthy churches do not merely initiate.
They cultivate.
God Gives the Increase
The third part is the one pastors must remember:
“God gave the growth.”
This means that spiritual fruit must ultimately be understood as grace.
When a person comes to faith, God has worked.
When someone experiences transformation, God has worked.
When a leader matures, God has worked.
When relationships are reconciled, God has worked.
When a congregation becomes healthier, God has worked.
This does not erase human participation.
It places it in proper perspective.
The NCD training later applies 1 Corinthians 3:6 directly to church growth: Paul plants, Apollos waters, but God makes the church grow.
This is the posture we want:
Active hands. Dependent hearts.
Work Hard Without Trying to Be God
One of the most difficult pastoral tensions is learning to work diligently without believing everything depends upon you.
Paul modeled this elsewhere:
“For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
—Colossians 1:29
Paul toiled.
But the energy was God's.
Similarly, Philippians 2:12–13 holds human responsibility and divine activity together:
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you…”
We work because God works.
Not instead of God.
Not in competition with God.
Not independently of God.
Christian ministry is cooperation.
The NCD paradigm repeatedly returns to the difference between human effort and divine cooperation.
That distinction can transform the emotional experience of ministry.
Pastors can work intensely without carrying the illusion of omnipotence.
They can plan without worshiping the plan.
They can evaluate without trusting the measurement more than the Spirit.
They can lead change without assuming they can control every outcome.
They can remain faithful even when growth happens more slowly than hoped.
Removing Barriers May Be More Important Than Adding Programs
When a church wants growth, the instinct is usually addition.
Add another ministry.
Add another event.
Add another service.
Add another staff position.
Add another communication channel.
Natural Church Development repeatedly encourages another question:
What is preventing healthy life from developing more freely?
The training states that removing growth barriers can be more potent than continually creating new growth strategies.
This is a significant shift.
Imagine trying to grow a garden while a heavy covering blocks sunlight.
Adding more fertilizer will not solve the fundamental problem.
The restriction must be removed.
Churches may experience similar barriers:
- Leadership bottlenecks
- Unresolved conflict
- Overcomplicated structures
- Volunteer exhaustion
- Lack of trust
- Inward relationships
- Spiritual passivity
- Roles disconnected from gifts
- Programs consuming energy without fruit
The answer may not be to try harder.
It may be to identify and remove what is restricting life.
Round Wheels and Square Wheels
The NCD training uses the picture of round versus square wheels to illustrate the difference between effort and effectiveness.
Imagine two people moving the same load.
One uses round wheels.
The other uses square wheels.
Both may work hard.
Both may be sincere.
Both may be exhausted at the end of the day.
But they will not produce the same result.
Hard work is not automatically effective work.
Churches can become proud of effort:
“We are busy.”
“Our volunteers are committed.”
“Our pastor works constantly.”
“We have activities every night.”
But effort alone is not the goal.
Faithful stewardship asks whether our efforts cooperate with life-giving principles.
Sometimes the most spiritual decision a church can make is to stop pushing a square wheel and ask whether God is showing them a healthier way.
The Question Is Not “How Hard Are We Working?”
A congregation can be exhausted and unhealthy.
This is especially important for small churches.
Ten committed volunteers may attempt to maintain ministries designed for a church with fifty volunteers.
The result is not necessarily greater faithfulness.
It may be burnout.
A bivocational pastor may carry responsibilities that should eventually be shared with others.
The answer is not always:
“Pastor, you need to work harder.”
The better questions may be:
- Are we empowering enough people?
- Are members serving according to gifts?
- Are our structures supporting ministry?
- Are we maintaining activities that no longer bear fruit?
- Are our expectations realistic?
- Are we cooperating with the strengths God has already given us?
Sustainability is one of the NCD growth forces, emphasizing long-term health, wise use of resources, adaptability, and the prevention of burnout.
God is not glorified by needless exhaustion.
Faithful labor and healthy sustainability can belong together.
Planning and the Holy Spirit Belong Together
Some churches create a false opposition between spiritual leadership and strategic leadership.
One side emphasizes:
Prayer.
Faith.
Discernment.
The Holy Spirit.
The other emphasizes:
Planning.
Evaluation.
Goals.
Structures.
Data.
But these need not be enemies.
The Book of Acts contains prayer and planning.
