Being Outward Focused

Greetings in Jesus Name,

How many times have you seen the following situation. There exists a church and year after year most of the same people attend, everyone is pretty much happy with the church, but things seem to stay the same except that every once in a while a new child is born or someone marries into the church.

What do you make of that scenario? Is that the model of the church of God? If this was your church would you be satisfied with it? You shouldn't be...

In the book of Acts we find the early church in what seems to be a very pleasant situation. After the day of Pentecost thousands are born into the church, they have all things in common, and it seems that all is well. And then this happens:

Acts 8:1 "...On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria"

This was immediately after Stephen was martyred. All of the sudden, what was the most glorious time the church had ever seen was broken up by persecution and the people were scattered. But why did God allow this to happen? The answer is found in verse 4:

Acts 8:4 "Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went..."

You see, God wasn't happy to just have a thriving church in Jerusalem. He wasn't desirous of a bottled up church and a closed off people. When He went to the cross, He went and endured that suffering for all mankind. He allowed the persecution to come because He knew that His servants would take the gospel with them when they left Jerusalem.

This was the point in Paul's many journeys as well. It would have been easier to stay with the brethren and live among believers, but he set out upon his journeys that he might reach the lost and establish churches among the gentiles.

Now, I'm not saying that we don't need strong churches, we do. But living for God is more than just having a church to go to. It's about building the kingdom of God. Churches should be reaching outward to bring others into the church and to send ministers, teachers, and prophets into the lands of the gentiles to establish and grow more congregations.

In order for anything to grow, it must grow outward. A young child when it is born it arrives into the world beautiful and wonderful. Parents treasure it and cherish it in its youth. But if that little child never grew and never started to extend outward, the parents would soon become very worried. They would know something was very wrong.

The same principle applies to the church. God wants his church to grow and expand. He wants to see some of the strong saints in the church to go beyond the imediate congregation and begin their ministry elsewhere. After all, if a congregation recieves callings from God on the lives of many of its membership, there comes a point when some will not be able to minister and work for God lack of opportunity.

So church elders minister unto the people, cultivate the youth, and always be prepared to send your saints to places beyond the local church when they have matured and have recieved thier great commission. And always be thinking of bigger things for the Kingdom... because we have a great big God.

Grace and peace be unto you in Jesus name.