Watch out! Christianity is starting to become like Buddhism. You don't have to understand anything when you go to church. Week after week, attending faithfully, doing the rituals so that externally you appear closer to God. In reality nothing is happening. There is no change, no growth, no understanding.
Would you be happy if your children slept in the hammock like a baby all their life? Ever heard anyone say, "Look at my boy, bigger than dad now, I still feed him every meal and clean and bathe him. Look how he still sleeps so quiet in the cradle." Would you be happy to hear that? No way! In the same way, growing in our understanding of God must also bring growth and change.
It takes time. It means understanding what salvation is really all about. Yes, we were saved from the first day we believed but salvation has three stages. First stage: we are in Jesus Christ, we are justified from our sins. We no longer bear the penalty of our sin. We have a new point of dependence in our lives. The second stage is Jesus Christ in us. When Jesus is in us, this affects the way we act. We act anew because we have been given salvation, new life. We don't act in order to be saved. We are already saved. Now the Holy Spirit helps us to grow. As we grow, we know more, we speak with new intelligence. We grow in maturity.
Unfortunately, most followers of God don't want to grow. We pray like children, "God give me faith. I don't have very much. I feel like I'm going to die today." Do you take in the word every day? How can we grow unless we take in the food? There is no growth without the word of God. The word is our spiritual food, food for our heart and soul. Eat it every day!
Ask yourself - how many times per day do you eat rice2? If we only feed on the word once a week how will we grow? And then is it spoon-feeding? You know how it is feeding your children. Sometimes they keep the food in their mouth and don't swallow it. It never gets to the stomach and so it does no good. Sometimes they aren't willing to eat at all. We're just the same. Spiritual food is necessary every day.
What does a body look like that doesn't get proper nourishment? It's sick! That's how we are sometimes, isn't it? And after we've eaten what is next? It has to come out. That is, we need to share with others. If we take it the word 30 times a day we can share with 30 people. This is the way the church will grow.
The third stage of salvation happens when Jesus returns the second time. This is completed salvation (glorification). Today our spirits await that time in the future. Our spirits have been saved from sin but we're daily being saved from ourselves. We're not there yet. When Jesus returns and changes our earthly bodies for heavenly bodies - that is when we will be fully saved in this third sense (glorification).
This salvation God has given to us without expecting anything in return. Jesus came to give, not expecting anything in return. When we mix up this free gospel with religion then we no longer understand the truth. There is a misunderstanding in the church that once you are saved you have to start acting better to show you are saved. In reality the truth is that Jesus has given us salvation irregardless of our better behavior. This "behavior" is not to help save us. We're already saved in Christ. This behavior is because God is working his power in us and we are growing in him.
That growth is not easy and sometimes we get discouraged. One person came to me and said, "I'm resigning from the church now." I asked him, "Where's the back door? How do you resign? If you find a way to get out you come and tell me since it's hard work following Christ for me too." He told me he was still going to quit and I said that was fine but just don't stop coming to worship. "Well, that's not going to help anything!" he said.
Study is very important, knowing the word will help people stay with the Lord. We don't want people to stop following the Lord. If they stop showing up go and follow them up and bring them back. Go visit them. Find out what is going on in their life. Pray for them. Encourage them to come back. Don't let people slip away. If a person moves to another village start a new church there. Every single person is important. The church in my group is not big. It is very small. The members worship in their homes. There are only 3000 members. We feel that each person is important.
From Udon I traveled several kilometers to the village of Nong Sang to find Uncle Kwan, one person. Today there are many believers in that village. One person is the key to having a second, a third, and a fourth. It is important that we teach that first person how to grow in God, how to allow God to change him to have new life. Uncle Kwan, the one we used to call Uncle Moonshine, was changed from the inside out. Now he is a new person. The word changes people. If we teach the word it will change people's hearts. The word has power to bring salvation. We need to keep following up on those who are interested.
One person is as important as ten, or as one hundred. From one, the word will spread and spread and spread. Don't allow it to stop spreading. And don't get in the way of it spreading! We have a problem in the church that keeps the church from growing. The members are satisfied. The day that we are satisfied with the way things are that is the day the church goes bankrupt. Bankrupt and dead! Don't be satisfied! If there are this many members now, look for more. Keep asking God for more and keep seeking them out. Keep growing and asking and following up. If we do this the church will continue to grow.
Sometimes we don't want the church to grow. If the church grows what happens? It means the leaders have to work harder. We don't want new people to be born. I had been going out to Non Sila village for some time with not much response. It takes an hour and a half to get there. I told the one interested person I had been visiting, "It's time to close up here. Don't tell any more people here about become believers. This place is just too far for me to travel to on my motorcycle. I'm going home." I just wanted to leave. Mr. Sopa, stopped me, "Not so fast, teacher, please! I'm a believer now!" "What? A believer?! But I was just going to close things up here."
You see what I mean? When Mr. Sopa received God's grace he was the only believer in that village. The only one. But thank the Lord, from that one, the word spread and grew to where there are now several village churches in that area today. Sometimes we want to stop, we want to close things down. We as Christians are the reason the church doesn't grow because we want to stop things from happening! Christians have told me, "Stop talking about God everywhere. We don't want so many believers. Our group is enough, isn't it? We're afraid the floorboards of heaven will break."
But if God is allowing his church to be born in some place - let's work with that, not against it. Let it grow and help it to expand. Don't let yourself be a barrier to the growth of the church. It's important to ask yourself, "Am I a barrier to people coming to faith?"
Endnotes:
1. This talk was originally given as part of hour two of a four hour seminary by Rev. Tongpan Phromedda at the Isaan Congress II held in Khon Kaen, Thailand October 18, 2000.
2. In the Thai language , the phrase to have a meal is stated as "to eat rice".