Thursday, September 9, 2010

Growing AND Feeding

There are lots of questions surrounding the building of such a great size and of course dollar amount. One of the main ones is "does God want us to keep growing and/or stop growing?" I have wrestled with this question, heard our leaders answer it, and the Lord stirred my heart again with more clarity. It seems like there are two different questions here...
#1 Should we keep growing in the size of our church body? If you ask it from God's perspective, I don't think you could answer that question any other way than yes! When you read Matthew 28:19-20... "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
He is clear... keep telling others about me, keep loving each other, KEEP GROWING.
And what's amazing about this question is that God as continued to grow our body. Over the last month, 130 new families (with kids) have visited us on Sunday. They are coming... where are we going to put them?
Which leads me to #2... Should we grow our actual building? As I have wrestled with this question I have found myself going to Matthew 14:13-21...
As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”
But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”
“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.
“Bring them here,” he said. Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!

What I think is so amazing about this passage is that the disciples wanted to send the people away. Jesus says... it's not necessary, YOU FEED THEM! And I love their response... BUT WE ONLY HAVE...! And Jesus says... bring it to me. Bring the small amount that you have and allow ME to be the one that multiplies it so that these people will be fed. This is so much like what is going on in our building process. If each of us will bring what God has blessed us with... GOD will multiply and ALL the people will be fed and there will be leftovers (room) for others too!
People ARE GROWING, People ARE BEING FED, disciples ARE BEING MADE... (see post before OR go here watermarkblogs.org and read stories of what God is doing in the lives of this body!) AND God wants us to keep growing... both corporately AND INDIVIDUALLY!
I'm excited and blessed to be a part of how God is moving and today I am blessed to give what God is calling me too... may the very small loaf be multiplied for more people to come to LIFE in Christ!

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