Here we are, halfway through Lent, and the Holy Spirit is moving!
At the beginning of Lent we asked the question, “Do I want to be closer to God 40 days from now; and if so, what can I do to make that happen?” As you have heard me say, we don’t become more like Jesus accidentally. It is a discipleship journey which we walk together.
Here are some of the things that I have been hearing:
“I wasn’t really looking forward to walking around the church in prayer, but once I started it I started enjoying it! Now I WANT to pray around the church! I love hearing the children playing over at the school!”
“I hope we can start doing breakfasts for the community again. I feel like we were starting to make a difference when COVID shut us down. Hopefully the people will come back and we can get to know each other better.”
“I want for our church to become a safe place that people are drawn to, where they want to be because someone is going to listen to them and they can find some hope.”
“What happened to the rest of Rev. Bill’s guitar?”
(Okay – that last one wasn’t really about church growth! Or was it?)
The purpose of CHURCH GROWTH is really KINGDOM GROWTH. It’s about priorities – if we focus just on our own church getting bigger, we will eventually fail; if we focus on being the hands and feet of Jesus to our neighbors, we can’t help but succeed! When we seek first the Kingdom and God and His righteousness, then all of these other things will be added as well. (But it has to be the Kingdom first!)
Our goal is not just to get more people attending on Sunday morning; our goal is that those attending will then go out and take the Kingdom hope with them to whomever they meet.
Our goal is not to just get more people coming throughout the week; our goal is to love those whom God sends to our campus so that they will want to give their hearts and souls to Him.
Our goal is that Jesus can say to us, individually and as a church, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the rest of your Master.”
– Rev. Bill