Spiritual discernment and organizational decisions.
Miracles and meetings.
Prophetic direction and practical administration.
Acts 6 is a clear example.
A serious care problem arose.
The apostles did not choose between spirituality and organization.
They protected prayer and the ministry of the Word while changing the church’s leadership structure so the neglected widows could be cared for.
The result was not less spiritual ministry.
The change supported the mission.
“And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly…”
—Acts 6:7
Good structures can serve spiritual life.
Healthy evaluation can strengthen ministry.
Planning can become an act of stewardship.
The problem is not planning.
The problem is believing the plan produces life.
Assessment Does Not Replace Discernment
The same principle applies to Natural Church Development assessments.
An assessment cannot hear God for a church.
It cannot replace prayer.
It cannot replace Scripture.
It cannot determine the congregation’s calling.
But it can reveal patterns that help leaders ask better questions.
Think of a soil test.
A farmer may understand agriculture deeply and still benefit from knowing what is happening beneath the surface.
The information does not grow the crop.
It helps the farmer cultivate more wisely.
Likewise, church-health evaluation should serve discernment rather than replace it.
The NCD training presents self-reflection and self-evaluation as ongoing practices of healthy churches rather than one-time events.
Assessment provides information.
Prayer seeks wisdom.
Leadership translates insight into action.
God gives life.
The Global Church Plants and Waters Differently
This principle is especially important in a global church-health conversation.
Planting and watering will not look identical around the world.
A pastor in a major Western city may plant through digital engagement, community partnerships, and neighborhood groups.
A pastor in a rural African setting may work through village relationships, extended families, and oral discipleship.
A congregation in South Asia may depend heavily upon household networks.
A church in Latin America may build evangelism around relational hospitality and community presence.
A congregation in Europe may need to cultivate trust with people who possess deep skepticism toward religious institutions.
A church serving refugees may plant through practical care, language assistance, and long-term relational presence.
A church operating under persecution may need to develop disciples and leaders quietly through small relational networks.
The principle is universal:
Plant.
Water.
Trust God.
The methods must remain contextual.
Different Seasons Require Different Expectations
Every farmer understands seasons.
There are times to prepare soil.
Times to plant.
Times to water.
Times to prune.
Times to wait.
Times to harvest.
Church life also contains seasons.
Some congregations experience rapid numerical growth.
Others spend years rebuilding trust after conflict.
Some are raising a new generation of leaders.
Others are recovering from pastoral failure.
Some are serving communities experiencing migration, war, poverty, or social upheaval.
Some are repositioning after decades of decline.
It can be unfair to judge every season by the same visible outcome.
A church rebuilding after crisis may be growing healthier even if attendance has not yet increased.
A congregation developing young leaders may be planting seeds whose fruit will appear years later.
A church confronting unhealthy structures may initially become smaller while becoming healthier.
Natural Church Development describes growth as organic rather than linear.
This encourages patience.
Organic growth does not move on our preferred schedule.
Faithfulness Cannot Always Be Measured Immediately
Pastors must learn to distinguish faithfulness from immediate results.
Noah preached in a difficult generation.
Jeremiah ministered without the kind of visible success modern leadership culture might celebrate.
Jesus Himself experienced moments when crowds left rather than increased.
Paul planted churches, but some later experienced serious problems.
Visible results matter.
Fruitfulness matters.
But immediate numerical increase cannot become the only measure of faithful ministry.
A pastor may faithfully plant in soil that will produce fruit after someone else becomes responsible for watering.
Paul understood this.
He did not need to receive all the credit because he understood that ministry belongs to God.
This Changes How We Celebrate Success
If God gives the growth, then ministry success should produce gratitude rather than pride.
When the church grows:
Thank God.
When people are saved:
Thank God.
When leaders emerge:
Thank God.
When finances improve:
Thank God.
When a ministry becomes fruitful:
Thank God.
Leaders still celebrate people’s faithfulness.
Paul acknowledged workers constantly.
But no one becomes the source of life.
This protects the church from celebrity culture.
It protects pastors from believing success proves superiority.
And it reminds churches that the methods God uses in one season may not become permanent formulas.
This Changes How We Process Disappointment
The principle also reshapes failure.
A ministry may be faithfully planted and not produce the expected outcome.
That does not automatically mean the church should continue indefinitely without evaluation.
