James 1:5-6
“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
Over the past week I have received more responses on the series I did on the church than perhaps any other material I have produced. I shared personally with one of my dear friends this morning and just received a request that I put into writing what I had shared in person. I hope I will be able to do so, but that all depends upon the Holy Spirit giving me wisdom.
Some years ago I resigned a church that I loved very much and a body of believers that I felt loved me as their pastor. I could not understand where God was leading me other than to be able to spend more time on the Daily-E-Votional ministry. Within a short period of time it was evident that God wanted a new group started that would be what He wanted, not what any of us wanted.
As I prayed about the matter I was aware that many of our modern churches have been sold a bill of goods by the church growth concept. Most of us have come to feel that bigger is better and if our church is not growing, we must be doing something wrong. I think somewhere we lost sight of the fact that it was the Lord that added to the New Testament church. Now it has fallen upon every gimmick in the book to increase the size. Wild music and wild programs may have increased their size, but where is the spiritual growth?
In starting our new fellowship, I turned to Scripture and found in Acts 2:42 the pattern I feel God desires for His church. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” I love that pattern. It is not what we do for the Lord, but what the Lord does for us. I would much rather see the deepening of the love for Jesus in individuals than in seeing more people walking through the door and not growing.
In those times when growth does come, many (if not most) congregations feel the pressure to build a large edifice. Most of the time there is huge debt incurred and immediately the church has violated God’s admonition about not going into debt.
I wonder if we truly recognize the Lord as the head of the church. If so, why don’t we spend more time inquiring of Him and then waiting for Him to answer? It is just very possible that by us being crowded out of the current facility someone will feel the call of God. They may see that there is a field “white unto the harvest” and know that this is the time for them to become involved in doing something significant for the Lord.
We pastors should increasingly spend more time preparing our people to call upon the Lord and seeking His direction than trying to tell them what to do ourselves. I want you to know that none of us is very good at playing Holy Spirit for other people. That is the function of the Holy Spirit and we need to stay clear of His role.
My counsel to us all is to spend more time on our knees and less time on a soap box. The world is dying without Christ and we need to be used by the Lord to win as many as possible.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil (360) 570-0074
P.S. – You can help! Please consider trying to get one other person to subscribe to the Daily-E-Votional. This worldwide ministry asks for no funds and is sent to glorify our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.