I found this while eating dinner at my Nana’s house. Of course I had to place this on my social media. I mean, look at it, even if you don’t know me (I’m the cool kid rocking soccer shorts and collared shirt), it’s a funny picture.
One of my college buddies, he’s a big ol’ idiot (I say this kiddingly because I hope he reads this- Andy if you read this I’m not kidding, to everyone else, I am a good pastor who is obviously kidding) HAHAHA. I digress. He said in response that I must have been the coolest kid at school with my pump shoes and Umbro shorts.
My mom had a much different reaction, “My baby boys.” She looks at this picture and sees the sweet boys she raised. There were moments I can remember where my mom would say, “You’re growing up too fast” or “Stop growing up!” I’ve said these same things to my kids. The latter though is actually really offensive. I mean when my mom would tell me to stop growing up does she realize the implications if that were to come true?! Is she telling me to die? Have I said this to my kids?! Obviously that is not what is intended to be communicated. But it is our nature nonetheless. We like the now. We don’t want things to change. In many circles we hate the thought of growth.
The church world is not any different. We hate when the church starts reaching new people. We won’t say it but we act like it. We hate when our relationships start to change or they are forced to change. We hate when the church starts thinking about infant Christians or even non-believers. Why? We like the comfort of what is now.
One of our core values at Wellspring Church is Endless Growth. We believe there is no limit to the number of lives that can be reached for Jesus or the impact He can have on us! Think with me about this.
We have looked at this all-inclusive gospel message in previous blog posts. We shared many scriptures there, refer back to that. But allow me to repeat one of those, “For God so loved the WORLD that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). The world. That is big. That’s a huge mission. Jesus said “go into all the world…” (Matthew 28). To me that sounds endless. That mission is too big for any one church. We must partner together. We must plant churches. We must not be content with 100, 200, 300, 1,000 people. Why? More people need Jesus.
It also means this, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:2-4). This is about glorification. That is a fancy way of saying; one day we as Christians will be perfect. It won’t happen in this lifetime. It will finally happen when we get to heaven. But we strive for perfection while here on earth. That means our growth as Christians won’t be completed until we get to heaven. That also means as we mature as Christians we must never have the attitude that we have arrived and we are perfect. We can always be growing as a Christian. We always have things to work on. Our growth here on earth as a Christian is endless.
Our mission to ignite a craving in our community for Jesus Christ is endless. We will never be satisfied. We don’t wish to be a church of thousands, we wish to be part of an endless movement used by God to bring people into the kingdom. We will never be satisfied in our numbers because we can reach more people for Jesus as we pray for one. To grow, we will multiply our efforts to plant other churches sending people on mission. We will never be satisfied in our spiritual walk because we understand perfection does not happen in this life. We will multiply spiritually as we pray for our unsaved friends and come alongside others to ignite a craving to follow Jesus in obedience.
Written by Pastor Jason Coache, Lead Pastor of Wellspring Church
