What We Don't Have vs. What We Have

[mini]

I had a epiphany during the preaching Sunday morning while the evangelist, Bro. Rubio, was preaching.  It was the kind of epiphany that fuses the neurons together in your brain in a atomic collider sort of way, and causes sparks to shoot out of both of your ears, and leads to you falling on your knees almost immediately praying for forgiveness.  I was absolutely stunned and so quiet that my pastor turned to me and whispered "Are you awake?"  I could barely think straight after this epiphany knocked down many long standing ways of thinking.  As the dust settled in my mind, I realized I was in need of some serious repentance.

My family and I attend a smaller church.  Usually, we have 30 to 40 people on a good Sunday.  We have attended and helped out for 4 years now, doing whatever we could, staying busy in the work.  I hate to admit it, but for 4 years, I have looked at our work through the eyes of Martha, totally missing Mary and Jesus.

So, what was my epiphany?  Let me ask you the same question I asked myself:  Whats the difference between a 1 God church of 15, 150, or 1500?

In my old thought pattern, I looked at our church and thought we don't have the RESOURCES to do as much as a church of 150.  Or the resources to do what a church of 1500 can do locally.  So, I thought since we  didn't have a drummer, or full praise team every service, or only three musicians who could play the piano or organ that our music wasn't good enough to draw people.  I thought that since we didn't have a better outreach program, or a bigger youth group, or a bigger building to accommodate our classes of Sunday School kids, we were just going to have to keep on dragging along until we reached that magical hump and suddenly church growth would happen.  I thought since we don't have a ACTS program to help the druggies and drunks, or a very vocal ex druggie or drunk, we couldn't reach out as effectively as if we could if we had both the program and the witness.

As a result, I totally missed what I should have saw all along.

Whats the difference between a 1 God church of 15, 150, or 1500?

NOTHING!

We all have the same God!  The same exact God!  Your Jesus is no bigger than my Jesus!  My Jesus is no smaller than your Jesus!  He has just as much power in my church as he does yours.  If I look at our church, and think "We are hindered because of our lack of programs," I fail to look at what we have!  JESUS!

What are we looking for with our programs?  Ultimately, its to get people saved, and living for Jesus!  Well, we have the final answer!  The druggie and the drunk?  We have the Jesus that delivers!  The youth group?  It will grow when you show them something that is pure and not corrupted by the world!  The musicians will be blessed beyond measure, and God will allow more of them to come.  Why in the world should I be ashamed of anything?  The truth of the matter is, I have more with Jesus alone than I do with every kind of program and no Jesus!

Give me Jesus!

[RainbowJingles]

PREACH it, Jeremy!

The difference in a small church and a larger church is that, in a smaller church, you have less people to express doubts concerning what cannot be done.  :-)

You have less opportunity for people to think, "we've tried that before and failed."
You have more chances of bringing in ANYONE, because you dont' have a set image in the minds of the people of that a "win-able" person looks like.

One pastor I sat under used to say often, "If we fill this facility, then God will be obligated to help us build another."  And that's what happened.

God doesn't care what size the local congregation is.  He only cares that His work continues through it.

[iridiscente]

Isn't it funny when something that's been in front of you all along finally gets sick of you looking through it and raps you on the head to get your attention?