Do you ever feel like the important things about life (and ministry) are put at risk by the details of daily life? Sometimes our minds are bombarded by so many details … little daily details … that we find little time remaining for meditating on more important matters.
I’ve been contemplating something for almost two weeks now … something about ministry (now THERE’S a real shocker for those who know me well!) I attended the Temple Baptist Church in Oxley (Wolverhampton, England suburb) almost two weeks ago. Rev. Tom Gritts is the lead pastor at TBC, but he and his wife Gail are back in the States for a few months. In his absence, three of his men are covering the preaching and teaching ministries – Danny, Ian, and Paul.
Danny and Dale
The three of them are scheduled in rotation to preach, and Paul has done a masterful job teaching the adult Bible fellowship. Two Sundays ago, my new friend Danny spoke on the subject “Everything’s Going To Be Alright!” and did a stellar job of reminding his audience that no matter how many trials, troubles, and temptations we experience, everything’s going to be alright!
But I began thinking … sitting in that service were five ministers of the Gospel, but only ONE was expounding the Scriptures! Do you catch it? In a nation where one church closes every 7-9 days … where 50% of the churches have closed over the last 50 years … where there are now more mosque-goers than church-goers … there were FIVE ministers of the Gospel. Does that not sound like “the seed is yet in the barn” to you?
Oh, we can ADD members to our churches; however, if we can but capture and maintain a focus on the concept of 2 Timothy 2:2, we can MULTIPLY exponentially in the years ahead of us! Author Bob Roberts, Jr. (Transformation, Zondervan 2006) conveys the concept of “glocal churches,” encouraging churches to become missional. When we grasp and apply this personally and corporately, we can quickly move from mere mathematical addition to multiplication.
As John Maxwell would say, “Just a thought!”
Cheers!
