I’m reading Acts in my devotions right now. Side note: Isn’t it AWESOME how you can read something 5, 10, 15, 50 times and yet you come back to it and AGAIN you learn something new. That’s how I’m feeling with Acts right now. As I’m reading through it, I’m thinking, “MAN, there is still so much the church needs to learn from this book.” People always say “We want an Acts type church.” Most people who say that, have NO CLUE what they are asking for. I want to address a few things I’ve seen in Acts about the local church. We say we LONG for the Acts church, but I don’t know if we realize what that means.
If you don’t want problems…don’t grow! We read Acts and we think “I wish our church would see 3,000 people added in one day!” “I wish our church would see the kind of rapid multiplication of believers and churches like Acts did.” “I wish we were as big as ‘church name here’!”
Acts 6:1 says “But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent!” You mean, the Acts church deal with that too? HA Pastor…attender…member…listen to me…BIGGER DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN BETTER! I know so many people who just think that if the church would grow it would solve everything. That somehow complaints, discontent, misunderstanding, and people who are downright hurtful don’t exist in larger churches. Exist? I’m not gonna go there.
NOW, I’m not saying we shouldn’t desire for our churches to grow. Our NUMBER ONE desire for our churches should be to GROW through NEW CONVERTS! But you better expect, that when you grow, it only brings on MORE problems. Are you ready for that? If you are having trouble dealing with the issues you already have…don’t grow. If you are burnt out dealing with people who are discontent with what you do…don’t grow. If you don’t like hearing complaints about how you preach…what you sing…the volume of the music…the decorations…the decisions…then don’t grow. Because that only grows with you.
I heard Ed Stetzer say this at a recent conference we attended and I think it is so true: “Most of you will not experience ministries like you’ve seen here today, and if you do, it will hurt more than you thought and you’ll struggle more than you ever imagined.” BUT…BUT…don’t let that stop you from ADVANCING THE KINGDOM OF GOD. The disciples didn’t, and WE’LL never be the same because of it! Bring on the problems if it means MORE PEOPLE know Jesus!
Growing,
Jeff
