Is Our Church Too Big? (Part 2)

Remember when Jesus said "He would build His Church?" (Matthew 16:18)  "His" means it's His and not ours.  Since it's His...He is the one BUILDING it.

11 disciples turned into 120 in the upper room!  Why?  because the disciples couldn't STOP TALKING about Jesus!  Thus, we find MULTIPLICITY taking place...and the start of a new MOVEMENT.

Let's talk about that 120 number.  Isn't that enough?  In fact, 120 is a reasonable number.  At that size, you can know everyone and "their business" too.  It's like a close knit group of friends where everyone is comfortable.

Churches were intended to GROW.  It's sad when you meet people who express that they don't want their church to grow because they're afraid it will get too big.  I have a problem with that!  God intended for the church to REACH as many people as possible!  Just because you've received Jesus as your Savior doesn't mean everyone else has. 

How do we KEEP ON reaching as many people as possible?  Perhaps we need to look at the upper room experience to get a glimpse.  Notice how many "strange" things God did on the Day of Pentecost:  a mighty wind; speaking in tongues; and the gathering of a large crowd who wanted to see what was happening.

Isn't that different?  You don't see that everyday.  This is what God likes to do...He uses the "unnormal" to catch our attention.  Perhaps what the church is missing today is the "unnormal" at work in our midst.  Like it or not...the "unnormal" has it's place in every church.  This is nothing less than THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX and letting the WIND of the Holy Spirit to breathe so LOUDLY that the noise alone causes a crowd to come running!

Churches that refuse to be creative are in trouble.  If you're reading this and you are satisfied with "normalcy" then SHAKING THINGS UP will make you feel uncomfortable. 

But isn't that we're supposed to do?  We are not called to keep things safe and sanitary as it pertains to our vision!  We should be known as the church that SHAKES THINGS UP!

• Our preaching should shake things up.
• Our music should shake things up.
• Our outreach should shake things up.
• Our methods should shake things up.

I don't want BFWC to be known as the "normal" church where everything is "safe" and "comfortable."  I want us to think outside of the box and go past the "that's the way we've always done it" mentality!

We want to ATTRACT people to Jesus by doing UNCOMMON and UNNORMAL things to do it!  But GET READY to face the SKEPTICS when we do!!!  Just like the upper room experience...the skeptics accused them of being "drunk!"  Like it or not - when God moves in an awesome way...there are always skeptics!  (I've found that the people who are usually the skeptics are the "religious" people.)

First of all, Peter stands up and says "they're not drunk as ye suppose!"  He didn't didn't say they weren't drunk...he just said..."it's not as ye suppose!"

CHURCH...WE'RE NOT AS DRUNK AS WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE!

We need to become INTOXICATED with the Scriptures!
We need to become INTOXICATED with pointing people to Jesus!

If we will lift up the NAME of JESUS and tell as many people about Him as possible - we will GROW.  That's what Peter did on the day of Pentecost.  He took his simple fisherman's background (no seminary degree on his wall), his experience with Jesus and the Scripture (Jesus) he knew...and talked about the most amazing person that has ever lived!