May 1, 2024
Beloved in Christ,
We, who live out our discipleship to Christ in and through and from the fellowship of the Covenant family, want our family to grow spiritually, morally and, yes, numerically.
Of course, quality matters more than quantity; and people matter more than numbers. But numbers represent people! So how could we not want numerical growth if that means more and more people are being blessed by walking through life in the loving companionship of Jesus Christ and in the caring, supportive companionship of the family He creates?
The mission of a church must always involve more than the pursuit of numerical growth, but it must never exclude the pursuit of numerical growth.
To pursue numerical growth is to engage in evangelism. Evangelism arises out of Christians loving one another in the spiritual home they share and then sending one another out beyond that home to offer others the blessings of a life with Christ!
Engaging in such outreach takes courage, patience, humility and, most of all, genuine concern for those not yet a part of the Christian faith.
Even more, it takes the gracious help of God. We at best are channels through whom God touches others and wins them to Himself. No one becomes a follower of Christ apart from the work of the Holy Spirit!
This month we celebrate Pentecost. Pentecost marks the first coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus’ disciples. On Easter Day, Jesus had reminded them that “as the Father has sent me” – that is, sent Jesus from heaven to reach out and communicate the Father’s love to all people – “so I send you” – send you and me to reach out and communicate the Father’s love into every corner of the earth. Then, immediately after saying that, Jesus had breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” [John 20:21-22]
On Ascension Day Jesus had reminded them yet again that they would “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witness…to the ends of the earth”.
Then on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit did come upon them. The Spirit empowered them a) to reach out to a variety of people who spoke countless different languages and b) to communicate to that variety of people about the Father’s love in such a way that each heard the good news of Jesus in their own tongue. What was happening was dual action: the disciples were acting but, even more decisively, the Holy Spirit was acting. From that divine-human collaboration in the work of evangelism, there was great numerical growth. Acts 2:41 says, “Three thousand persons were added” to the family of Jesus’ disciples that day.
It was, as Tony Evans once put it, like walking on one of those moving sidewalks found in many airports. Our legs may be carrying us forward, but the moving sidewalk is simultaneously carrying us along. We’re acting and it is acting – and the collaboration is enabling us to walk further and faster than we ever could on our own.
This month, let us both walk in obedience to Christ’s call to go and bear witness to the ends of the earth and entrust ourselves into the power of the Spirit that the Spirit may make our outreach fruitful in a way we never could on our own.
That will eventually bring the numerical growth that will thrill the heart of God!
Warmly in Christ,
Rob & Adele
