Lately I've been thinking that the mega church is not the way to reach the suburbs, but the small country church that meets in the local community centre has a lot going for it. My church continues to encourage me. It was my first Sunday back from holidays. One of the ladies at church wanted to chat. She asked me what had I been encouraged about lately in my Christian life? I answered 'contentment'. She said she was thinking about that too. I told her I'm planning on reading a sermon on Spurgeon's on it to help me think about it (so stay tuned). All this at 8am this morning! It was an intense conversation, but well worth it!
Then at the 10am family service we had a new family, and some of the local kids came as well fopr the first time. During the prayer time, the new guy asked us to pray for his Nan, who is dying. He also has family that live behind our church, so it would be exciting if they came! (I used to despise transfer growth until I realised that new people often bring unsaved people with them to church). Later that night, after evening church and after a long jog with my dog, I went shopping at Woolies. I ran into the new guy who was at church (still all red and sweaty from my jog). We chatted for a bit in the vege section about his Nan who was dying. Its great being part of a community of believers where we can build each other up outside of church meetings. That's the way it should be. Plant village churches in the suburbs- they're awesome!
Small village churches are intimate and caring. Even though we want to grow in size, I pray we will remain caring and intimate.
1 comment:
I am so encouraged when people say there is value in things other than the idea of 'strong' church - big, flashy, cool. I love small, relational churches so much more. Thanks for the reminder, Super-Dave.
(P.S. - that's a yes for Sat night!)
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