Ones and Twos

            One of the topics that gets talked about a lot in the church is the need of churches to grow.  We talk about it, we read books about it, we go to seminars about it.  In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, there was a seminar in Faulkton present by Debi Nixon, which several members of our parish attended.

            It’s important that we talk about ways to make our churches grow.  As I’ve said before, in life we are always moving forward or moving backward, but we never get to stand still.  If we believe in the mission of the church, we should always try to do things that will spread the gospel and help our churches grow.

            The thing is that, sometimes, studying about church growth can be discouraging.  The experts in this area, the people who write the books and put on the seminars, tend to be people whose churches grew by leaps and bounds, and did so very rapidly.  Their churches grew in groups of forty or fifty, if not groups of hundreds, and did so in a relatively short period of time.

            Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s a wonderful thing.  The reason I say it can get discouraging to read about or hear about is that many of us live in areas in which growth on that scale is simply not possible.  A church in Gettysburg or Onida or Agar is not going to grow by fifties or hundreds.  It’s not even likely to grow by tens and twenties. The most we can hope for is growth by ones and twos.  So, when we constantly hear about churches with phenomenal growth, we can get a little depressed.  We’re happy for those churches where it happened, but we know it’s not something we can duplicate.

            That’s okay.  Nowhere is it written that the church growth is only legitimate if it’s large and rapid.  Think of Jesus’ ministry.  He had times when he preached to and fed and healed large numbers of people, but he also had times when he talked to and fed and healed one or two people.  Jesus never makes a statement that one of those times was more important than the other. 

In fact, every indication is that Jesus considered the times when he ministered to one or two people to be at least as important as the times when he ministered to large crowds, if not more so.  Remember the story of the lost sheep?  The shepherd was willing to leave the ninety-nine who were already safe just for the sake of one that was lost.  The story of the lost coin is similar:  the woman in that story did everything possible to find the one that was lost.  In both cases, when that one was found, there was incredible rejoicing.  That was for a lost sheep or a lost coin.  Think how much more rejoicing there is in heaven when one lost soul is found.

Also think about this:  no one can be personally involved in the lives of hundreds of people.  It’s just not possible.  When we grow by one and twos, though, we can be personally involved with those people.  We can help them grow as Christians.  We can be there for them when they need us.  We can encourage them and help them through their lives.  They can do the same thing for us.  That’s an incredibly wonderful and rewarding ministry.

It’s an awesome thing when a church grows by leaps and bounds.  It’s an equally awesome thing, though, when we grow by ones and twos.  That’s not something to be discouraged about.  It’s something to celebrate!