Big
Written by Matt Mosler
Monday, 3 August 2009
Success in America is defined as big. Bigger houses. Bigger buildings. Bigger paychecks. Bigger, after all, is better. And by and large we’ve carried this western mindset over into our churches. I’ve had more than a few pastors over the years ask me why I spend so much time speaking in smaller churches. The implication, of course, is that a speaker as incredible as I am should be orating in large cavernous sanctuaries instead of wasting my time behind an old wooden ..pulpit.
Well, just so you know I speak wherever I’m asked to speak regardless of the size of the congregation. I’ve sung for and addressed crowds as large as 2000 and as small as 10…or less. And if you’re wondering whether or not Jesus still shows up wherever two or more are gathered? He does.
Still, the bigger is better mentality is hard to shake. But what exactly is the definition of big? See, I think big can actually mean different things to different people. For example when my kids were very young they thought I was pretty big. As they got older they realized that daddy was a shrimp. So big is really in the eye of the beholder. This is important to remember especially when it comes to God’s call on your life.
Not everyone is expected to leave the only business they’ve ever known to launch an international ministry that provides goods and services to people all over the world. That’s what John Murphy did. He was a building contractor in Washington D.C. and a big supporter of inner-city ministries when he began to notice the lack of finances, visibility and support among the ministries and agencies helping the people in need. “They were limited in resources and funding to get the necessary product to the poor. It was then that God placed a vision on my heart to be a distributor for the body of Christ,” Murphy says. That was 1979. To date John’s ministry, Harvest-Time International, has provided more than 50-million dollars worth of products to ministries helping people in more than 89 countries. Now that’s big.
But is it any bigger than what Donna Carter did? Donna was a mail carrier who day by day watched a customer on her route build a house block by block. She began asking questions and soon learned the family had taken in four orphaned children and just needed more room. Slowly but surely she noticed the house taking shape until one day it was ready for the roof. Then came the storm. The next day the house was a pile of rubble. Donna’s heart was broken. So she made a call to a local TV station and before she knew it dozens of people pitched in and over the next two months a brand new home appeared in what had been a pile of broken dreams.
My friend Stella reminded me recently that big is a matter of perspective. “I think that many times God does call people out of the boat and into deep waters and I am so thankful that he does BUT... I have a struggle sometimes. I don't think everyone is going to have a calling that seems impossible or so over the top we can't accomplish it…There were women (in the Bible),” she wrote, “Who opened their homes to meetings, who mixed spices to put on Jesus body and followed him around. Some of their names are never mentioned. There were men who carried letters to churches for Paul. There was Epaphras who was a prayer warrior, others were tent makers.”Good point.
Just because it’s not international doesn’t mean it’s not big…to the kingdom or to that person. Folding newsletters or rocking babies in the hospital or even calling a TV station may be way out of the comfort zone for some. It may lead to something bigger…it may not but the Bible says the body of Christ is held together “by that which every joint supplies” (Eph. 4:16) and that means everyone has a role to play in the function of the body, small or…big.