Are We Adding to the Church?

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend a satellite session of Willow Creek Leadership Summit at Cheyenne Hills Church. The Summit was phenomenal to say the least. Even though the focus was on leadership (pretty much all facets), there was one thing that kept jumping out at me. During the Summit, bringing the good news to the lost, being the church for the needy was talked about a lot. We, as a church, are commanded to be witnesses for Christ to the ends of the earth. So I left the Summit with this feeling that we as a church don’t do enough to fulfill that command (I know I don’t, at least).

Now, I’m not saying that we all need to run out to the far reaches of the isolated ends of the earth and preach to some indigenous tribe. It needs to start at home, where we live. In that same command to be Christ’s witnesses to the ends of the earth, He commands his disciples to be His witnesses to Jerusalem first. That is where they lived, that is where He commanded them to start. There are plenty of lost right where we live. I’m pretty confident in the fact that if every church focused on the vision that God has given them for the city they are in, then the world will be touched. It’s a chain reaction. If our churches focus on their God given vision for their local area (their neighborhood, zip code, town, city) then they will provide people in that area with a path to Christ. At the same time the Church is serving it's community, they should also be training and raising up disciples for Christ. When that happens, God will begin to show those people His vision for them. When that happens, some might be called to another city, state, or maybe another country.
Keeping in mind that I know there are churches that God has given vision to reach other countries, my point is that God has really given us all the same vision – to be His witnesses to the world.

With that said, I've been reading Acts as part of my devotional and after the Summit I started to realize the similarities in how many of the chapters end. Here's what I noticed:

Acts 2:47b “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Acts 3:31b “Then they preached the word of God with boldness.”

Acts 5:42 “And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.”

Acts 8:40b “He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.”

Acts 9:42 (after Peter raised a woman from the dead) “The news spread through the whole town, and many believed in the Lord. “

Acts 10:45 “The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too.”

Acts 11:24 “Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord.”

Acts 12:24 “Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread, and there were many new believers.”

Acts 15:41 “Then he traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches there.”

Do you see a trend? I could go on, there are other chapters that end with “added to the church”, “believers were encouraged”, etc.

What I've begun to see is the book of Acts is not just a chronology of how the early church was born and developed. It also, repeatedly, punctuates most chapters with the point that as the apostles witnessed for Christ they added to the church and encouraged and strengthened other believers. Luke makes sure to point out, numerous times, that the apostles were successful in taking Jesus' message to others, because of the boldness at which they preached the word of God.
Acts is intentionally filled with comments about “strengthening and encouraging” our churches and believers and adding to The Church by leading people to our Messiah.

Just in typing this, I am prompted by the Holy Spirit that it is equally important to preach the good news to those that don't believe or know AND to encourage each other in Christ. That encouragement helps strengthen us to bring the message of Christ to others. As a matter of fact, Acts should serve to encourage and strengthen us today.

The point is, our goal as followers of Christ should be to have our days punctuated by a statement similar to those found at the end of many of the chapters in the book of Acts. Christ commands us to be His witnesses “telling people about [Him] everywhere”, but He commands us to start where ever you are first. Shouldn't we want to add to the church?

Encouraged and Strengthened,
Bruce

On Fire

Since getting that call on January 14, 2009 to serve God in ministry (I’ll share that testimony soon, it’s long), I feel like I can NOT explain to anyone what I am feeling. I am SOOO anxious to get going in ministry that often times I need to slow down and remember this journey is NOT on my time. I was trying to relay that feeling to my Coach and Lead Pastor, Jeff Maness, and he shared Jeremiah 20:9 with me. It says, “But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” That is EXACTLY how I feel. I love that God has given us the perfect Book for EVERYTHING!

I am reading Acts and Proverbs during my devotion time and I guess I’ve never really read Acts. Today I read chapters 4 & 5. Man, how AWESOME! I love how on fire Peter and John were. First the head priests call them into their main chambers and tell them to stop teaching about Jesus and they say, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than Him? We CANNOT stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” What boldness they approached those who opposed them with. They could NOT stop telling people. They were constantly asking God to give them boldness in preaching his word. Even after being arrested and flogged, they “left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.” (Acts 5:41)

As much as I am on fire for God and can’t contain it, I know there are times (more than I’d like to admit) that I do not approach sharing God with that kind of boldness. I know there are times and opportunities that God puts in front of me to share his name and I stumble. Not because I don’t recognize it, but because I stop to think about what the person might say or think. I think too often we pretend to not pick up on those opportunities. We ignore them and act like God himself didn’t put it there and we go about our business without a second thought. Then we wonder what the world has come to. Then we wonder why teens are pregnant and women continue to get abortions, why states are making gay marriage legal, why divorce is the accepted solution to “unhappy” marriages, and why people are fighting to get every hint of God taken out of our lives.

What would happen if we approached our world, country, state, city, our home with even a fraction of the boldness and rejoicing of suffering for God that the early disciples did? As a guy that’s just starting in the ministry and hopes someday to be a pastor (if that’s what God holds for me), I can relate to John and Peter on some levels. They had followed Jesus for 3 years and learned a lot. After Jesus commissioned them and ascended, they were new “pastors”. Actually they were the first “pastors” of the new church, but the point is they were pretty new to it. I’m sure there were times they had no idea how the people they were preaching to would react. Would they stone us, run us out of town or fall on their faces in reverence? They had NO idea, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was that they shared Jesus with as many as they could and they did that. And they did it boldly. I never want to lose the fire and I pray every day for God to stoke that fire so that it burns hotter and brighter for Him every day.

What could happen if we had just a portion of that boldness? What would change? What could He do?

Answer: EVERYTHING!

On Fire for Christ,
Bruce