He encouraged our growing congregation to consider its purpose and focus... very thought-provoking indeed!
What I gleaned from his comments was that, in order for the Riverside Body to continue to grow in the correct way, we must develop followers of Jesus; and the way to develop disciples is to show Him to those around us by serving them...
Here is the truly remarkable thing he kept repeating (and he said it much more eloquently than I record here)... to truly develop these 'servant disciples', we must:
- serve others, then
- invite those whom we serve into our community, then
- assimilate these 'new members' into our community, then
- train and equip the 'assimilated served' so they
- become servants, who then
- serve others
- (repeat as necessary)
Note what he did NOT say... he did not encourage us to:
- build a bigger 'worship barn' to
- house and train worshippers better so they may learn to
- worship better, so they can then
- train other worshippers
don't misunderstand... I know growth can be a beautiful thing... and I recognize that buildings sometimes play a role, and that the building and renovating of buildings is a necessary part of numerical growth... but my fervent prayer is that (with regard to church buildings) we continue to divorce ourselves from the long-held, time-honored, and ungodly notion that 'if we build it, they will come'
Neither did Randy encourage us only to:
- invite folks to our building and
- meet their needs so they can
- 'join' our church, so they can then
- learn how to teach Bible class and
- learn how to lead singing and
- serve on the Lord's table
again, don't misunderstand... I know we need to develop Bible Class teachers and song leaders and public pray-ers... but we miss the fundamental thrust of discipling if we simply train ourselves to better serve ourselves...The primary purpose of making disciples of men is so they will then make disciples of men, who will then make disciples of men!
So, how does this plan look in action?
- It's the young family who was blessed by our Angel Food ministry who now help organize the Angel Food orders the second Saturday of each month!
- It's the couple whose marriage was saved by attending a Dynamic Marriage seminar who not only help set up for the latest seminar, but regularly encourage other young couples not to give up!
- It's the young couple who sent their two precious children to our VBS two years ago.... then brought the same two angels to VBS last year... who decided to become a part of our Riverside family just last weekend... (Any bets on whether this mom and dad help with VBS next summer?)
What a beautiful plan! I am tempted to say that its beauty lies in its simplicity... but, truly, its beautiful simplicity lies in its imitation of Christ!
So... maybe every church should check their 'growth plan' against Jesus' plan...
God Bless You!
1 comment:
I'm grateful that the message was beneficial. I was prayerful about that and hoping it could be helfpul. You and the Riverside congregation are always very helpful to me.
You've got pretty much what I intended. It may be that what you got was actually better than what I intended! Yet, for the sake of enriching the dialog I'll nuance a couple of things.
One, I would see "serving" as one of seven spiritual gifts (from Romans 12:3-7) and would not, therefore, be comfortable focusing on it as THE lead connection to others. I would see it as one among other options. However, the process is tapping into the heart of what I was attempting to present.
The second item to nuance would be on the implications for decisions a church may make about buildings. There are some who almost believe that buildings have been the problem for Christendom. I don't see this as any different than thinking our problems are because we don't have buildings. In either case, the focus on buildings is (I believe) off track. If having a building is a solution then I would ask, "What it is a solution to?" If not having a building is a solution then I would ask, "What is not having a building a solution to?" The question is, "What is our purpose and how does having a building advance or hinder our purpose at this particular time?" If we frame the question as one that is building focused (whether to have one or not to have one) then it is (in either case) a focus that diverts us from where our focus ought to be.
You've sparked an idea within me for a possible interesting article. Thanks for the affirmation AND for the engagement. I always find you to be engaged and engaging. As iron sharpens iron...
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