Confessions of a Grown-Up PK and How Little Has Changed

I grew up as a PK in little struggling churches and, without fail, the Sunday you'd get a big "important" visitor through the doors was when 75% of the rest of the congregation was away for one reason or another.   I would sit there in my excitement/embarrassment and mentally count who was there and who hadn't made it through the doors yet and if there was any possibility that they would still walk through those doors before the end of the service.  Because in my mind, if you had 30 people instead of 20, you could maybe come off as a more happenin' church.

Fast forward 25 years. We are helping with a new church in a rural community.  My husband is currently the youth group leader and the "song leader" (worship leader or whatever they call them now.)  Neither worship leading nor youth work was his major or his passion--if you get what I'm saying.  (It is a small church.)   What has literally taken me years to figure out is this:  If 20 people won't legitimize the work of the gospel in somebody's mind, 10 more isn't going to make a difference.   I still fight the urge to mentally count how many are there when we have a visitor and think "if only so and so were here..."   "If only we had a building of our own..."  "If only we had..." fill in the blank.  I have repeatedly struggled with the concept that it DOES NOT MATTER what others may think if you are doing what God wants and that THE LORD builds his Church-- not the bells and whistles, not even the cool factor (which most new,small, rural churches tend to be low on).

I was having a rather blue After-Christmas-New-Year Re-evaluation of my life when our pastor preached a particularly timely message on how NONE of our labor for the Lord is in vain.   Not even the labor of ordinary people in a tiny church in a tiny, rural community.  I love how God is right there to meet you where you are and answer those things you are wrestling with--no matter how significant or insignificant it may seem.

I came across this quote in the front of the book  Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret:  "Men are God's method; God is looking for better men....What the church needs today is not more machinery or better,     not new organizations or more and novel methods,   but men whom the Holy Ghost can use---men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.   The Holy Ghost does not come on machinery, but on men.  He does not anoint plans, but men--men of prayer."   --E.M. Bounds

Mr. Bounds' words are encouraging to all who struggle with the fruit, the results, the perception, the relevance of  their ministry.   We put too much importance on what others think of what we are doing and as a result,  put far too much emphasis on how to improve that perception, all the while I'm learning what God wants is more dependence on Him and expectancy for what HE will do.

I love this quote that a visiting pastor once challenged our former church with:  "What are you asking God for that when He answers, only HE will get the glory??"  I haven't asked myself this enough.