Added – Acts 2:47

Acts 2:47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

I am not someone who likes large crowds. Some of this stems from my time in Iraq. Some of this comes from my personality. But if I can avoid crowds of people I don’t know, sign me up!

When I know the people, like at church, the more the merrier. A worshiping atmosphere seems to make the crowd smaller, since we are all family. Don’t ask me why, it just is that way for me.

There are advantages to both large and small groups, no matter the reason for the group. Small groups provide an intimacy and personal touch that helps ground people and makes solid connections. But small also limits the bandwidth of the communication. You can only stay small if you don’t have to reach too many people.

But large groups enable many people to partake in the same transmission moment. There isn’t the possibility for the personal touch, but not all messages need the personal, one on one touch.  Some are best transmitted in large crowds.

A outdoor rock music concert is best when there is a large number of people. It creates a collective experience, and perhaps collective hearing loss! A small group concert just wouldn’t be the same, unless, the musical group was playing music designed for a small group, like Chamber Music. The small setting is vital to the experience of Chamber Music, since it was written and originally performed in small spaces like palaces and homes. It looses its flavor when it is played in a venue that is too large.

Our text tells us about the first few days of the birth of the Church. In the first day the text tells us that three thousand people were added to the number of followers of Jesus. The events of their recent history, Jesus life, miracles, teachings, death and resurrection had filled the land. And now with the events of Pentecost, and the anointed preaching of Peter, the numbers exploded.

What would happen in our local church if an explosion of this type happened? How would we handle it? Would we go into a building program? Would we plant several churches or satellite campuses? Who would disciple this many people? Would we be ready to do this?

The reality is that very few churches are ready for this kind of growth. We have too many shallow Christians, not grounded in the Word, and certainly not ready to disciple others. They are able to handle milk, but little else. The aren’t ready to pass what they do know on to other people.

Perhaps that is the reason the LORD hasn’t sent this kind of growth here, at least in my experience. We simply aren’t ready. We are either lines too small for the LORD’s flow, or dead end runs with no throughput.

But how much do we have to know in order to be able to be part of this movement? I think the better question is this: are we passing along what we already have? Water only flows in a pipe that is open at both ends, one end fills and the other allows outflow. The LORD can’t put into us what we aren’t willing to put out.

So I ask, are your valves open and ready for flow?