West Main

PASSION

Last week I got the chance to speak to a group of young adults in Colorado.  It was an amazing time. I shared the idea of LIVING PASSIONATELY and encouraged them to find out what God had created them to love and to do and to pursue it with all their might.  It was a great experience.  In one session I had each of us fill out a “Passionaire.”  It was designed to help us figure out what we REALLY love.  It asked questions about what WE would say we are most passionate about.  It asked what friends and coworkers would probably say to the same questions.  It asked us to consider what our checkbook registers would say. It asked how the church played a role positively or negatively in helping us chase our passions.  It was thorough.

As everyone began to fill it out, we realized quickly that this was much harder than anyone expected.  It was hard to pinpoint the real desires of our hearts.  What we began to see was that our lives were SO fragmented and separated that we were overstretched in too many ways. As a result, we were plugged in to and involved in so many things that we no longer knew what our TRUE passion was, because we were spread too thin in many things we “cared about,” but were maybe not “100% passionate about.”  This made good sense to me and I could find the description describing me pretty well.  Can you see yourself in it?

I wonder if the church does the same thing collectively?  Are we sometimes spread too thin? Are we doing a lot of things…each of them VERY good in and of themselves, but when combined cause fragmentation and dilution of focus and passion?  It is a valid question to consider.

I would like each of us to think about this. What are we as people truly passionate about? What are we as a FAMILY passionate about? Wouldn’t it be an amazing year if we figured this out together and put ALL of our focus and efforts into this? Imagine what that could look like, and how God could use that for His kingdom!

So start today......what is YOUR passion?

– Pannell

SMALL ENOUGH TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Thomas Helwys, an Englishman for religious liberty, wrote a church “constitution” in 1611 in which he said, “That the members of every Church or Congregation ought to know one another that they may perform all the duties of love one towards another both to soul and body. And especially the Elders ought to know the whole flock, whereof the Holy Ghost hath made them overseers. And therefore a Church ought not to consist of such a great multitude as cannot have particular knowledge one of another.”

In our present age of mega-churches in the North American experience, the words of Thomas Helwys calling for our congregations “not to consist of such a great multitude as cannot have particular knowledge one of another” may strike many as odd and off the mark. In contrast, so much of church growth literature that I have seen in recent years emphasizes the “Disney Land” model of church growth: big parking lots, big spaces, big crowds, big buildings, big productions, and big money.  The big is better church model scoffs at the notion that small is beautiful. Rather, small is a sign of failure or a failing congregation.

Is big always better? Not necessarily. Look, I am not going to lie, and I admit freely that I like to see a “big crowd” on Sunday morning.  If our numbers are growing, I feel like we are growing as a church.  More numbers often means more people, more money, and more ministries.  I am often jealous when I see the resources of larger congregations.  I envy the outdoor pavilions for summer worship, the fields to play softball, the indoor recreation centers for fellowship and play many mega-churches possess. So sometimes I comfort my envy with clichés like, “Well, those mega-churches are not really spiritual,”  “They are all fluff and stuff, and no substance and spirit,” “We at least have the truth,” and “They are buying their membership.”

On the other hand, envies and jealousies aside, Thomas Helwys is on to something about being small enough to love one another.   In fact, scattered throughout the New Testament there are roughly some fifty-four “one another” passages.  To note but a few, these one another passages call upon us to love one another, be devoted to one another, not to judge one another, accept one another, carry one another’s burdens, bear with one another, submit to one another, and be at peace with one another (Jn 13:34; Rom 12:10; 14:3; 15:7; Col 6:2; Eph 4:2; 5:21; 1 Thess 5:13).

The above scriptural passages highlight the need to connect one to another, or one to one.  The old saying is true that one can be “lost in the crowd.”  In the Church of Jesus Christ even the lowliest one is to be honored (1 Cor 12:21-26).  The elders of our congregation are especially charged to seek out the one who is lost or the one needing care (Lk 15:4; 1 Pet 5:1-4).  Yet we must not pawn off the care of one another to the elders alone, because the fifty-four one another passages in the New Testament call on each and every one of us to care for one another.

The commands of the one another passages strike me as holding members in small congregations more accountable.  Why would I say this?  In smaller congregations the neglect or promotion of healthy one another relationships would appear more easily measured.  In smaller congregations it is more difficult to be “lost in the crowd” because “the crowd” (i.e., the membership) can actually see one another as a congregation. In smaller congregations it would be more evident whether or not they are looking out for one another.  On the other hand, most members of a mega-church will not be able to see, let alone know in relationship, one another.  There are members of mega-churches that attend their congregation never really knowing who is actually a part of the body of Christ that they are attending.

Recently, the phrase “Too big to fail” has been coined to describe the role that some banks now play in our American economy. In a similar way, we might say that congregations may grow in such large numbers that they become “too big to love” one another.  I pray West Main stays small enough to love one another.

-- Terry