Jump Start # 2461

Revelation 3:8 “I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”

Our verse today describes the church at Philadelphia. There are many things about this church we’d like to know, but we are not given those details and obviously to the Lord, those things do not matter. Who preached there? How large were they? What was their contribution? Those are the things that we ask about. The Lord saw a wonderful future for them. An open door which no one can shut, ought to be a dream for every congregation. An open door to spread the Gospel. An open door to teach and encourage others. An open door to glorify God and show the saving message of Jesus Christ.

Closed doors stop us. If you go to a store after closing hours, you’ll find the doors closed and locked. You can’t get in. It means you have to go home. It was a wasted trip. God closed the door to the ark. Those on the outside didn’t make it. In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, the door was closed and those foolish virgins who showed up too late were not allowed in.

I read a couple of statistics the other day, unrelated to each other but it caused me to wonder if we are closing the doors ourselves to the future. I saw that the average size congregation of churches of Christ is 55. Average of course means, 50% are higher than that and 50% are lower than that. But 55 is much smaller than I would have guessed. I would have thought the average would be close to 100. The other stat I saw was about the astronomical amount of student loan that college grads carry. Many are burdened for decades paying off these loans. Connected to that was the fact that 1 in 4, or 25% of those student loans was behind in payments. In comparison, less than 5% of home mortgages are behind in payment.

Now, connect the dots. Half the congregations number 55 or less. A large percentage of young families are tied down with student loans. What does that future look like? Small congregations with little money. That’s a closed door. No money to spread the Gospel. No money to bring preachers in. Fewer people to be teachers, fewer to develop to be shepherds. And the truth be, for some of these small congregations, every funeral makes folks wonder about the future. What does ten years look like? Who is going to be around? Who will keep the doors open? Who will be gifted enough to make wise decisions and remain true to the Lord?

There is nothing wrong with a small congregation. But we shouldn’t want to stay small. We should work to grow in all areas, spiritually and numerically. In some small congregations, it’s like the ole’ one room school house for Bible classes, simply because there are not enough teachers or kids. It’s easier to get weary in a small congregation because there are so few to do things, that you must always teach, or lead singing, or clean the place.

What’s the answer, if there is one? Here’s a few thoughts:

First, every congregation, big and small, ought to take a serious down the road look at themselves. We do that at home, it’s called finances. If we live paycheck to paycheck and never consider what happens the day we no longer can work, we will be in trouble. Retirement planning starts early in your career. It’s necessary. Congregations need to think about who will be the next elders. They need to look at who can be developed into being teachers and leaders in the congregation. Ten years seems to go by quickly. Just carrying on week to week, will find you in those ten years, unprepared. Good leadership and great planning looks often at that ten year projection. Adjustments will be made. Special classes will be taught. All of that is to prepare, develop and keep things going in the right direction.

Second, there may come a time when a congregation must seriously look at merging with another. Two congregations sized around 50 each can become one congregation of 100. But it’s more than that. It means having one church building, rather than two to heat and cool. It means having one preacher rather than two. It means having more people to help out. It means more talent.

Now, there are all kinds of serious things that need to be ironed about before one congregation merges with another. First, which building will be kept. This is enough to kill most congregations coming together. Many are in favor of merging, but they want you to come to where they are. Pride, history, ancestry must be tossed aside in favor of what’s best for the Lord’s work and best for the kingdom. When two congregations merge, you don’t won’t a congregation within a congregation. You want them blended together. So, you don’t want everyone from one congregation sitting together and those from the other congregation all sitting together. You want everyone to be one. The folks that are coming in must be accepted, loved and used.

So often, when two congregations merge, it’s like forcing a square peg into a round hole, and it doesn’t go well. Feeling get hurt. There never seems to be a smooth transition and after a few months, people leave. Many, many discussions need to take place. Many wrinkles need to be ironed out. With planning, and leadership it can go well. But with pride, stubbornness and anger, it will fall apart. The glory of the Lord must be kept before all people. The work is the Lord’s, not ours.

Third, parents need to help guide their teens into right decisions about college and debt. Helping your child from starting his career in a big financial hole is parenting. Advice them. Show them numbers. They do not have to be like everyone else their age. Guiding them into a study that has job potential is important. Helping them to understand that they are to be useful to God’s kingdom by supporting it and using their talents is part of parenting. I’ve talked to some college students and what some of them are studying as a major is odd to me. There isn’t a huge demand for degrees in ancient Roman history. I’m sure that’s fascinating but will it bring in a paycheck? And, what kind of paycheck? Or, will that person be working at Hobby Lobby and trying to pay off a student loan for the next 25 years of their life?

It’s time to put some thought into where we are at and where we are headed. Let’s not close doors because we have failed to look down the road.

