The Faithfulness of One Person
“It was July 1, 1885 when Edward Kimball felt the tugging of the Spirit to share his faith with a young shoe salesman he knew. At first Kimball vacillated, unsure if he should talk to the man. But he finally mustered his courage and went into the shoe store. There Kimball found the salesman in the back room stocking shoes, and he began to share his faith with him. As a result, the young shoe salesman prayed and received Jesus Christ that day. That shoe salesman's name was Dwight L. Moody, and he became the greatest evangelist of his generation.
But the story doesn't end there. Several years later a pastor and well-known author by the name of Frederick B. Meyer heard Moody preach. Meyer was so deeply stirred by Moody's preaching that he himself embarked on a far-reaching evangelistic ministry. Once when Meyer was preaching, a college student named Wilbur Chapman accepted Christ as a result of his presentation of the gospel. Chapman later employed a baseball player to help him prepare to conduct an evangelistic crusade. That ballplayer, who later became a powerful evangelist himself, was Billy Sunday.
In 1924 a group of businessmen invited Billy Sunday to hold an evangelistic campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina, which resulted in many people coming to Christ. Out of that revival meeting a group of men formed a men's prayer group to pray for the world. They prayed for Charlotte to have another great revival. God sent another evangelist named Mordecai Hamm. Hamm went to Charlotte in 1934 to hold a crusade. Ham's crusade went well, even though it did not have many converts. On one of the last nights under the big tent one tall, lanky young man walked up the aisle to receive Christ. That man's name was Billy Graham.
Talk about a chain of events! And it all started with an ordinary Christian named Edward Kimball, who reached D.L. Moody, who reached Wilbur Chapman, who reached Billy Sunday, who reached Mordecai Ham, who reached Billy Graham. Look at what God has done over these many years because of the faithfulness of one person.”
Membership or Mission?
I was challenged today in my thinking on church membership. I read an article from churchconsultations.com today explaining why we should never invite anyone to become a member of our church! Why, because membership implies priviledges. I do understand what they are saying there. Many people become members and then start approaching church as if it is there for them. They transform from being a "guest" looking in, to being an "owner" keeping others out! Not intentionally of course, but never-the-less when our thinking is membership based we begin to transform the church to be about us, about our wants, needs and comforts. The author of the article suggested that we instead invite people to our MISSION! Instead of, "Would you please join our church.", we instead invite them to join our mission. Membership is about privileges; Mission is about responsibilities. We are not saved to sit, but set on fire to burn!
Maybe the hardest part about this is that most churches don't even understand their Mission, so they are too "fuzzy" to invite anyone aboard. Membership is too much about maintaining a current status and making sure we always exist. This does not leave a lot of energy for fighting the battle and taking ground for the Kingdom. If our people were taught and led to take on the mission of seeking God and His kingdom first; it is quite possible that all the "needs" we spend hours discussing in committees and boards would be given in divinely promised ways. It might be a tougher sell to get people to sign up to a life of responsibility and selfless giving, but I bet a church of ten mission minded believers would accomplish more than a hundred maintenance minded members.
I'll write soon on what I believe is our (AuroraNaz) mission, and what the MIssion of all believers is according to scripture... stay tuned.
-Pastor Russ