Fruit should still be examined.
But pastors can ask healthier questions:
- Were we faithful?
- Did we understand the need accurately?
- Did we act in accordance with biblical principles?
- What did we learn?
- What obstacles became visible?
- What should we adjust?
- Is God redirecting us?
- Are we trying to force an outcome that is not ours to control?
Failure becomes information rather than identity.
The pastor can learn without concluding:
“The church did not grow, therefore I am a failure.”
Four Questions That Clarify Our Responsibility
When facing a ministry challenge, leaders can ask four simple questions.
1. What can only God do?
Only God can:
- Convict hearts
- Regenerate people
- Produce spiritual life
- Transform character at the deepest level
- Give genuine spiritual fruit
- Sustain His Church
These belong to God.
2. What has God asked us to do?
We can:
- Pray
- Preach
- Teach
- Disciple
- Equip
- Organize
- Serve
- Evangelize
- Reconcile
- Develop people
- Evaluate
- Adjust
These belong to faithful stewardship.
3. What barriers are within our responsibility to address?
Perhaps:
- An ineffective process
- Poor communication
- Leadership over-functioning
- An unresolved conflict
- Volunteer burnout
- A structure that no longer serves the mission
- Lack of follow-up
- Failure to develop people
We should not ask God to miraculously bypass obstacles He has given us responsibility to address.
4. What outcome must we surrender?
After planting and watering, leaders must release the result.
That is faith.
One Step This Week
Gather your leadership team around two columns.
Label the first:
OUR RESPONSIBILITY
Label the second:
GOD’S RESPONSIBILITY
Under your responsibility, identify actions the church can faithfully take.
For example:
- Equip emerging leaders
- Simplify an ineffective process
- Build relationships with neighbors
- Improve follow-up
- Strengthen prayer
- Address conflict
- Train volunteers
- Stop an unfruitful activity
- Clarify responsibilities
Under God’s responsibility, name what you cannot manufacture:
- Spiritual hunger
- Conversion
- Heart change
- Genuine unity
- Calling
- Divine favor
- Spiritual fruit
- Growth
Then pray over both lists.
Ask God for courage to take responsibility for what belongs to you and faith to surrender what belongs to Him.
Questions for Pastors and Leadership Teams
As you reflect, consider:
- Are we presently trying to force an outcome that belongs to God?
- Have we used “trusting God” as a reason to avoid needed action?
- Where are we working hard but not necessarily wisely?
- Which ministries feel like square wheels—requiring enormous effort for limited fruit?
- What barriers may be restricting healthy development?
- Are our structures helping life or fighting against it?
- What is ours to plant right now?
- What needs continued watering?
- What are we trying to control that we need to surrender?
- Where might God be inviting us to wait patiently?
- Are we judging a long-term season by short-term results?
- How could our leadership become both more intentional and more dependent upon God?
Plant. Water. Trust.
Pastor, you cannot make your church grow.
That may sound discouraging.
It should actually bring freedom.
You are not responsible for producing the supernatural.
But neither are you called to passivity.
You can prepare the soil.
You can plant seed.
You can water faithfully.
You can pull weeds.
You can remove unnecessary barriers.
You can develop people.
You can strengthen structures.
You can pray.
You can listen.
You can evaluate.
You can change what needs to change.
And then you can sleep.
The farmer in Mark 4 goes to bed.
While he sleeps, something is happening in the soil that he cannot explain or control.
God is at work.
At Small Church Guys, we believe healthy things grow.
But healthy growth does not come from pastors learning how to play God.
It comes when churches faithfully cultivate the life God has placed among them while trusting Him to accomplish what only He can do.
Plant faithfully.
Water wisely.
Remove the barriers you can.
And trust God for the growth.
Work Faithfully Without Carrying What Only God Can Carry
Small Church Guys helps pastors and leadership teams navigate the tension between spiritual dependence and responsible leadership. Through Natural Church Development assessment, coaching, and contextual implementation, we help churches identify the conditions they can influence, remove barriers to health, and cultivate environments where God-given life can flourish.
The goal is not to teach pastors how to manufacture growth.
It is to help churches become faithful cultivators of the life God has already placed within His body.
Contact Small Church Guys for NCD coaching, church-health assessment, implementation support, or ongoing guidance as you plant, water, and trust God for the increase.
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