Big & Small for the Lost & Found

We love small church. We have built our whole approach to church and kingdom mission around microchurches. Still, there are limitations that small ministries face which can be served by being a part of a larger network. I recently read the story of an illegal gathering of 170 house church leaders in China. A western researcher recounted his story of traveling for two days, stuffed in the back of a car to get to the illegal gathering. Their house church leaders who have, with the fullness of their lives, embodied the power and potential of small church, found themselves taking massive risks to gather together in one place. Facing certain imprisonment if caught, they seized upon the opportunity this precious and incredibly rare opportunity provided, taking almost no sleep in order to receive training, hear each other’s stories, worship, and pray together.

They were overcome with joy and a hunger to bask in the light of being together before God. Their story impressed on me the absolute luxury it is for our microchurches to come together from time to time (even every week if we want), and what a treasure something like that is to the Chinese church. If there is a group of people who have lived out the principles of small church it is those believers, and yet I am sure they would exhort us to come together in joy and with grateful hearts as often as we could. It has given me a new appreciation for the Crucible and the role it plays in the life our community, which is a family of microchurches. Gathering together is a precious gift that actually offers us a unique kind of power in doing ministry as a larger missionary family.

In two weeks we will finish the Matthew series and then take a week off on March 15th. I feel like God is calling me to lead us through Luke 15, taking one story each week leading up to Easter. This three part series on being lost and then found will culminate on Easter morning with a retelling of the story of the lost son.

I want to design the first two weeks for you. We are preparing resources and ideas that we think will inspire and invigorate you in your ministry calling and most precious relationships. Then, Easter morning will be a time to invite all those you love who do not know or who have not committed their lives to Jesus, those who have walked away from God and all those who need to come home. I will speak directly to those people, offering them the good news of the kingdom and the hope of a reconciled relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

My prayer is that the morning will be a time of harvest. A time to see our long-prayed prayers answered. This, I believe, could be one of those times when the privilege of gathering together as a network and a larger family will mean real impact for the kingdom. My dream would be that our microchurches are then flooded with new believers who have, like Jesus, come back to life on Easter morning.

Would you begin now to pray for that day? Would you join me in asking the Father to say again, over the prodigal sons and daughters we know, “Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”