Mar

This morning I was thinking about things that live and things that are dead.  Specifically, I was thinking about churches and H.O.M.E. groups that live and those that die.  It has long been a Cedar Creek Church belief that if you are not growing you are dying.  This is true for each Christ follower, every H.O.M.E. group and every church.

 

In my mind, I saw a picture of the Dead Sea.  Though I have never visited, I have heard much about this body of water and have friends who have actually swam, or should I say floated, in it.  The reason that this “sea” is dead is that it boasts a 33% salinity which supports no macroscopic aquatic organisms (read that fish and aquatic plants) though, technically, there are some bacteria and microbial fungi there.  But, I digress…

 

The Dead Sea receives water from the Jordan River but there is no outlet for what gets deposited there.  There is no movement, no flow.  There is no releasing of the waters to prevent build up of the junk that kills living things.  The same is true for the body of Christ.  Even in a human body there is input and output…but I’ll leave that alone for now.

 

In the life of a Christ follower there must not only be input, but output as well.  We accomplish this in many ways such as praying for each other, sharing what God is doing in our lives, telling others about Jesus and what He has done for us and serving others by meeting their needs.  We call this outreach and discipleship.  There must also be output in the form of things that we let go.  Things that distract us or hinder us from being all that Jesus wants us to be.

 

In H.O.M.E. groups, there must be a periodic release to promote growth.  We call it mulitplication.  Groups that never grow and, more importantly, never multiply, are dying.  The members of those groups find that they like their group “just like it is” and it becomes about them.  It ceases being about the next unchurched, unconnected person.  It becomes a Bible study at best and a “supper club” at it’s worst.  Important things like outreach and discipleship go away and are replaced by the things that make US happy.

 

Churches get like this too.  It becomes about US, not about Him and THEM.  The church reaches a certain situation where outreach and growth become negative things.  Bad things that will disrupt church the way WE like it.  Sunday morning is more about entertaining each other and sitting in seats named for US, next to windows named for dead relatives.  Newsflash…it is not OUR church, it belongs to JESUS and He wants it to grow and to live.  He DIED for His church.  He PAID for it all.

 

The most un-Christ-like thing a church can do is to stop growing and stop reaching people.  Period.

 

Those who follow Jesus must contstantly be seeking to grow.  In our time alone with Him, in His word and in reaching out to those that don’t yet know Him.

 

Every H.O.M.E. group’s greatest mission and desire should be to grow and multiply.  To make room and promote health.  Spiritual health of each person and the group as a whole.

 

Every church that loves Jesus should always be seeking new ways to communicate His love to the people around them so that they do not stop growing and, then, begin to die.

 

John 7:38 (NIV) “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

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