Of course, this does not mean churches cannot learn things from one another. Nor does it mean there are no universally identifiable ingredients contributing to church growth and health. In fact a research team out of Germany has demonstrated a way to surface some of these universal and transferable principles. In a few moments, we will describe what this team did and outline their discoveries. Churches are bodies not mechanisms.
Human beings can create dolls.
But dolls cannot create dolls. We can cooperate with God and create babies. Babies can then produce more babies in cooperation with God. Churches are organisms, not organizations. For plants to flourish, we must cooperate with God who grows the plants, but we cannot grow plants.