“Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. (Acts 2:43-46 The Message Bible)
The passage above is often used to point out how a church can consistently cultivate new growth. Not mentioned specifically, but what is most significantly apparent in all the benchmarks set by the early church as described above, and can be seen if you “read between the lines” is just how important building and maintaining relationships is for any church that is seeking to grow; grow not for numbers sake, but for the sake of the kingdom..
Our new Pastor started focusing on this exact subject, relationships, last Sunday, as he was teaching Sunday School. Pastor stressed how important it was to fellowship with fellow members, to get to know each other beyond name and position, in the church. For certainly, as he pointed out, the latter will be both inspirational and informative. He illustrated this fact by sharing a recent experience while working with a couple of members to relocate our conference room. Pastor pointed out that because of the sharing of personal information, one with the other, as they worked, relationships were enhanced.
In any church, as members build relationships, we experience a proximity, a promotion of closeness, and we foster a sense of oneness. Furthermore, there is a feeling of being in a partnership with the other saints in the church, characterized by a wonderful harmony and a sense of commonality, just as in the early church. There’s more! As relationships are built and maintained, a willingness to work as one, worship the One, and win new souls, one by one will happen.
The challenge for us today is to evaluate how you are doing at building and maintaining relationships with fellow members in your local church. As you evaluate yourself, with integrity, you have to decide whether you are meeting and/or exceeding the Lord’s expectations to recruit and retain souls in the kingdom by taking the initiative to build and maintain relationships in the church. If, after evaluating yourself personally; if by chance you arrive at the conclusion that you fall into that performance appraisal category labeled “needs improvement,” you (Yes! You!) need to immediately start placing an emphasis on building and maintaining relationships in your church.
Now, this relationship focus is not restricted to the realm of the church roll, but it is related to our ability to recruit and retain new disciples who join the ranks of the saved and choose to work as one in the church.
Please don’t just read this meditation! React to it! Reach for perfection in the area of building and maintaining relationships in the church and achieve excellence! Realize that by doing so, when you say “Brother so-and-so” or “Sister so-and-so” to a fellow member, you will mean it. Have a great day! Be blessed!
“Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God while the other six deal with our relationships with people. But all ten are about relationships.” (Rick Warren)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King