Image from Our Obiligatory Blog
Before we get started let’s make a few things clear. First, this post has some personal confessions and statements, if such things bother you do not read it. Secondly, this post is not meant to be negative and I hope that it does not come across that way, it is meant as a challange to all that read it. With that said here goes - "What would we really do for just one?"
Every serious Christian, every church, every ministry, and ever minister (with the understanding that all that are saved are ministers) routinely says - "If only one person is saved it is / was worth it all." Now I do not doubt that the Christian may mean that in their heart all the time. When we say it we may even mean it with all their heart and body at that moment. However, when push comes to shove our actions say different things then our words many times. Understand, this is not geared to everyone else, this includes me and you and every "good" Christian I know, many times our actions just do not match our words.
It is simple human nature to expect results when we work hard at something. When we are / were in school the harder we worked in subjects, on projects, etc typically the better we did. I know there are exceptions, but normally the results of hard work is a better or superior outcome. Hard work leads to success is a underlying tenant in most people’s lives and mind.
This hold true when we consider the church and our work within it as well. Every church has a ministry that they have poured themselves into. Every church also expects that there will be a big result from their hard work in that ministry. If the results are not what the church expected before hand then the local body begins to ask if the results were worth their effort.
Honestly consider this theorem within you’re your own life, church and ministers if you would like proof. Say you and your church spent five months preparing for a week long ministry. Say you spent a large part of your entire budget and each member was deeply involved in the ministry. Then let’s say that week is not as big of a success as was hoped, would a question / statement along the following lines not be ask. "Do we as a church want to do that again next year, knowing all the work, etc if only a one person is going to be impacted after five nights of ministry? We could have gone to the park and found one person to help"
I would hazzard that at most churches the answer would be probably not. In most churches, if we invest church dollars, thousands of hours our of member's time and no one showed up or few are impacted then we are not likely to do it again. Watch the cycle of ministries. People are real excited when things are happening and people are being effected, but at the first sign of limited to no impact people lose interests. Weather it is Sunday school, worship, outreach, mission projects, work projects, etc, when we work hard and get the expected results we typically stick too it, but when we really work and invest in something and the outcome is not what we expect then we typically stop doing it. Lack of commitment, patience and persistence is the root cause of the death of many ministries.
As proof, I will use a example out of my personal life. My home church did a Judgement House last year. It was the first year that this church had ever done such a thing so there was a lot of wonder and confusion, but most were willing to give it a go. Being the first year the projections were set, they were fairly low and were very realistic. In the end, it took about two and half to three solid months of work for it all to be ready. The members of the church invested literally thousands of hours and their own dollars to get it the way it should be, to get all the work done, and for everyone and everything to be ready. The first night came and eleven got saved, everyone was fired up. The second night came and went, not as many showed up and not as many were saved. As the five nights of ministry (over two weekends) continued the number of attendees and the number of decisions dropped. As attendance and decisions dropped so did the interest and enthusiasm of the workers. In the end the overall attendance was below what was expected, as were the number of decisions.
This example shows that many times that we are motivated by numbers and decisions far more then we are by doing what God was called us to do. God does not promise us set numbers or a set number of decisions based on a certain amount of work. What God does promise us is that He will bless our labor (how He does and how much He does it is up to Him), that no work done for Him will be done in vain, and that His word will not return void (i.e. what we do for Him does effect the world, even if we do not see it or if it is not to the degree that WE would like)
Understand I am not harping on my church or our Judgement House I am just using it as a example to make my point. The good news is that my church is committed enough to Judgement House that we are doing it again this year even though the numbers from last year were not as good as expected. That is a good sign. In used the Judgement House story to make this point. I know personally I would be willing to do all the work and prep that is needed to do Judgement House for just one, but I like doing Judgement House. I am not sure I would be as willing to do the same amount of work and prep if it was a ministry I did not care so much. My purpose in making this confession is that do not think I am alone in that condition.
We all do what we love. We make time, we sacrifice, we suffer, we do what ever it takes to do what we enjoy. The question that I am asking is would we do a ministry that we do not love, be it Judgement House or something else, if it took a lot of work, time, commitment and only one person was effected. I think the answer for most of us, most of the time, is probably not.
Now also let me say that I think there are times that we do need to leave ministries. There are times we need to stop our participation, we need to decide not to continue them, etc. God blesses some things and not others. If we are in "ministries" that God is not using we need to let them wane. That is not what I am talking about though. I am talking about are ministries that God is using that take work, time and patience, but are not being blessed as much as we think they should be based on our work, time, input, etc.
Another example, this one hypothetical, is let's say 30 people from a church go to a foreign country. Before they left they would all say - If only one is saved it will be worth. Then they go and only one life was changed. No families were impacted, no cities were changed, and most of the time they and their work was rejected, ignored and shunned by those that they meet. How many of the 30 would want to go the next year? How many would save and work to raise the money, get the vacation, etc where they could go again for just one more? Sure some of the 30 would go again, the ones that have a true heart for that foreign nation, but the majority would probably not. Basically if the results to no match the expectations we have for our work many times we loose interest, and commitment.
The base line of this note I guess is to act as a mental check for all of us to really think before we say things. We all claim that we would do things for only one to be saved, but in reality most of the time we would only do things we enjoy doing if only one were saved. I know that I would still do my web ministry even if I was only getting 6 or 7 visits a day. I know this because I continued to work it for the first few months when it was new and a good day was 10 visits. Thus far this month this site is averaging 500+ visits a day so it is easy for me to stay motivated now. With that said, even with over 12000+ visits a month, I still average less then 2 emails a month that are related to my web site (not including the blog), but I continue to maintain the site even when I get no emails. Honestly I must say if was doing a ministry that I did not enjoy as much, and it was taking 10 or 12 hours a week, like my web site / blog, I am not sure I would be as committed to it with as little feedback and response as I get. It has been over three months since we launched our T-shirt offer, and we have yet to get one taker. I do not say this to say great is me, etc but to say that ministries that we are called to and love we do them even if they are not going how we expected. We also allow our interest and activities in ministries that we are not as devoted to wane as soon as the results are not as we planned.
Again, this was not meant to be a negative post, it was meant to call all of us to have more accountability in our actions. Our actions / deeds need to match our words. Find where God is working and join Him there, even if it takes more time and commitment then you expected and even if the results are not what you expected. I pray that somewhere in this post you have been challenged to continue patiently and consistently work where God is working, even if it is taking longer and is not as fruitful as you would like.
Romans 12:9-13 - 9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
