Thursday, September 11, 2008

An Unhealthy Fixation on the Large

This is an issue we must be aware of. For too long, too many people in the church (universal) have thought small, dreamt small, acted small and expected small. With all my heart though I believe that God wants to do excedingly abundently above in your life, my life, in your church, and in my church. Its great now that this is becoming more and more the expectation that people carry.

However large cannot be and should not be the measuring stick or focus of all that goes in in Christian ministry. We should never settle for average, we should never stop believing that with God's help we can see our churches and minsirties grow and expanded. Let's not forget though that small can still be outstanding as well.

Small Groups = awesome opportunities for community and authetic relationships to develop. More suited to this than a Sunday in a congregation of thousands or even hundreds.

Small Churches = while all churches should continually seek to grow and expand, most churches simply won't grow to be 1000 or 10,000 strong. Most chruches around the world will never have more than 200 people in them. While we should continually seek to lift this, every church where lives are being transformed, where Christ is being pursued and the gospel is being preached is a key component in the body of Christ, a light to the world. It's all the lights shining together that make a difference, not just 5 or 6 really bright ones.

Small Steps = many people are waiting for their big opportunity with God, in life, in all sorts of areas. Mostly though life is made of of small steps in the right direction that become a long obedience in the right direction. Take the right small steps now rather than just waiting for some 'giant leap opportunity' to come your way.

Large is awesome and is important; so is small. We shouldn't have an unhealthy fixation on either the large or the small. God made elephants and blue whales as well as mice and ants. There is purpose, value, and lessons to be learnt from both the large and the small.

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