Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The 1 and the 99 and the 1000
There's a lot going on at NorthWood. It's frankly really hard to keep up with it all - even as the Senior Pastor. That's not true - it's not hard to keep up with - it's impossible. Our youth ministry continues to expand and is reformatting. Our children's ministry has just done the same. Our global work has exploded and for the first time we now have boots on the ground which has sped up everything. We've just reformatted our church planting. Our members have really taken off with working in so many projects that they, not us, are driving. Our entire staff, not just me, is dealing with the issue of other churches calling and needing help in different areas, particularly in how we engage our community and the world. It's exciting, and it's also overwhelming. Needless to say, there's been a lot of prayer, work, evaluation, restructure that has been going on to accomodate all God is doing.
Yesterday, I shared with our staff some of the unique things going on outside our church, but because of our church. I updated them, they updated me. We updated one another. Communication between staff, I've learned, is sometimes tough when your ministries are all growing at the same pace. We've never had competition among ministries at our church. I pray we never do. We've been one church on one mission serving one Savior in the context of teams, youth, children, recovery, worship, mission, etc.
Then we prayed . . . and it was rich. God was there. As we were praying and all of us realizing the scope of ministry we have before us we were praying for guidance and direction, wisdom and insight. We prayed for God to be alive within us, to keep us one, to be alert and effective in spiritual warfare. Then someone, or maybe two or three prayed - "Lord as we grow, to reach the thousands and organize to reach the thousands let us not forget the one." That's a good tension. Either extreme is dangerous. If you live for the one you never reach the thousands. If you focus on the thousands, church becomes a machine. It's not an either or, but a both and. So how do you balance . . .
I kept reflecting on this all day yesterday. The story of the 100 sheep, they all belonged to the shepherd. One wanders off and He left the 99 to get the 1. Why? Because the one mattered. But, were the 99 alone? No, they were together, watching out for one another. When He got the one, did He run off just with the one and party with the one alone? No, He brought it back to the flock, the flock was important--those other 99 mattered.
My conclusion, all 100 represent 1 - all 100 are important. We're not omnipresent. As individuals we can only reach one at a time. Therefore, the one is what I do in my personal evangelism and outreach. The 99 is what we do together as a body. So given our context, the one is our personal evangelism, the thousands are what we do as a church strategically. If I ever stop doing the one, I loose effectiveness in reaching the thousands because church merely becomes a holding pen or event. If I ignore the 300,000 around me who need Jesus for the sake of focusing exclusively on the one, there is no light on this hill for people to find their way home. What do you think?
Yesterday, I shared with our staff some of the unique things going on outside our church, but because of our church. I updated them, they updated me. We updated one another. Communication between staff, I've learned, is sometimes tough when your ministries are all growing at the same pace. We've never had competition among ministries at our church. I pray we never do. We've been one church on one mission serving one Savior in the context of teams, youth, children, recovery, worship, mission, etc.
Then we prayed . . . and it was rich. God was there. As we were praying and all of us realizing the scope of ministry we have before us we were praying for guidance and direction, wisdom and insight. We prayed for God to be alive within us, to keep us one, to be alert and effective in spiritual warfare. Then someone, or maybe two or three prayed - "Lord as we grow, to reach the thousands and organize to reach the thousands let us not forget the one." That's a good tension. Either extreme is dangerous. If you live for the one you never reach the thousands. If you focus on the thousands, church becomes a machine. It's not an either or, but a both and. So how do you balance . . .
I kept reflecting on this all day yesterday. The story of the 100 sheep, they all belonged to the shepherd. One wanders off and He left the 99 to get the 1. Why? Because the one mattered. But, were the 99 alone? No, they were together, watching out for one another. When He got the one, did He run off just with the one and party with the one alone? No, He brought it back to the flock, the flock was important--those other 99 mattered.
My conclusion, all 100 represent 1 - all 100 are important. We're not omnipresent. As individuals we can only reach one at a time. Therefore, the one is what I do in my personal evangelism and outreach. The 99 is what we do together as a body. So given our context, the one is our personal evangelism, the thousands are what we do as a church strategically. If I ever stop doing the one, I loose effectiveness in reaching the thousands because church merely becomes a holding pen or event. If I ignore the 300,000 around me who need Jesus for the sake of focusing exclusively on the one, there is no light on this hill for people to find their way home. What do you think?
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