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So What Is Wrong With Wondering? The bulletin dated, February 21, 2010 had an article titled "Have You Ever Wondered." It dealt with trying to place ourselves in the position of the first century Christians. Sometimes we get discouraged and fail to realize how hard life can be for other Christians. I got to wondering (no pun intended) if some may have taken the article the wrong way. After all, is it wrong to wish for things to be better? I think we should want the congregation here to be larger. We should desire to spread the Gospel and convert our neighbors. After all, the Great Commission applies to us today as it did to the Christians in the first century. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore [fn] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, [even] to the end of the age. Amen." (Matthew 28.18-20) It would be great to have such growth in numbers as to have a parking problem. In fact, to desire to not grow would be a sin. I knew of one congregation that started converting folks in the community until some of the members realized they were converting people with a different skin color. Some of those Christians decided it was time to shut down the evangelism and that is what they did. I hope to never be a member of such a congregation. No, it is not wrong to want to be a member of a larger congregation, but in our desire we should also look for opportunities to have Bible studies, invite our neighbors to services, and be friendly to our visitors. It would be great to have so many Bible studies that we would need more Bible teachers. We should desire and want to grow stronger spiritually and to be around Christians living their faith. Of course, for this to happen we would have to do the things that result in spiritual growth. "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." (1 Peter 2.1-2) Spiritual growth comes from denying sin and living by God's word. It does not come by time alone or fancy words or great programs. No one can stop you or me from growing spiritually except you or me. To have a strong congregation we have to have good Bible classes with good attendance and Biblically sound preaching with sound application. We have to be a praying people, wanting to do the will of God. If we do these things then we will be a stronger congregation. There is no substitute for personal involvement. Everyone wants to have good classes, well attended Gospel Meetings, good singing, and heartfelt prayers. But for those things to happen we must we willing to teach those classes, to be good students, to attend our Gospel Meetings, to open our songbooks and sing out, and to pray with our hearts. It is also good to want more young people for our young people to be around. I understand families that move their membership from one congregation to another because one congregation has children and the other does not. Once a congregation starts losing its young families, it is in trouble.. However, a congregation with a bunch of children does not mean your child will receive better instruction, better examples to follow, or will have better friends. That may or may not happen, but I have seen the good and the bad of having a lot of young people. Some get involved in carnal things and take others along with them. It is a good thing to have young people who are spiritually minded, but that will come about by having good Bible classes and converting young families. It is good to have Christians to date and eventually marry. A young Christian should desire to marry a person that has also obeyed the Gospel of Christ. I mentioned in the previous article my experience of being a teenager in a congregation with no one my age. There were opportunities for me to date Christians of other congregations, but it was not easy. However, we usually do what we are motivated to do. Eventually I got motivated and started dating. After a while I decided I would not date someone that was not a Christian. It took a while, but I found a Christian that would put up with me and we got married. If our young people keep their priorities right and seek opportunities to meet other Christians, things will work out for them too. It is not bad to want to have a lot of friends and families to do things together with. It is my observation that the more we do together the closer and stronger our bond becomes. The main thing we do is worship together, Hebrews 10.24-25. It is good to do other things together. The one thing I have noticed over my years of preaching is that those that want to--do, and those that don't--won't. The size of the crowd may be larger when you have a larger congregation, but most of us can call other Christians and do things together. Most of the isolation we experience is self inflicted. It is good to want to be encouraged more, but that also requires you and me to do more encouraging. Don't just sit back and wait for someone to do something; just go ahead and do it yourself. So no there is nothing wrong with looking at things and wanting more good things, but we have a role to play in making those good things happen. Let us not fall into the "grass is always greener" somewhere else line of thinking. The faithfulness of a congregation is not determined by its size. Which is better, a large unfaithful congregation or a small faithful congregation? It does not take a genius to answer that question. We should have the desire to grow, but at the same time be content to be faithful. --Dennis Tucker |