So should a church grow—or seek to maintain a “reasonable number” where everybody can know everybody’s business? Here we go…and I think we need to begin with the instructions and teachings of an amazing man named Jesus!
Luke 5:1-11 is where I want to begin…you see, this dude Peter is fishing and, after an all night unsuccessful venture he meets Jesus—who uses his boat to teach from.
After teaching he asks Peter to put out into deep water and let down his nets…which went totally against rational thought. (And who said that God has EVER made sense?)
So Pete obeys—and the catch is enormous! In fact, he has to get help getting all the fish in. NOW read that—do you see it—Peter didn’t just catch A fish…OR a group of 10 fish…nor did he attempt to name the fish…the Bible just specifies that he caught a large number of fish! (Could this mean that Jesus wants us to catch large numbers of people?)
All of a sudden Pete realizes that Jesus is no ordinary man…and tells Jesus to go away from him—but then Jesus says something amazing—He tells Peter to not be afraid, that from now on he will catch men. In Mark 1:16-18 he tells Peter to follow Him and He will make him a fisher of men.
Stop and think about that! He tells Peter to follow Him…and notice WHY He says to follow—so that He could make him a fisher—of—men! NOT so He could make him more disciplined. NOT so He could make Him more holy. NOT so that He could make him a powerful scholar. THE reason Jesus said for Peter to follow Him was so that He could make him into a man who led others to Him!!!
All too often we think following Jesus is all about US! We hear this when church members begin to say, “I want more worship…I want to go deeper…I want…I want…I want.” But the central reason in following Christ is NOT about what we want—but about what God wants to do in and through each one of us. Didn’t Jesus say that THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMANDMENT is to LOVE GOD and to LOVE OTHERS? Check it out—it says NOTHING about us getting what WE want!!!
So let’s take this back to the church…too many churches in America have made their church all about what they want and not what Jesus wants. Jesus wants us to love God and love others—not just the “others” like us…but those far away from HIM. Go back to Luke 5—the catch of fish was massive—I don’t think this is a coincidence! Jesus is into us reaching LARGE numbers of people!!! He wants His church to reach the world!!!!
He gives a great commission in each one of His Gospels...Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:48, John 20:21, and Acts 1:8! This is NOT a recommendation…He did not say, reach as many as you feel comfortable reaching and then flip your community off and tell them to go to hell in order to protect your comfort!
Nope—we are to be fishers of men! Sadly too many churches in this country are interested in having studies on fishing gear and baiting techniques rather than actually reaching people.
Jesus called us to be fishers of men!! He called the church to reach this world that does not know Him—this means we should be in a state of growth. As I mentioned earlier—what some people call church growth I call evangelism!!!
I am so glad that there was a group of people in 1990 who were not satisfied with the way things were—they did not want to focus on licking the lint out of their navals…they wanted to see people come to Christ—and God used them to reach me!!! I am so thankful that they rejoiced in my salvation rather than remorsed in it!!! I thank God for people and churches who have a passion for the lost!
Let me ask this—do you think that God EVER gets mad when we share Him with others? Do you think God EVER gets mad when a church sees more and more people accept Christ? NO—why, because people and churches who do this…are…OBEDIENT!!!
That’s it for now! More coming later…