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It was my privilege to be associated with Ira North from 1952 to 1963. He was a man of great vision. A man who was a great influence in my life.

The Madison church was started about 1934, after two or three gospel meetings and after door knocking. About two years later they had their own building. The contribution the first Sunday in that building was $21.10. When Ira came in 1952, the church was about 450. He moved to Madison soon after I came to the Madison church. He was full of fire, full of vision, full of enthusiasm. They were meeting in the basement of the building they had planned to construct. His goal for the next year was to be meeting in the new building. They did that. In April of 1955, it was necessary to go to two worship services. Attendance continued to grow. In 1966, the 3000 seat auditorium was constructed. In 1977, their annual budget was one million dollars. As long as Brother North had his health he never stopped dreaming. He never stopped planning. They never stopped building because that was the nature of Ira North. New buildings were only constructed after the present building overflowed with two services.

He had a doctorate degree and I often wondered where he got his fire for evangelism. I don't know where he got it. I wish now I had asked that question. I believe the answer would be from God and His Word, probably not from men.

Ira North was a man of great vision. He was a man of charisma. A preacher that wanted to make his life count in the greatest possible way for the cause of Christ, that was Ira North. He could have been the head of a great company, a CEO, and done a good job. That was not what he wanted. He wanted to build a great church. I think it is a great characteristic of an individual who has a strong desire to build a great church for the cause of Christ. This should be the hearts desire of all who preach. It should be our desire to build a great church to the glory of God.

He said attitude determines altitude. He always had a positive, enthusiastic attitude toward growth. He never got out of focus. He kept his focus on growth as long as I knew him. He was a constant scout for ideas. He looked everywhere. He was not a person of small thinking and he did not want the congregation to be small thinkers. In fact, it was not unusual for the church to charter a bus and take the key people to visit a fast growing church.

Brother North was known as a great Sunday school man, but it was a Sunday school that reached out to people. I remember when not only did they count the attendance, each class reported on the number who were invited to Bible school.

Few people are original in planning for growth. One church growth authority says that 85% of the church if not able to generate from nothing a plan for growth. Therefore, it has to be learned. He was committed to doing that. He said, "Abundant sowing means abundant reaping." That is a simple principle that is easy to understand. If little teaching of the lost occurs there is little harvest of souls. He said in the book THE MADISON STORY, "The goal at Madison is always one more for Christ. If a church has twenty, it should be striving for twenty-one. If it has two hundred, it should be striving for two hundred and one. If it has two thousand, it should be aiming at two thousand and one. This is the spirit of the New Testament church. Our Lord taught us to leave the ninety-nine and go after the one." This was the spirit of Ira North.

To limit efforts to reach the lost to four hours in seven days at a church house is almost certain to fail. It isn't even an honest effort to be true to the great commission. So he believed what Paul said, "All things to all men that by all means he might reach some." I often say that we fish with two hooks. We fish from the pulpit and we fish from the Bible school. Burton Coffman sais once, "We are like a fisherman who would bait the opposite end of his rod and dare the fish to come up and get the bait!"

I have found over the years that too often our expectations are very low. We do not expect to accomplish very much. There was no ceiling as far as Ira North was concerned. If we would get over fear and all that limits us, only the Lord knows what we could do. He said, "There is no fear of members working too much. The only concern is that we may leave some stone unturned, or fail to do something that would lead a person to Christ or strengthen the faith of one already in Christ."

He said, "The Madison elders believe that there is no substitute for hard work. Laziness is as curse to all Christians. A lazy pulpit means a lazy pew. A lazy eldership means a lazy church and a lazy fellowship. Jesus said, ‘I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work.' All must work as if everything depends on each, pray as if everything depends on God, live as if every day were the last. Without constant enlargement and improvement of the program of work the membership cannot and must not expect an increase in the harvest. There is no substitute for honest toil. Hard diligent work coupled with faith in God is unbeatable."

I find that we are more likely to console brethren in their inactivity than to provoke them to love and good works (Heb. 10:24). The acceptable standard that seems to prevail today is to come to church services, live a good moral life, and help meet the budget. That seems to be the approved, acceptable standard that we have come to accept as faithfulness. Ira's philosophy was that it is better to wear out than to rust out. He believed that the Jerusalem church was a great example for the church today. He said that the early church taught daily and from house to house (Acts 5:42). The church in Jerusalem taught the word with great force, power, and enthusiasm. He saw the Jerusalem church as having great concern for those that were less fortunate and was generous in helping the needy. He believed that the church should be united like the Jerusalem church, one heart and one soul. One of the problems today in growing churches is keeping the church united. If we could keep the church united, it would help us as a great deal in building great churches. He said, "That priceless ingredient, ‘the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace' is Madison's trademark. We endeavor to fly it like a flag. The members are committed to getting along, to loving one another, to forgiving one another, to boosting one another, and to each esteeming the other better than himself. The 5000 member church in Jerusalem had one heart, one soul, one mind. The benevolent, the evangelistic and educational programs were all carried on in this framework."