Roger

Jump Start # 2448

Revelation 3:8 “I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”

Our verse today is the Lord’s description of the church at Philadelphia. Open doors, power, following God’s word—great insights and great goals for any congregation. It is fascinating to notice what the Lord notices and what you and I tend to notice. Often, it’s not the same things. There are seven churches listed in Revelation two and three. We do not know the sizes of those congregations. Oh, that is important to us. When I travel, one of the first questions folks ask, “How large is the congregation back home?” That didn’t seem to register with God. Notice, nothing is said about where these Revelation brethren were meeting. Likely, they did not have a church building. Our buildings consume much of our energy, resources and talk. That didn’t seem to register with God. And, what about the financial stability of these seven Revelation churches? Were they self supporting? Had they paid off the building? Did they have their own preacher? Again, great concern for you and I, but it didn’t seem to register with God. The Lord was concerned about faithfulness to His word and walking closely with Him. Tolerating falsehood made the list. Being lukewarm or dead made the list. Losing their first love made the list. Having open doors made the list. All of this reminds us that sometimes we focus upon the wrong things and not upon the things that really do matter.

Recently I took a Sunday off. It’s hard for me to do that. I needed to, I could tell. We’d come home from a vacation and the question came where do we want to worship on Sunday. I love my home congregation, but to be there, I might as well teach, preach and I wouldn’t be taking it off. That decision was hard for me. I have preached in Indiana for more than 25 years. It’s hard to go some place and not be known and in so many of these places I have preached meetings there. The last thing I wanted was to be asked to preach. I wanted to be encouraged. There are several smaller congregations in the area, many do not have preachers and that didn’t appeal to me. I didn’t want to be discouraged by see fighting brethren, a spirit of lukewarmness, or apathy. Where to go?

One thing led to another and we wound up deciding to go to a congregation that I really didn’t want to go to. I had always assumed that they were dead, stuck and going no where. But the clock was ticking and we had to go somewhere. So we went to this one place, in a small community. The congregation was small. I’ve had classes back home that were larger than this congregation. But what a surprise I found. First, the building wasn’t dirty, mold filled and run down as I expected. The people were very friendly and I knew many of them. The congregation had elders that seemed to be true shepherds. This small church offered a choice of several adult Bible classes. That amazed me. I knew the preacher so I went to the class he taught. It was encouraging, heart felt and truly helpful. I was amazed. In worship, the singing was great. The sermon was detailed and helpful. We stuck around and talked to just about everyone there. I left thinking this is a great church. They were a bright spot and a real source of encouragement and just what I needed.

That worship made me remember some important principles that I had forgotten:

First, the size of the crowd does not reflect the size of the heart. Everyone wants big crowds, but more important than big crowds are the hearts that fill the air with love and devotion for our Savior. As the preacher delivered his lesson that morning, I looked around and saw people turning in their Bibles. Some were taking notes. They were engaged, connected and learning, just the things every preacher loves to see. We must move past the idea that “I’m better than you are, because my church is bigger than yours.” Among the people of God, we are on the same side and the same team. We are not in competition with each other. Size doesn’t make one better than others.

Second, our preconceived ideas are often wrong, as mine was. I walked in anticipating a dry, dull and painful worship. I have sat through worship in dead churches before. A minute seems like an hour. Few people talk to you and everyone stares as you walk in as if you are trespassing. But not to the place I was at on Sunday. This group had it together. You could tell they were putting their all into the Lord. What a refreshing and uplifting experience that was. That tells me a person can’t go by what others have said and people, as well as congregations change. Some change for the better and others for the worse. Don’t typecast a group because something someone said decades ago. Find out for yourself.

Third, the honor of God is what worship is all about. It’s not about my experience or what I get from it, or how I feel about things. Was our Lord honored, His name praised and His word preached accurately? I can be in a mad mood, not feeling so well, have a chip on my shoulder, have my mind filled with all kinds of worry and sit through a worship and leave unchanged. Does my experience determine how well the worship was? No. Others may have been encouraged. Some may have been challenged to obey the Lord. While I can sit there in my misery, thinking only of myself, others around me are worshipping God as they ought to be. One person’s reaction does not mean that is the Lord’s response. One person can declare that a church is cold and unfriendly and the next person think it’s the friendliest place on earth. We carry a lot of baggage, issues and stuff with us when we come to worship. We must be careful what we say about a place. Our perspective may not be true. How I feel may not be how God feels. I may have problems that keep me from seeing clearly and worshipping God as I ought to. I may have gone to church but I may have failed to worship. The two are not the same.

If you get an opportunity to go to the community of Seymour, Indiana, I’d encourage you to worship with the brethren there. They are a bright spot in that area and lifted the weary heart of this preacher who was looking for a place to worship on a day off. They also taught me some lessons that I needed to learn.

Thank you, brethren.

Roger