Back to Home Page | Back to Index |

Knowing Church

【Following】Someday, watch a stream of ants stretching between their anthill and a food source. Some will be going to pick up their load; others will be returning to deposit their prize in the recesses of the anthill. The whole process will be very organized, very precise. Then ask yourself, “Why are these ants so organized in their task?” The reason is that ants are good followers, each dependent on the ant in front of him to lead him to the food supply. Because each ant follows the other, there is a straight line between the anthill and the food—no wasted energy, no unnecessary detours. There is a lesson in that for would-be disciples.

【Church, Love in】There is a story about a man who was walking down the street. He passed a used-book store, and in the window he saw a book with the title “How to Hug”. He was taken by the title and, being of a somewhat romantic nature, went in to buy the book. To his chagrin, he discovered that it was the seventh volume of an encyclopedia and covered the subjects “How” to “Hug”.

Everyone knows that the church is a place where love ought to be manifested, and many people have come to church hoping to find a demonstration of love—only to discover an encyclopedia on theology.

【Church, Mission of】Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, won a strategic battle with comparative ease and little loss of men. /when asked for the explanation of his victory over the enemy, he said, “The enemy had seven cooks and one spy, but I had seven spies and on cook.”

Perhaps the church lacks power because it majors on the minors and minors on the majors.

【Church, Mission of】A generation ago, Dr. F.B. Meyer said this about the local church. “It is urgently needful that the Christian people of our charge should come to understand that they are not a company of invalids, to be wheeled bout, or fed by hand, cosseted, nursed, and comforted, the minister being the Head Physician and Nurse, but a garrison in an enemy’s country, every soldier of which should have some post or duty, at which he should be prepared to make any sacrifice rather than quitting.”

【Church, Mission of】The hero of Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was wise enough to install dynamite under the foundation of all the munitions plants and factories he had built. He realized that should there be an uprising against his “new” nineteenth-century ideas, these factories (once so helpful) might be taken over and used against him.

There is wisdom to this approach for the church. Every new building, and every new program ought to have ample dynamite poured into its foundation so that if in the future these things become obstacles to the mission of he church, they can be removed to clear the ground for greater works.