Brother North promoted love and unity with what they called the "love feast." About one minute before the services on Sunday morning everyone would stand, shake hands with those around them, saying something nice to them and then sit down. It generated, created, and cultivated this spirit of love and friendliness.

Ira knew how to preach in support of what the church was trying to do. Preaching ought to undergird and support the direction that we want the congregation to go. Ira knew exactly how to aim his preaching in the direction that the church should go. He knew how to do that.

He believed in promotion. He said, "A church with no sign is a sign of not much church." He believed that a church ought to have a good sign and Madison was the first to have a large marquee where the words could be changed every few days. I always grieve a little when I see an old church sign that is hardly noticed or that may be half rusted out and can't be read. That tells me something about the church. If someone drove into your city, a stranger, and he drives to a service station and says to the attendant, "Do you know where the church of Christ meets?" I am afraid he would say, "We don't know whether there is one here or not." Just because there is a congregation in the city, does not mean that people know it is there. As far as they are concerned it might as well not be there. We should not conclude that a congregation can be established then assume the city is evangelized, we ought to have a good publicity program.

According to church growth authorities the church should spend one dollar for every ten that it takes in for promotion. I suggest that you plan to let the whole town know that the Lord's church exist on a regular basis- at least four mailings per year.

He said, "We believe no phone should go unanswered." I still marvel that you can call some church buildings and no one will answer when and answering machine can be purchased for thirty dollars. I wonder what kind of business we are in. At least the church can have a telephone answering machine on at all times and perhaps have another number a person could call.

We are to be in the real business of reaching people and we want to use all these things.

On worship assemblies, he had the philosophy that you should start on time and stop on time. He said that you have people who are busy with different schedules and sometimes have other matters that must be attended to. He believed in starting and stopping on time.

He believed announcements should be kept to a minimum. Have you ever been to a congregation where the announcements were poorly made and the announcer did not know when to stop? He also said use the best song leader at all public assemblies.

Ira said, "You can't build a church on negative preaching." I believe that. I know some preaching has to be done occasionally on things that are not always pleasant. I do not believe I could stand a steady diet of negative preaching. I know some poor brethren must feel beaten down, and walk out, with their heads down as they leave instead of held high ready to face the temptations and problems of the coming week. Some brethren enjoy more being "lawyers" than "witnesses." I feel sometimes that we have trained more "lawyers" than we have "witnesses." We seem to have more people who know how to defend the faith than to advance the faith.

Ira believed in being a two-mile church He said, "In whatever you do, go the second mile to do the very best you can." He always preached being a two-mile church. He said, "You know we have plenty of one-mile churches around here. But for us to do better we have to out-live and out-serve them. We want this church to be a two-mile church." They worked toward that. I might tell you this was Ira's philosophy as long as his health was good. He died in 1984 after lengthy illness.

Someone has said, "There is no life in a church where there is no hope. There is no hope where there is no vision. Expectancy always hopes for something better, always expects it, always believes it will happen. Can do is the theme. The difficult we will do now. The impossible will take a little longer. Imagine the church that has no goals, no hopes, and no expectations. There are no victories and no celebrations. It loses faith in its own ability to produce growth."

>>Recommended reading:

Balance: A Tried and Tested Formula for Church Growth, by Ira North

>>Videos for showing on Sunday, Wednesday night, or for personal viewing:

Will You Not Tell it Today, by Clayton Pepper and Keith Stotts
Channeling Our Resources Toward Evangelism, by Keith Stotts
New Testament Evangelism for the Church Today, by Clayton Pepper

Receive all three for a $150.00 contribution to the Clayton Pepper Center for Church Growth Studies, 4501 College Parkway, Parkersburg, WV 26101

>>Other books on Church Growth:

Church Growth Today, by Clayton Pepper, 244 pages

Preachers should read one book per month on church growth. Call Ohio Valley College bookstore at 800-879-7323 for a recommended list.