I ate lunch recently with a good friend. He is a pastor. We talked about church. The questions: Why do some churches grow while others don't? How does a pastor handle it if another church in town grows at a faster pace? (What, you didn't think pastors feel these things?)
The question of church growth always makes me wonder. I believe God is sovereign. He gets to decide how his kingdom grows and at what pace and in what place. But humanity is involved in the equation. Human leaders influence growth and movement. Or why do we have leaders?
My friend reminded me of John 3. After Jesus' famous encounter with Nicodemus comes another story. It seems John the Baptist and Jesus are both baptizing people in the Jordan River. But John is told that Jesus is baptizing more people. In fact, everyone is going to Jesus. The stream of people dried up for John.
How is John to handle that? I mean, he is known as The Baptist! He should be baptizing more people. Maybe Jesus should find a different river.
Here is John's response: "A person can receive only what is given him from heaven... He [Jesus] must increase; I must decrease" (John 3:27, 30).
I can receive only what is given me from heaven. Jesus must increase; I must decrease.
Talk about that over lunch...
Our small group covered that last week...timely topic, my friend!
Posted by: Kirk | May 17, 2010 at 06:06 PM