We tend to measure everything from a 10D shoe to a terabyte. Our preferences are all over the map. We want the largest television made, yet we watch more stuff on something we can hold in one hand. I do love the fact that I can move a rather large TV by myself. I remember the days it took a crane to move a 35-inch TV.
Some folks want to live miles away from people, then others love the tight packed apartments in crowded cities. I’m a country boy. I think it was Daniel Boone who complained that if he could see the chimney smoke of a neighbor, it was time to move.
Car sizes went from gas-guzzling monsters to coffin-on-wheels back again to semi-tank SUVs. Now, the best theft prevention is a stick shift. It makes you wonder when driver’s licenses will be a thing of the past with only robotic driven cars. Here in the South, I’m sure pickups will always be in style even with drivers wearing skinny jeans.
Speaking of jeans, I remember when my mother bought blue jeans big enough for me to grow into even when I was gaining only two pounds per year. The legs were rolled up with a five-inch cuff. She must have been optimistic. I lost my lunch money in my cuffs when I was in the first grade (no joke). I thought the world was going to end, or I would starve to death. I found the quarter before lunch. Yes, a quarter! That’s how old I am.
I remember when a large church had one hundred attendees. An even larger one was two hundred, and a five hundred attendance was only at a city church that had “First” in its name. Now that has changed as the smaller churches have gotten smaller and the larger churches have become humongous.
As always in Christianity, we look at each other with either envy, sadness, or disdain. The churches “where everyone knows my name” are often critical of the “Walmart Churches”. And those who attend the mega churches look at the few cars in the parking lot of the “Dollar General Churches” they pass and may think, “How sad!”
Well, I’ll make both camps a little disappointed in me. Just as we need Walmart, Dollar General, and “Mom & Pops” we need small, medium, large, and mega size churches. I had rather go to any church than not go to one. If you have not found the right church, it probably has more to say about you than about the church selection. We have a lot on the menu, no need to go spiritually hungry.
The problem in all of them to some degree or the other is a genuine effort in evangelism and discipleship. The numbers we count do not always reflect cultural change in our communities and nation.
None of us are perfect. None of the churches we attend and support are perfect. Some aspect of relational Christianity is important to evangelize the non-Christians and disciple those in our ranks. These two important points of evangelizing and discipling are usually carried out by Bible-believing and Christ-honoring churches. I’m sure, we all could do a better job at both.
Among churches, we should not live in a circular firing squad. Whether small or large, we are in the same family. If we are open-minded and have a desire to win the world for Jesus, then we can learn from each other.
I have been in ministry for over forty years. I have worshipped Jesus in an open-air dirty slum in an eastern country. I have worshipped Jesus in a “kay pay” (Creole for straw house) in Haiti. I have worshipped Jesus in country churches with vinyl siding and brick. I have worshipped Jesus in a crowd of thousands in a mega church. I have worshipped Jesus by myself in the woods with a squirrel objecting a few trees over.
All of those places have a purpose. They all do some things exceptionally well. People are different and have different perspectives. Some people would never regularly attend a mega church. Some people would never regularly attend a small church. Some people have a problem crossing any church threshold. The Lord wants all of us to do the work of ministry where we are and with what we have in order to win the lost and train the saved..
The devil is our enemy, not the church across town that has a different flavor and a different size.
I hope you received a little food for thought with this post. I’m not trying to make people mad or sing to the choir (or praise team). I want us to live for Jesus and love our neighbor even if they sing praise songs with lyrics on a screen or a lovely old hymn from a red, maybe a blue, or perhaps a green-back hymnal. If you are confused by my hymnal colors, ask your grandpa; he knows.
See you Sunday–somewhere!
Yours on the Journey,
Harry L. Whitt
