Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Church Math: Brac Facts
On
the Island of Cayman Brac, there are roughly 2,000 people, give or take a few
hundred depending on who you ask. For the purpose of this blog, we’ll stick
with 2,000. Now of the 2,000 people here, there are 16 organized churches
meeting that are publicized as well as 3 or 4 organized house churches not
publicized that I know of. Of the 16 publicized churches, 6 are Baptist, 2 are
Church of God, 3 are Holiness, 1 is Catholic, 1 is Jewish, 1 is 7th
Day Adventist, 1 is Anglican, and 1 is Apostolic/Pentecostal. Now, some of
these churches are preaching a different message than the other and are
unfortunately counterproductive, but between the Church of God and the Baptist,
there is a stirring of unity as we seek to reach a common goal with the same
message: Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
father except through Jesus, and salvation cannot be lost. I'm not saying the other churches cannot be a part of the same mission, but I can only confirm the unity between the Church of God and the Baptist at this point.
On a small island, we literally cannot afford
to be segregated between congregations that agree on the main doctrines of Scripture. In the past, there have been good reasons to establish different churches on
the island. Before cars were a common means of transportation around the
island, walking was the main way to get to and from church, and the different districts
of the island created a natural segregation. It was understandable for each
community to have a place for Sunday fellowship. Now, in the 21st
century, many islanders have their own vehicle, and with that they have
options. They have roughly 20 organized religious groups to choose from. You
would think that with a ratio of 1 church to every 100 people, the whole island
would be evangelized, but that is far from the truth. Some of the messages proclaimed have no trace of good news in them, are deceptive, or masked by hypocrisy. Within the Christian church, the lack of
communication, absence of love and grace, and competition between churches have
all contributed to the overall plateau and decline of the church on the Brac.
What
would happen if the like-minded churches would work together? What if we built the global church rather than traded members back and forth? What if we opened our homes to lost families, went to lunch with the objective of evangelizing our coworkers, and treated our school system as our primary mission field? Even if you
looked at the ratio of Baptist and Church of God assemblies to the rest of the
island, that is 1 church for every 250 people. That is still a manageable ratio,
and not a far-fetched goal either if the church uses multiplication
rather than addition to evangelize the island.
You see, many churches rely on a
single pastor to do the work of evangelism/discipleship, and with that
mentality the church will only witness growth by addition if the pastor does
not burn out in the process. But, what would happen if the pastor invested his
preaching into raising up disciples, and spent his efforts training his
congregation to be evangelist/disciple makers on their own? For example, lets
say a pastor pours into 12 people and creates 12 disciple-making disciples over
the course of 1 year that go and each create two disciples within the first
year of ministry. In the first year of ministry, the group of 12
disciple-making disciples would grow to 36. Now, year two the same thing
happens. 36 people go out and evangelize two people each, at the end of year two
there would be the original 36 + 72 new disciple makers. Year three, there are
108 people going out seeking to make two disciples each. At the end of the
year, there would be the original 108 + 216 which would equal 324 people. Now,
take the number 324 and multiply it by the 8 like-minded congregations. You get
2,592. What that means is that in three years, the whole island could be evangelized
and a part of a discipleship relationship if the 8 pastors of the like-minded
churches would invest in only 12 church members this year that would go out and
form two relationships a piece with someone disconnected from the church. This
is merely a plan that will have to be endorsed by the Holy Spirit to be
effective and faithfully pursued by each congregation, but I believe the
like-minded churches can team together in Christ and watch the church on the Brac
explode so that this little island will one day be a missionary-sending agency.
In
Scripture, we see Jesus make a special investment in 12 disciples. The church
has witnessed exponential growth in short amounts of time, and it has also seen
the proven method of Jesus’s start-small-end-huge approach with discipleship. The
message of Salvation was poured into 12 men who shared that with those they
came in contact with and it spread. It spread so far that 2,000 years later
there are Christian churches established on the Brac. The message of salvation
has not expired though, it is still alive along with our risen savior, Jesus
Christ. As Jesus sent out the disciples, He said this: “The harvest is
plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of
the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2, ESV). Church, we
have work to do. If we love God, it will be seen in our love for people, and if
we love people, we’ll share with them the good news of love and grace from
Jesus. It’s time for the churches on the Brac to wake up.
May
we be filled with the Holy Spirit and resemble the excitement, unity, and growth as the early church in Acts did: “And they
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and
signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together
and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and
belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by
day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they
received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having
favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those
who were being saved” (Acts 2:42-27, ESV).
Friday, 17 October 2014
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