We are a church in motion! Why? Because God is a moving God! Sure, one could argue that the Bible teaches us that there are times when we are to standstill. The Sabbath was a day of rest. Also, the Holy Spirit is referred to as our New Testament “rest”. In the face of these references, it is still not hard to find the imagery of God’s people in motion. They were on a journey through the wilderness and even though they were tent dwellers, they had to keep their eyes on the cloud because when it moved, they had to move with it! The NewTestament church was a church in motion. The last thing that Jesus told the church was “GO”. They were to go from Jerusalem to Judea, from Judea to Samaria and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. These are the people who created such a movement that history records they “turned the world upside down”. The biblical instruction to believers is to move beyond the need for spiritual milk to be able to handle spiritual meat. We are to grow in grace! A part of growing in grace is dealing with the problems that motion creates. Recently, I had the opportunity to teach a group of pastors and key leaders during one of our Infusion conferences and I pointed out to them that Acts 6 was a turning point in the life of the New Testament church. If you take time to read the passage you will quickly note that the forward motion of the church created a uniqueproblem. But when this problem wasaddressed properly, the church had exponential growth! Again there is always a problem when you are in motion. By the way, there are other kinds of problems if you are not moving; one being stagnation. All churches in motions will experience similar problems which can be summed up in one word. Friction! Yes, it is an eternal law of life; motion always causes friction. But just as having the correct mindset in Acts 6 caused the church to grow faster, so having the correct mindset when there is friction blesses the church. Every mature Christian must be acquainted with the following verses. “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church…” (Matthew 18:15-17). The next time you find yourself dealing with a motion problem or a commotion that involves another person, according to scripture you must follow these steps: 1. Go to them alone in private and solve the problem. 2. If step one has not worked, go back with two or three spiritually mature Christians (it would help if they are not apart of your clique). 3. If it cannot be resolved, then take it to the spiritual leaders of the church. Summer is here and I know you will be in motion. Have a safe vacation. When you are in town, I look forward to seeing you in church. We will behaving some great guests, beginning with Dr. Jeffers each Sunday in July and concluding with Bishop Sammy Stewart in August.
For The Cause Of Christ Pastor Mitchell |
